I have a 96 ranger that i am having alot of issues with. It cranks on the first or second try and idles like crap for about a minute then stabilizes to a steedy idle. To get it to rev i have to floor it and the revs build really slow. When i drive it i have to keep it floored and even then it take about 45 seconds to get to 60mph. It feels like it has about 20hp, if i am stopped on an incline its almost impossible to get it rolling forward, i have to keep it floored and slip the clutch when the RPMs get up around 4k and even then it only lurches forward. I took it to Christian Brothers Auto shop and they ran a bunch of test ie fuel pressure, spark and they said everything is within spec but that it wasn't communicating with the ECU and that it was bad. I could believe this becuase the CEL never came on throughout any of this. So i talked to an ECU repair place and the guy said that it was most likely a bad ECU. so i paid 265 to get it repaired, he said i had some caps that were bad, and today i installed it and started it up and its doing the exact same thing. Do you guys have any suggestions. I dont want to start throwing parts at it but i am out of ideas. Its a 5 speed with 150k on it. thanks

 

sea foam new plugs new fuel oil change clean air filter ect ect

 

Yea tried all that, even a new TPS and i am still getting the same results. Anybody else got any ideas.

 

try ur fuel pressure regulator. mine was doin the exact same thing and i threw 300 $ worth of parts in it before i figured it out.

 

Unplug the MAF sensor and see if power returns. My wifes Cougar would do the same thing only it would run better after it warmed up finally. I unplugged the MAF and could once again screech the tires even before it warmed up. Easy way to find out if MAF is bad.

 

it sounds like a MAF

 

I will tried that already and when it was unplugged it ran the same. My Camsyncro was broken so i replaced that and it still runs bad.

 

hey just joined and instantly found that u have the same issue as i do. It may be a vacuum leak to check just remove the line on the back of the upper intake to the brake booster if it has vacuum it will hiss while trying to remove then release all pressure if no vacuum then go get a can of non flamable brake kleen and spray around the upper and lower intake if it runs better durring this replace the inake gasket (unless its like mine then the gasket doesnt help) i.e. still have issue and its not fuel pressure. if u figure it out please let me know

 

Well after about a year of setting i finally got it fixed! After me throwing a bunch of parts at it and two different shops working on it i figured i would try one last ditch effort to get it running before taking it to the recyclers. My grandfather, who gave me the truck years ago, told me to tow it down to his used car lot and let his shadetree mechanic look at it and i do mean shadetree. This guy is a really old black guy who has been working on cars for his whole life with no formal training, but if its an older car he would be my first choice. I would have took it to him first but his car lot is over 3 hours away. Anyway i dropped it off at his shop and he called me back about an hour later and said, "its fixed you can come and get it." Needless to say i was shocked at how fast he was. It ended up being the crank pully was cracked and had spun about 90 degrees on the shaft making it impossible to time. He swapped another pully from a 3.0 he had behind his shop and bame it ran like a charm. Well just wanted to give a long over due update. Nothing like having an old truck around to get some stuff done!