Hey ya'll just signed up tonight cause Im having an issue with the work truck. Hoping someone can lead me in a direction to look. 2004 3.0 has been running fine for the last 104,000 miles. Dont know if its timing or if its the cause but the truck ran in to some water, nothing deep, between 1/2 and 3/4 stock tire deep, during some flooding issues on the island I work on saw during ETA. Threw misfire cyl 2 code, chugged a bit and then ran relatively normal. Next day, started up and went to Home Depot, come out dead in parking lot. Thought it was the starter, because its starting to make the whine long after its done engaged, that it may of gotten stuck from the rain. Tried tapping on it while the key was being turn and nothing ( I could actually hear it clicking in to engage ). Jumped the battery and it started. Stopped at auto store swapped out battery and all was fine. I make a lot of start and stops for work and later that same day, dead again. An ex mechanic I know on the island was near by, said that sometimes the fuses underhood work loose. He opened up the case, pressed down on all of em, and the truck started. Truck worked for a week, no issues.. Today, Im at a gas station getting some Grandmas cookies and I come out and the truck is dead again. I try the fuse thing, get zilch. I try jumping it, get nadda. At one point, I lost all dash lights from cranking. My dome light would intermittently blink. My co worker said, well lets jump the starter and see how that goes. Using a screwdriver, connected both terminals, and wham started right up. I left it running the rest of the day ( cept 1 time but it thankfully restarted ) so I would get home.

I picked up recently, new plugs / wires / and ignition coil to clear up the misfire. Got a new starter to replace old starter. What else can I be looking at for the random no power? Im guessing Im going to be doing a bit of wire tracing perhaps, just didnt know if there is anything like a voltage regulator on the Ranger that may of went out or is shorting out or anything like that.

 

Welcome to the forum

If the starter motor is not turning the engine.......AND there is no Flashing THEFT light on the dash..............then you are down to battery cables or starter motor, period

The battery is ONLY used for the starter motor, alternator provides all electrical power when engine is running

So when there is no starter motor, its pretty simple, its either broken or not getting the 60 AMPs needed to turn it

So check and clean both battery cables at BOTH ends

There will be a smaller Battery cable on the positive terminal, it runs to the fuse box, hard to check this one, but you need to, this provides ALL the 12v power to the dash and to active starter Relay with key turned to START
And you mentioned the dash lights turning off

Now battery cables can go bad internally, corrosion build up
BOTH of the larger battery cables need to be able to pass 60amps or starter motor will not activate

There are only 3 fuses involved with starting, fuses 7 and 9 in engine bay fuse box
And fuse 21 in cab fuse box, fuse 9 feeds 12v to fuse 21 in the cab when key is turned to START

New starter motors are NOT tested, so grain of salt, don't skip over that starter motor is bad just because its "new", doesn't work that way any more

There is a smaller terminal/post on starter motor, in 2004 it should have a yellow/blue wire on it, when that terminal gets 12v the starter should activate
You can use a jumper wire from battery positive to this terminal to test starter motor
You should do this FIRST, this will tell you if starter motor works, if so then battery cables(positive/negative) to starter motor are OK, issue is in Activation of the Yellow wire
If starter motor does NOT work then you will need to pull it out to bench test it with jumper cables

 

Thanks RonD, that is a wealth of information. Ill have to run the tests over the Thanksgiving day holiday.

Does it make any difference if its not starting and there is the flashing THEFT light?

 

Yes, you have PATS(passive anti-theft system) in a 2004 Ranger
PATS disables starter motor activation, no crank, and no start because fuel injectors are also OFF

The PATS keys have an RFID tag embedded in the handle, these need no batteries, each tag has a unique number, 40 to 80bits
Often called "transponder" keys
When you turn on the ignition a ring/antenna that's around the key slot "reads" the number in the key
The number is checked in the PATS module, it will have 3 or 4 keys in memory, the keys that came with new vehicle
If the number matches one in memory then starter motor will work, as will fuel pump and fuel injectors
If no match or number wasn't read, then THEFT light on dash will flash rapidly, and no start, if you wait 50-60 seconds or so, the THEFT light will start to flash a 2 digit code, 11 to 18, this will tell you why the THEFT light is flashing, an error code

You can ADD more PATS keys to memory as keys are lost

A low battery often causes PATS no start issues, if battery is low then when you try to start engine, the start motor running causes the voltage in the cab to drop too low and PATS resets, then checks key again but because voltage is low it can't get a good read of the key, so No Start