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97 Ford Ranger runs rough
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Jerrysev
New User
Dec 6, 2009, 7:51 AM
Post #1 of 5
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97 Ford Ranger runs rough
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I have a 97 Ford Ranger 2.3 with 156,000 miles. I replaced the timing belt about a month ago and everything was fine for a few weeks. All of a sudden it started running rough...Starts and idles fine but loses power when accelerating. Replaced wires, coil packs, checked fuel pressure, catalytic converter is fine.
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steve01832
Veteran
Dec 6, 2009, 8:03 AM
Post #2 of 5
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Re: 97 Ford Ranger runs rough
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Jerrysev, I would start with the basics. Hook a fuel pressure guage up to the fuel rail and post the readings. Also, perform a spark check on all cylinders with a spark tester, and check for injector pulse on all cylinders. You may also want to tee a vacuum guage into the pcv valve or brake booster hose and check while the engine is cranking, idling, and under snap throttle conditions. Please record all of the readings and post back here when you are done. Watch the vacuum guage closely at idle to see if the needle stays steady or if it drops suddenly at a regular interval.
Steve
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Sidom
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/ Moderator
Dec 6, 2009, 10:30 AM
Post #3 of 5
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Re: 97 Ford Ranger runs rough
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Is the check engine light on and if it is what are the codes?
In addition to what Steve is suggesting a quick maintenance step you could do would be to clean the wire in the MAF sensor to see if that makes a difference. If you do this, use only MAF sensor cleaner, anything else could damage the sensor
 Just curious, how did you determine the cat as being good?
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steve01832
Veteran
Dec 6, 2009, 10:48 AM
Post #4 of 5
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Re: 97 Ford Ranger runs rough
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Hi Sidom, that is why I would like a vacuum reading. If the cat is plugged, crank vacuum would be less than 1 inch, idle vacuum would be much lower than 20 inches, snap throttle would dive way down and come up real slow. I like using vacuum guages to determine if I need to do backpressure tests or compression tests. Just one quick check to save time.
Steve
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Sidom
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/ Moderator
Dec 6, 2009, 11:10 AM
Post #5 of 5
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Re: 97 Ford Ranger runs rough
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Hey Steve
Yea I kinda saw where you were going with that and agree with you that could be a problm. Thats why I was curious about the blanket statement he had "the cat was good". I was wondering if he had ran the checks you suggested.
I've also seen the MAFs get skewed and cause this problem, cleaning them will help the problem but usually you never get the trims or baro readings back to where they need to be and wind up having to replace it to totally correct the problem...
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