I need help, this morning I took my wife to the store, when we got to the first store she got out, I cut the engine off and waited for her to return. when she did return, I tried to start my truck and it didn't want to start, when I did get it started it didn't want to stay started, it would shutter and want to stall, we started to drive and again it would shutter, I come to a stop and it would stall. start it again and same thing it would shutter, any time I would come to a stop it would stall, I would put it in neutral and rev the engine to keep it from stalling, once I would start driving it would smooth out until I would maintain whatever the posted speed limit was then it would again shudder and want to stall regaurdless of how fast I was going, I noticed that I could keep it from shuddering if I would get off the gas when I was shuddering and then step on the gas but I would have to do that the whole trip. I am not a mechanic but my father is, he is also an hour and a half away. I called him and he suggested that it might be the fuel filter, change that and put a fuel system cleaner in aswell, so I did that and still no change, what am I looking at here? the vehicle drove fine up until this morning. its a 2001 Ford ranger xlt 4.0L how do I fix this?

thanks, weegee

 

Welcome to the forum

Not much to go on, 2001 4.0l SOHC assuming automatic?

Also assume the CEL(check engine light) didn't come on?
Or you would have mentioned that, so the computed doesn't "see" a problem

If engine drives OK at higher speeds then I wouldn't think fuel filter or fuel pump, those cause issues at higher fuel demand, at speed or going uphill, but fuel filter should be changed every 5 years or so in any case

Some known issues on the 4.0l SOHC engine is dirty MAF sensor, easy to clean
Vacuum leak in PCV Valve hose's elbow, but this one usually causes HIGH idle not stalling

The shuddering means engine is misfiring, OR............torque converter is not unlocking<< longshot but not a no shot
If you shift to neutral while slowing down does the engine stall or shake?

Does engine run better COLD?
And you only notice the issue after 3 to 5 min warm up time?

Running fine yesterday but not today is the way problems occur, very few vehicle issues have signs of a problem ahead of time, one minute it works the next minute it doesn't

 

the check engine light is on but it came on back in February after I hit a deer so I didn't think much of it. it is an automatic, if I put it neutral the rpms drop and shudder and it stalls, I have to keep reving the engine to keep it running. i saw there were a couple test that I could do one was while the car was running to remove the gas cap, that did nothing the other was disconnecting the maf censor (i think) where the air filter is when i did that it sorta smoothed out and didn't have to have my foot on the gas pedal, but I think i remember reading that the truck should have turned off. I don't know...
thanks for the welcome...

also I did take it to O'Reilly and they hooked it up to their computer but nothing came up...

 

Here is a PARTIAL code list, most but not all codes for Ford: https://www.therangerstation.com/tec...II_codes.shtml
There are ALOT, lol

The CEL comes on when there at least 1 code set, but it can't come on again if there are 20 codes set because it is already on, right?
So "CEL came on last Feb" just means you would never know if another code or several other codes were set since then

So CEL on is BAD BAD thing, unless you know why and chose to ignore it, but if you chose to do that, then you need to check for MORE CODES every few weeks
You can get a Bluetooth OBD2 code reader for $15-$20, and it works with ANY vehicle, 1996 and up, not a Ford thing

If CEL is on there there are codes in the computer memory, that's how it works, try a different parts store their code reader might be better

It may have nothing to do with current problem, doesn't matter, because it may also tell you exactly what the problem is

Clean MAF and check PCV hose is all I got til then