Hi all! New to the forum. Apologies in advance as I'm not the most savvy with this stuff but I'm going crazy trying to fix my truck. I've read a lot of forums with people having similar issues but not quite exact so I wanted to ask myself.

I have a 2000 Ranger 3.0

Here's what's happening:

Truck starts fine. Drives fine too when it gets going, and then around 40-45mph it'll start shaking. Lessens as I get to higher speeds but it's still there. If I step hard on the gas and accelerate quickly, it completely stops for a few seconds and then it'll be back to shaking. It'll shake at idle too. While it's shaking, if I let off the gas, it calms down but gets going again when I'm back on the gas. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being no shakes at all and 10 being holy **** shaky, I'd say it's around a 5-6.

Things we've done so far:
- Replaced the spark plugs
- Cleaned the mass airflow sensor (I think we did it right)
- Put in a new fuel filter
- Put in a new coil pack

When we first started tinkering with it, I believe it said cylinder 6 misfire but that's since gone away. Haven't checked it lately. We've been working on this on-and-off for a couple months.

Any ideas? I hope I provided enough information but if there's something else needed I can try my best!

 

Welcome to the forum

Yes, you have a misfire, you really only feel a misfire under load, thats the shaking you describe.

If you have a tachometer the engine RPMs would be more helpful than the MPH since mph is gear based so we can't really tell what RPM range you would be in.

An manual or automatic transmission?

When you changed spark plugs were any of the older ones tips a different shade of light brown?
darker brown or blackish tint would indicate a problem in that cylinder

If you haven't done this I would add a can of Seafoam to gas tank, or similar injector cleaner.

Double check your Firing Order for spark plug wires, humor me, lol.
Follow each wire from spark plug to coil pack

Spark plugs are in matched pairs
3 4
2 6
1 5

Those are the matched pairs on the coil pack
They can be
1 5
2 6
3 4
But always matched

 

It's an automatic transmission. I can't recall any of the old spark plug tips being discolored, and I'll get some Seafoam. One of the auto parts stores near me might have a tachometer I could use, or someone I know might have one so I'll do that when I can. I'll have to ask my boyfriend about the firing order because I'm not sure I'd do that right. Thank you for your guidance. I did make an appointment to take it in to a mechanic I've gone to for many years on Monday just to figure out what's wrong, I'll report back! Just really hoping it's nothing too serious because I'd like to keep ol' Darla running for a while yet.