Let's wildly speculate about why a 95ish Ford Ranger I bought was parked!

[Provience]

I'm going with clutch as well because those internal slaves are dumb. Great when working though

 

[Gbkeith]

Battery is dead.

 

[IowaOffRoad]

So, a fresh battery won’t start it or even let the starter click. New looking starter in the passenger seat.

 

[IowaOffRoad]

So, I rolled it off the trailer and stopped it 1/2 way down the ramps. Swapped that starter in (fucking galvanic reaction on Ford starter bolts… side note: all the Ford starters I’ve ever changed going into aluminum bell housings have stuck bolts, early ‘80s through mid ‘00s. Why?). Not the problem, discovered starter button on starter, couple of extra wires running mystery places, cut wires on clutch deadman switch and switch unplugged. That, coupled with a stupid plywood deal rigged up to shine lights on the IC (IC backlighting doesn’t work) and some extra toggles in the interior I’d say she’sgot a wiring iss exacerbated by old man “I’ll fix this the easy way” hackery. I know what of I speak, my old man, who was a damn good mechanic, would pull this shot at times after his heat attack right up till he died because he felt taking the time to do it right wouldn’t pay dividends if he died tomorrow, spent the last decades of his life doing that shit. Except my old man could pull it off and make it work, this old boy just seems to have fucked it up enough to give up. Has some conversion manual lockouts that look to have zero miles on them. Misspoke atthe beginning, it’s not a manual shift t-case, it had some junk on the floor that was stacked in that spot that looked like the shifter through the dirty window

Looks like if I spend some time un-fucking the wiring she may be a runner

 

[posford]

The lights shining at the dash is common, bulbs burn out and people too dumb to pull gauge cluster.

The rest sounds about right for your typical 28 year old mini truck

 

[IowaOffRoad]

The lights shining at the dash is common, bulbs burn out and people too dumb to pull gauge cluster.

Common? I've seen plenty of cheap-ass mini truck fuckery, this is a new one for me...

The rest sounds about right for your typical 28 year old mini truck

yup.

x10 if its a diesel minitruck. I've owned several. There's 2 types of owners of diesel minitrucks, and they are much like old-school Mopar folks:

-those that baby them, keep them nice, fix everything that goes wrong like the factory did (typical high-end show car Mope folks)
-Joe Dirt

The latter group bought the diesel minitruck cuz they are cheap. They typically don't think far enough ahead to realize that keeping your cheap running truck up in good condition is also a way to save money

 

[arse_sidewards]

You get it home yet?

I did a top end gasket set on one a handful of years back. Friend was driving home from work and it started streaming white smoke. Lost all the coolant but no coolant in oil pan. Thought head gasket but when I got the intake manifold off it was obvious that it was just an intake manifold gasket. Stupid design and when it fails it main lines coolant straight into the intake port. Easy fix, I think it took 4 hours after work one night.

Which V6?

I've never heard of the 3.0 doing it. There's a pretty fat amount of sealing surface in the way. Never bothered looking at a 4.0 intake gasket.

 

[arse_sidewards]

x10 if its a diesel minitruck. I've owned several. There's 2 types of owners of diesel minitrucks, and they are much like old-school Mopar folks:

-those that baby them, keep them nice, fix everything that goes wrong like the factory did (typical high-end show car Mope folks)
-Joe Dirt

The latter group bought the diesel minitruck cuz they are cheap. They typically don't think far enough ahead to realize that keeping your cheap running truck up in good condition is also a way to save money

Don't forget "new owner that bitches that the last guy was a hack because minor shit has been altered over the last 30yr" type owner.

 

[IowaOffRoad]

Don't forget "new owner that bitches that the last guy was a hack because minor shit has been altered over the last 30yr" type owner.

I’ll have to take some photos, some of this isn’t “minor” IMO, though it should be easy enough to correct.

It’s just the general “I know a better/easier way to do this than the right way” I’m salty about, and it’s typical worse and takes just as much time as doing it right in the first place.

 

[JR4X]

Which V6?

I've never heard of the 3.0 doing it. There's a pretty fat amount of sealing surface in the way. Never bothered looking at a 4.0 intake gasket.

Pushrod 4.0. I think it was a 1998 but it was for sure a pushrod 4.0.

 

[IowaOffRoad]

So it’s a 1995. Seems to have 2 issues: sketch repair ends on battery cables and either a bad start signal to fender solenoid or bad solenoid. Hoping to repair the first and diagnose the second by the middle of the week.

 

[IowaOffRoad]

Got the battery cable ends repaired. Cranks over fine, but the clutch safety switch is working backward (will crank when not depressed, stops cranking when depressed). Ignition coil fuse missing, replaced it. Once that was all done, still had no spark. Have fuel pressure (don't have a gauge on it yet, just cranked for 20 seconds than depressed the rail Schraeder valve with a screwdriver tip, shot out good so I've got pressure, right?).
Dinked around testing grounds, then noticed the "check engine" light doesn't come on when you first key on. Guess the ECM isn't receiving power, not grounded, or just dead... Or perhaps with the IP issues it seems to have had the bulb is missing? I will say it sounds pretty good cranking over, though 1 cylinder may have low compression. Found 1 spark plug loose (#6 by Fords numbering system), tightened it and made no difference. That hole may be dry as it appears that's the easiest one to reach if you are pulling one, I believe I'm chasing the same issue it was parked for.
Went through all the fuses, they're all good. Swapped some relays around, didn't make a difference. Need to get a wiring diagram. Ebay'd me a set of FSM's this AM, prolly wait until they arrive to get back to it. This things got an OBD2 plug, though the interwebs says that it may not read like OBD2, I shall see if the newer Solus Edge I bought can communicate with it.

Thoughts so far? arse_sidewards you seem to be old hat at 90's era EEC-whatever stuff...

 

[DMG]

Oil pump/bottom end

 

[arse_sidewards]

Test for spark. If spark spray starting fluid.

If no sparky spark start there.

 

[arse_sidewards]

This things got an OBD2 plug, though the interwebs says that it may not read like OBD2, I shall see if the newer Solus Edge I bought can communicate with it.

'95 3.0 will be EEC-V + OBD2

 

[IowaOffRoad]

Test for spark. If spark spray starting fluid.

If no sparky spark start there.

In the first paragraph of my update I stated no spark after confirming power through the circuit at the fuse box. Ignition switch seems to energize what it should, but I haven’t back probed the IC or PCM wires yet as I didn’t want to do any damage to anything that wasn’t already fucked and I don’t have any pinout diagrams yet. Internet was unhelpful at 7pm last night.

'95 3.0 will be EEC-V + OBD2

This is a ‘95 4.0L with OBD2 plug under the steering column. Thoughts on lack of MIL? Never comes on for bulb check.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Get your EVTM in the mail and confirm power and ground at the ECU and EDIS module. I'm voting wiring issue. The modules themselves started getting a conformal coating around '94/95 so "bad" ECUs are pretty rare.

This is a ‘95 4.0L with OBD2 plug under the steering column. Thoughts on lack of MIL? Never comes on for bulb check.

IDK about 4.0 but AFAIK there is no EEC-IV that supports OBD2.

I don't have any EEC-V shit so IDK if it's supposed to do a bulb check. I'd have sworn that like 50% of EEC-IV shit didn't do a bulb check and 50% did.

 

[IowaOffRoad]

Get your EVTM in the mail and confirm power and ground at the ECU and EDIS module. I'm voting wiring issue. The modules themselves started getting a conformal coating around '94/95 so "bad" ECUs are pretty rare.


IDK about 4.0 but AFAIK there is no EEC-IV that supports OBD2.

I don't have any EEC-V shit so IDK if it's supposed to do a bulb check. I'd have sworn that like 50% of EEC-IV shit didn't do a bulb check and 50% did.

I’m pretty sure it said EEC-IV on a sticker or something, but it’s a transition year vehicle so who knows? Any thoughts on the backwards working clutch safety switch? That’s the strangest thing I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen them bypassed or non-op, but never working backwards

 

[arse_sidewards]

I’m pretty sure it said EEC-IV on a sticker or something, but it’s a transition year vehicle so who knows? Any thoughts on the backwards working clutch safety switch? That’s the strangest thing I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen them bypassed or non-op, but never working backwards

You'll know as soon as you pull the ECU connector whether it's IV or V

 

[Tiha]

Any thoughts on the backwards working clutch safety switch? That’s the strangest thing I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen them bypassed or non-op, but never working backwards

You know I have actually ran into this, but I cannot for the life of me remember what the fix was.

Kind of thinking, in our case we found some wiring that was repaired incorrectly. Like polarity was backwards on something. But that vehicle ran.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Any thoughts on the backwards working clutch safety switch? That’s the strangest thing I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen them bypassed or non-op, but never working backwards

There's other contacts on the switch. I assume they're for other shit in other applications. Probably one of them is normally closed rather than normally open. Bubba probably got to it.

 

[Outahand]

Does it have a distributor with that TIF module on the side?

 

[IowaOffRoad]

Does it have a distributor with that TIF module on the side?

Coil pack

 

[arse_sidewards]

Does it have a distributor with that TIF module on the side?

There's two generations of distrbutorless systems, DIS which was used on the 2.3, maybe some other 4-bangers from like 88, 89, 90 to like 91-92ish when they went to EDIS at which point other engines started getting it like the new modular and 4.0 and then the 3.0 and 5.0 in the mid 90s.

I'm hazy on the exact years and the years vary by engine/application. I'm also unclear on the difference between the OG distributorless setup (frequently refirred to as DIS) and EDIS. As you can imagine it's basically impossible to Google because they're so close and it's only gotten worse with time as the internet has turned to crap, old HTML enthusiast sites have gone dark, forums have gone offline and content has moved to unsearchable places.

 

[posford]

I believe OBD-2 is EDIS, but yeah the 95 is a weird half breed of that shit.

Ignition is fired off crank sensor. Verify crank position sensor hasn't been fucked with. Then you should have a spark module. Find that, verify connections.

Also Ford EDIS technical information

 

[arse_sidewards]

I believe OBD-2 is EDIS, but yeah the 95 is a weird half breed of that shit.

Ignition is fired off crank sensor. Verify crank position sensor hasn't been fucked with. Then you should have a spark module. Find that, verify connections.

Also Ford EDIS technical information

EDIS predates OBD2. The distinction between DIS and EDIS is really blurry IMO. I've never been able to get a good answer out of anyone what the hardware differences between the two are.

 

[posford]

EDIS predates OBD2. The distinction between DIS and EDIS is really blurry IMO. I've never been able to get a good answer out of anyone what the hardware differences between the two are.

Neat. An OBD-2 vehicle would HAVE to be to EDIS because EDIS does predate OBD-2.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Neat. An OBD-2 vehicle would HAVE to be to EDIS because EDIS does predate OBD-2.

1996 4.9L has entered the chat (and 5.0/5.8 in fullsize truck applications)

EDIS and ODB2/EEC-V are not interdependent. For EEC-IV EDIS depends on the physical hardware revision of the PCM. Kind of like how not all PCMs can support MAF.

I don't know of any non-OBD2 EEC-V

EEC-V is such a huge hardware upgrade (from the OEM's perspective) in every regard over EEC-IV that all EEC-Vs can support any feature that ANY EEC-IV supports (MAF, turbo capable MAP, distributorless, myriad of ancillary sensors that not all apps have like BOO, PSP, etc)


95-96, or maybe it was 96-97 3.0s (which use EEC-V) don't even have an external EDIS module to drive the coils. All that stuff is integrated into the ECU. Look up the crossover on an EDIS coil though and compare to a module. You'll see that 99% of applications still use the external module up into the 00s even though the ECU has the physical hardware to run that I/O. IDK why.

 

[posford]

1996 4.9L has entered the chat (and 5.0/5.8 in fullsize truck applications)

They're not mutually exclusive. It depends on the physical hardware revision of the PCM. Kind of like how not all PCMs can support MAF.

EEC-V is such a huge hardware upgrade (from the OEM's perspective) in every regard over EEC-IV that all EEC-Vs can support any feature that ANY EEC-IV supports (MAF, turbo capable MAP, distributorless, myriad of ancillary sensors that not all apps have like BOO, PSP, etc)


95-96, or maybe it was 96-97 3.0s don't even have an external EDIS module to drive the coils. All that stuff is integrated into the ECU. Look up the crossover on an EDIS coil though and compare to a module. You'll see that 99% of applications still use the external module up into the 00s even though the ECU has the physical hardware to run that I/O. IDK why.

No shit a distributor isn't EDIS

I doubt OP gives a fuck about the nuance to EEC-V and EDIS, and just wants the truck to run?

 

[arse_sidewards]

No shit a distributor isn't EDIS

I doubt OP gives a fuck about the nuance to EEC-V and EDIS, and just wants the truck to run?

I thought you were speaking generally, not about this specific engine.