OK, the other day I started my truck and made it about 100 yards before it died and would not start back up. I have not had issues with this before. Today I pulled the fuel filter off to ensure it wasn't clogged. I left the filter off long enough to turn the key in order to ensure the fuel pump was pumping fuel. All is good with the pump. I reinstalled the filter and moved under the hood. I checked the Schrader valve on the fuel rail and it had good pressure. So I moved to ignition. It has two coils. I checked the passenger side coil and my volt meter was indicating that the plug wires were firing hot. I checked the driver side and determined it was not firing when the ignition was engaged. I ordered two coil ignitions, but have realized that the driver side coil pack only fires on the exhaust stroke and the ECM will not even engage it until the truck is hitting somewhere in the 400 RPM ranger. Not while trying to turn the starter over. Has anyone had this issue? Could this be bad injectors? I pulled plugs and they are wet with fuel but they are also in good shape. No signs of excessive burning. Thank you for any help or advice.

1989 Ford Ranger 2.3L L4

 

Welcome to the forum

A bit of misinformation is floating around about the Lima 2.3l/2.5l engines and Fords Waste Spark system

On the Dual Plug/Dual coil Waste spark system BOTH spark plugs in each cylinder fire on the compression stroke and the exhaust stroke, they don't alternate.
The spark on the exhaust stroke is a "wasted" spark, hence the name Waste Spark system
Waste spark was the very first spark system in the world, and still used today, and not just by Ford, lol.
When you time spark using a crank shaft, like lawn mower engine/magneto, then you get spark at each TDC, compression or exhaust TDC, doesn't hurt anything

Dual spark plugs can get a more complete burn, so lower emissions, if there is not enough air swirl inside a cylinder at all RPMs
And no, spark on the exhaust stoke is not there to burn unused fuel, lol, popular myth, it sparks because that's the easiest and best way to setup a crank based spark system
On airplanes they did dual plugs more for safety, dual magnetos and dual plugs

While starter motor is active only 1 coil pack is used, exhaust side coil pack, this is to give best voltage, hottest spark, to that coil during cold start
Above 400RPM both coils and all spark plugs are active.

Waste spark system uses coil packs that run spark plugs in series
For the 4 spark plug pack there are only 2 ignition coils inside, 2 spark plugs per coil
To balance a 4 cylinder engine 2 cylinders are at TDC at the same time, other 2 are at BDC, 180deg apart.
In the Lima, and most others, lol, 1 and 4 are at TDC while 2 and 3 are at BDC.

So you will see 1 and 4 or 4 and 1 are always together on coil packs, as are 2 and 3
An no, swapping 1 and 4 to 4 and 1 doesn't make any difference, they both spark at the same time.

1989 uses an ICM(ignition control module) located on the front of lower intake to run the spark system, these were a known failure point as they got older they needed to be replaced, the wires on the connectors also got brittle and loose.

Exhaust side coil sparks when starter motor is engaged, if your passenger side plugs are doing this instead it wouldn't be an issue, just odd.
But yes, only one coil pack is active when starter motor is turning the engine

 

Thank you for your very informative reply. I receive the ignition coils tomorrow and hopefully, they will have a positive effect. I am simply baffled by why it won't fire up. It will not even act like it wants to.

 

With any No Start where the starter works but engine won't fire up you do the 50/50 test first

Remove air intake, big air tube on upper intake manifold
Open throttle and Spray gasoline or Quick Start(ether) into the intake
(You can leave the air tube off if fan won't hit it)

Now try to start engine
If it starts and then dies you know fuel is the problem, well, lack of fuel

If it doesn't start then you know spark is the issue

50/50 quick and easy

Now one heads up on the 2.3l or 2.5l Lima engines
They use a timing BELT, and this belt can break or skip, this won't damage the engine, but engine would not start if that happened.
50/50 test would show no spark, but it is really no compression(and no spark timing) that would be the problem.
Timing belt can usually be seen turning behind its cover shield on the front of the engine when engine is turning with the starter motor

 

Thank you for your reply. I think I have it figured it. I received the coil packs today, after installing the driver side pack I had the same problem. So my dad mentioned he didn't think he saw the cam pulley for the timing belt loop turning while I was trying to start the truck. Sure enough, after swapping positions, when he turned the key, the serpentine belt was rotating fine while cranking but under the plastic shroud for the timing belt, nothing was moving. So I have a timing mechanism issue. I will be removing everything necessary to get to the timing belt tonight/tomorrow and will report back. I feel stupid that I did not check this first. Oh well. The old coil packs were slitting near the bolts anyway so I would need new ones soon anyways.

 

Good work

Not uncommon to ignore timing belts when they are covered up
Generally when troubleshooting a no start you go:
Fuel, add it manually to check
Spark, see if a spark plug works
Compression, last but not least


Timing belt is not hard to do, getting crank pulley off can be, lol.