Hey, my 1992 rangers been treating me right for almost a year after I figured out the computer was fried and caused my intermittent stalls.

Now it will only stall when its very cold. I start it up, warm it for 30 sec to a minute, maybe 2. Then I drive off. I come to the first stop, and as I hit the gas from the complete stop, it sputters and dies. Sometimes it wont die it'll just sputter and catch itself.

I thought it was because the engine runs rich when its cold and its just getting too much gas. I wanna hear some other thoughts. Did it today again when I rushed to get somewhere after starting. This time it didnt stall at the first stop, just sputtered and the battery light came on for a flash. Then it stalled the second stop. After all that it drove fine. Started right back up, sometimes it wont and Id have to wait a couple mins.

 

I would clean the IAC Valve and replace the ECT sensor, not sender

ECT(engine coolant temp) sensor(2 wires) is only used by the computer, and it is used to set "Choke" mode: high idle, rich fuel mix, and advanced spark, when engine is warming up.
If it is showing a warmer engine that it really is then engine would tend to stall out under load.
ECT sensor should run $5-$8, and while you could test it it is cheap enough to just replace on speculation.
If you want to test it set volt meter to DCVolts
Get a sewing needle or pin
Ground the volt meter
Pierce either one of the ECT wires with needle/pin
Turn on key
test voltage on needle/pin
4.5-5.0v is the IN Voltage from computer, and the wrong wire
Move needle/pin to the other wire
Under 4.0volts is correct OUT wire
Voltage on this wire varies by temp

Start engine and test voltages as it warms up
32degF should be about 3.7volts
50degF 3.3volts
100degF 2.3volts
150degF 1.3volts
200degF(operating temp) .6volts, under 1 volt for sure

Temp Sender, 1 wire, is only used for dash board gauge so don't confuse the two.


IAC Valve is what computer uses to set cold and warm idles, if it is sticking on warm up it could cause stall on taking off because there is not enough or too much air at idle

 

I replaces that ECT a long time ago. That’s the tiny little thing that screws in and has a couple wires on it?

 

Well engine is stalling because it is not being "Choked" as it should with the lower temps.

What does "choke" mean for gasoline engines
First the big fact, gasoline can not be ignited by a spark, period, yes the movie guys get that wrong, but it is a cool special effect, lol.

Only gasoline vapor can be ignited by a spark.
At 70deg gasoline vaporizes fairly fast, you can feel this if you spill gas on you skin, cools very fast, that the gasoline vaporizing from the warmth of you body, cooling the skin like sweating does.

As gasoline gets colder there is less vapor, so cold metal engine and cold gasoline is not easy to start with a spark.
This is where Compression and Choking comes in
Compression is heat, when you compress the air/fuel mix it heats up, this helps vaporize some of the gasoline.
But you need at least 30% vapor for a spark to ignite the mixture, even preheated with compression.

At 50degF gasoline is about 15% vapor, so Chokes were added to carbs so idler and main jets could be made to provide over twice as much fuel as they normally would, to get engine started and to keep it running.

As temps go down, even more choking(fuel) is needed to keep vapor in the cylinders above that 30%
And the cold outside air gets even colder as it is sucked into engine, at least until the intake warms up, so the cold gasoline gets colder when sprayed out of jets or injectors

Carbs used a bi-metal spring to set choke plate based on temperature, cold spring would have choke plate closed, but you still needed to adjust it for summer/winter seasons, spring would be heated by exhaust or electrical heat and choke plate would open more and more, less choke(fuel), until engine warmed up.

Fuel injection can't use a Choke Plate, no Jets, so computer must Choke the cold engine and cold gasoline, and that is done solely using the data from the ECT sensor.
There is an air temp sensor as well, the IAT sensor, but it is often ignored in favor of ECT data.

O2 sensors can not be used on cold engines, so computer has no feed back to know if engine is working correctly

ECT sensor may not be the problem, but best guess from symptoms as described

 

Just for reference for anybody else who has this problem...
IT WAS THE PCM/ECU (COMPUTER)

I was able to pull codes before but eventually one day i wasn’t able to connect my ODB1 scanner to the computer to pull codes. I eventually went with the guess that it might be the computer. The pcm was sealed and didn’t wanna try opening it and looking so I bought a remanufaxtured one from O’Rileys and put it in. Has been working for about a year now and never had any issues since.

Originally i I threw a misfire code, an o2 sensor code, replaced the sensor, maf, and more but nothing worked until I replaced the computer.

Sorry for not posting any closure but here it is. Good luck to anybody else with this problem, because it’s a confusing one...

 

Thanks for the update and the FIX