Having trouble chasing down what may be a simple electrical gremlin. I pulled the engine and transmission out of my ranger just to reseal everything mostly due to a freeze plug that was leaking on the back of the block. Put everything back together and it started up on the first try. Was idling smoothly and then suddenly stalled was able to drive the car home from my friend shop about 40 miles and since it’s been parked, it will not start. I’ve gone through quite a bit of troubleshooting done the 50-50 test even got complicated and used and oscilloscope to diagnose ignition system components (distributor and tfi sensor are sending signal to coil and it is switching at the coil signal wire ). At this point, I am left with quite a few new components that are on the vehicle, but there is no spark from the coil when ignition is cranking. It will spark once. I have confirmed that all grounds are in place. Let me know if you have any helpful information!

 

Have you looked at the circuit board for the engine's computer and checked if the capacitors and board look okay? I don't know what years had the most problems with the capacitors but it's a known issue for the EEC-IV engines. There are numerous YouTube videos that can get you up to speed if you're not familiar with this.

 

I currently have an ECM unit or whatever it’s called on the way from rock Auto. So I’m waiting on that and hopefully it can remedy my problems.will post an update when that comes.

 

Were you able to hunt down your Gremlin?

 

no such Luck. Dropped an ECM or PCM from rockauto and same result . I rechecked every ground for continuity and made sure all connections are tight . Still stumped and the truck is still sitting ..