Hello,
About two weeks ago I bought a used 1994 Ford ranger 3.0l V6. It would start intermittently but I had always been able to get it going until the other day. After a short drive, the truck idled down to a halt (in neutral) as I parked it back at home and I have been unable to get it started since.

I tested for spark and found none anywhere. I tested the wires leading to the coil and control module and found that both have voltage. I replaced the ignition control module and the ignition coil and there is still no spark from any plug or the ignition coil. I am planning on replacing the spark plugs + their wires and the distributor cap + rotor next, but I'm not convinced that either of them are the issue here.

My battery is currently recharging (got low from cranking the engine), so I'm online looking for answers/advice. I'm basically wondering what the next step in troubleshooting would be and if anyone has any idea what the next most likely culprit to my problem might be?
I'm new here and am trying to do all of the work that I can on this truck myself, so any advice I get would be hugely appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forum

When ever you have a crank but no start you should do the 50/50 test first
Spray gasoline or Quick start(ether) into the intake and try to start
If it starts and dies you have a fuel delivery issue
If it doesn't fire then a spark issue
50/50 instant results

Spark testers do not work unless you are testing a single cylinder engine

If engine doesn't fire with 50/50 test, and you have a distributor, pop off the cap and see where rotor is pointed
Crank engine and make sure it is turning

Your symptom reads more like fuel issue than spark, but if still a no fire with 50/50 test then there is a Hall effect sensor in the distributor that sets the timing pulse(PIP) for the ignition module as the distributor spins.
These rarely fail, but rarely is not never

You can test it with a volt meter or test light
Images of TFI modules here: https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-for...on-gif.250293/

1994 3.0l should have remote mounted TFI module, doesn't have the 3 pins on the top

The PIP IN wire should show 0-12v as distributor turns, ground the test light or meter
Coil Negative should show 0-12v as distributor turns, with test light or meter hooked to 12v

 

I took off the distributor cap this morning just to be thorough and cranked the engine only to find that the distributor rotor was not spinning. I took off the rotor and wiggled the shaft under the rotor. It felt stuck but came loose when I slightly turned it, almost like some gears inside were misaligned in some way.

I should just replace the whole distributor (a new cap and rotor were on my list of parts to replace anyway), correct?

 

There is a roll pin that holds the distributor shaft gear to the distributor shaft, it can shear off, this shaft is ALSO the oil pump drive so a good thing it didn't start

Yes, you will need to pull out the distributor and see what broke, hopefully it wasn't the oil pump that seized, long shot

You will also need to re-time the spark once you find out what happened

This is what whole distributor looks like: https://d3d71ba2asa5oz.cloudfront.ne...s/dst2697a.jpg

The gear is driven by another gear on the cam shaft, the lower part of the distributor shaft drives the oil pump

The cam shaft gear is machined into the cam shaft so can't "detach", like the distributor gear can

 

I took out the distributor and found the problem, the teeth on one side of the distributor gear were chewed up and stripped.





I was concerned that the camshaft gear would be stripped out too. I cranked the engine to turn the camshaft to inspect the gear and it looks okay all around.



I'm going to install a new distributor now, I think that should do the trick.

 

Yes, the bushing may have worn out and caused shaft to get high resistance, the distributor gear teeth are softer metal than the cam gear teeth for this reason

Is the distributor hard to spin?

If you can make an adapter out of the old distributor, with no gear, just to try and spin the oil pump to make sure its not the problem

 

So what was the verdict on this? Did a new distributor resolve your issue?

I ask because I seem to be experiencing the same exact thing.



I cannot however seem to get a good pic of the camshaft to see if it's intact or not.

 

Cam shaft gear will be OK, it is a harder metal, on purpose, the distributor(or cam synchronizer) gear is made of a softer grade of metal

 

Thanks Ron D, it's hard to see in those pics but the cam shaft basically wore a grove in one section of the distributor. I'll shop around and grab a new one and hope I can revive this old truck. It died on my son a week before he shipped to boot camp. He hasn't needed it, so it's sat until now. (roughly a year).

 

The bushings inside, for the shaft can wear out, so make sure distributor is easy to turn, not binding and no wobble, if you plan on just replacing the gear
If your getting a new distributor then ................. nevermind

 

I think it's the original dist, it bind and doesn't spin very well, so the plan was a complete new dist. Only $80 seems worth it....

 

Ron - before we realized that the distributor was the culprit, we had cranked the engine a bunch, so obviously the timing has to be completely jacked! I was wondering if there was an easy way to get the timing pretty close to correct? Any tricks of the trade?

 

Sure
Put engine at TDC 0deg

Install distributor so rotor is point at #1 spark plug wire
You have a 50/50 chance of getting it right

Crank engine to see if it starts, I would spray some fuel into the engine, just to be sure
if it does start you guessed right, time to fine tune base spark timing with timing light

If engine doesn't start then rotate it to TDC 0deg again, distributor is 180deg off
Pull off the cap and see where rotor is pointed
It WILL BE pointed at #1 or #5 only 2 choices, assuming plugs wires are correct, lol
Which ever it is pointed at you need to lift distributor up and turn rotor to the opposite one
So if rotor is pointed at #1 turn it to point at #5, if its pointed at #5 turn it to point to #1

Done

Drawing here: https://www.therangerstation.com/tec...ringOrder6.gif

The crankshaft turns two times for each one turn of the distributor(camshaft), so the TDC mark on the crank shaft is for top dead center of #1 AND #5
So if you use this method you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right the first time around
If you do guess right the first time then run out and buy a Lotto ticket, your luck is good today, lol

I am about 20/80 on this, 80% WRONG, lol, even if I second guess I get it wrong, needless to say I don't buy Lotto tickets

 

Thanks for the speedy response! I was wondering if there was a cheater way to see if #1 is up vs #5 is up? Could I pull the spark plug and check the depth with a dowel or something like that? Or I could just take the 50/50 chance...?

 

#1 and #5 are at top dead center at the same time, so not by depth

You can put a compression gauge in #1 and turn the engine manually until pressure starts to build up in #1 then rotate to TDC mark and that will be the right one to set distributor pointed at #1