Hello I am looking for a little help, I have a 96 ford ranger with 107,xxx miles on it, recently my truck started shaking real bad and stuttering at idle and lower speeds, especially wants to bog down when I accelerate from a start to merge into traffic.

Hooked it up to an OBD2 Scanner and pulled these codes :

P0300, P0751, P0135, P0136, P0141, P0155

I do not have a lot of money, so if some of you experts could point me in the right direction towards fixing, I would be extremely grateful. Thanks for your time.

 

Welcome to the forum

What engines in this 1996 Ranger
2.3l, 3.0l or 4.0l

Start by changing spark plugs, or at least clean them and re-gap

P0300 means you have misfires, that's the shaking you feel and causes the Flashing CEL, back off the gas when it Flashes or you WILL damage the engine


P0135 02 Sensor Heater Circuit Malfunction (Bank 1 Sensor 1)
P0141 02 Sensor Heater Circuit Malfunction (Bank 1 Sensor 2)
P0155 02 Sensor Heater Circuit Malfunction (Bank 2 Sensor 1)

These codes mean you most likely have a blown fuse in engine bay fuse box, fuse 20, 15amp
AND you have a V6 engine, which has 3 O2 sensors, 4cyl only has 2

P0136 02 Sensor Circuit Malfunction (Bank I Sensor 2)
This code may go away after fuse is replaced
BUT............if fuse 20 blows again then check the wires on the rear O2 sensor, its on passenger side behind the Cat Converter, it's wire harness usually runs over the top of transmission to drivers side and joins the main transmission harness
It's wires may be damaged causing a short that blows the fuse and sets P0136 code
All O2s come with a 4 wire harness attached, that harness plugs into a Round connector on the Rangers wiring harness

P0751 Shift Solenoid A Performance or Stuck Off
You have an Automatic trans?
If so its a 4R55E or 44E model
One of the 4 solenoids, solenoid 1(A), is not reacting the way it should, could be time to replace fluid and filter, or replace the solenoid

 

Thanks for your informative reply! Sorry I should've mentioned it is the 3.0L engine, automatic transmission.

 

A quick update, did have the blown 15amp fuse under the hood, quick investigation of the rear 02 sensor and I discovered the wires were cut, replaced it, and the truck drove great for about 15 miles, now we are back to square one where it is still jerking badly and if I accelerate too hard the CEL starts flashing

 

The CEL flashes because there is a misfire, back off the gas pedal

The O2 heater codes and blown fuse was never the cause of the misfire

Next step would be a Compression test on a 3.0l engine
Cold engine
Pull out all 6 spark plugs first, check each tip for color and wear
Test each cylinder and write down results
Should all be within 10% of each other
Low cylinders most likely have burnt exhaust valves, common issue in ALL piston/valve engines

Compression test is either good or bad, no grey area, like spark or fuel, which is why its good to do this test first, to eliminate it as the cause or find out it is the cause of misfires so you don't waste time, and money, on non-fixes with spark and fuel systems

Your symptoms read like its not a compression issue, i.e. "ran OK cold(15min) but then started to misfire(flashing CEL)"

I would pull the coil pack and inspect it for cracks, failing coil packs usually don't act up until they get hot
As said clean or replace spark plugs, 1996 3.0l spark plug gap should be 0.045", the were printed mistakes about 3.0l gaps, 0.045" is correct gap

Run a can of Seafoam, or similar cleaner, in the gas tank and see if things get better after 1/2 tank or so