I have an issue that I have not been able to resolve and resorted to dropping my truck off at the dealer 3 weeks ago who also cannot pinpoint the problem.
What I have is a 2009 ranger, 2.3 Auto, 91K miles. I was driving home and out of nowhere the truck shut off. I restarted but if I attempt to give it any throttle it stutters and wants to stall. I babied it back home and changed the fuel filter, TPS and ran diagnostics with a scanner. There are no codes being thrown, nothing comes up with the scanner. The truck runs absolutely great in park, it will rev out. In reverse it runs perfect; it will go as fast as you want to. As soon as I put it in drive it stutters and wants to stall if you give it any gas. I had the dealership change the PCM which seems to have had no impact. any ideas? I am at a total loss as to what could be causing this condition. I appreciate any input that you all may have.

 

A little update, I replaced the neutral safety switch thinking that may be the culprit because if it is in 1, 2, N, R or Park is absolutely fine. It is only in drive that it has the issues. it made no change unfortunately. wondering if it could be the TCC. Any ideas?

 

Alright, I gave in and took it to a local shop instead of a dealer to see if they could sort it out. The shop owner called me the next day and said your trucks done, come and pick it up! They found a blown fuse (boy do I feel dumb right now) in the #39 slot in the fuse box under the hood. great i thought! went picked it up, truck ran flawlessly until I go a mile from the house and it started acting up again.....same fuse (15A) popped again...... I replaced it and all is well but when I looked up the fuse panel diagram is says that fuse is not used.... so at this point i know where the solution is if it happens again but I would love to know why this is happening. I drove the truck for months with no issues and now it has a gremlin. It has to be a short somewhere but if any of you have ever had this issue and found a solution let me know.

 

In a 2009 underhood fuse #39 with a 2.3 is a 15amp for the PCM power

 

Thank you for the information, it seems odd that the truck will run with that fuse blown. By run I mean it will idle, go in reverse etc, just doesnt like to be in drive.

 

More of an update and I need some input from those of you with similar year trucks. I had replaced the PCM fuse as it had blown while driving, I have since replaced it but assume there is a short or a draw somewhere. I unhooked the battery positive cable and clipped my test light to that and placed the other end on the positive post. This should, I believe had the light remain off unless there was a short. my test light stayed on and i removed every fuse one by one to see if I could find the circuit with the short but the light never went off. Am I way off base to think that the light should be off in this scenario? the ignition was off with no key in it when I did this test. I have done this with other cars and it worked fine, maybe it doesnt work with these trucks? any insight is appreciated. My assumption is that I have a circuit that the fuse feeds that is staying energinzed and causing an overdraw on the fuse or I have a small short somewhere that I have not located. This has only happened twice and both times i was driving on a relatively smooth paved road. I hate that it has happened and I cannot find out why as it makes me not trust the truck to drive it anywhere.

 

My 0.02:
-Memorize every ground location, dremal corrosion off and after fastening them spray them with silicone spray or cover them in dielectric grease
-check exposed copper around lights; exposed wire turns to powder within a day of rain exposure and it'll make a PCM go haywire even on older EFI stuff
-Wire segments that never move or rarely get touched rarely short
-Spend the money and get a RF/EMI based short finder
-I may be wrong here: TCM<->PCM<->BCM<->SKIM buses are the only non-analog wiring on these trucks, and most of it is under the dash or on firewall and short-length wires; which means shorts likely won't be on wiring you can't use a RF/EMI short finder on

My only experience with the wiring side of PCM/ECM stuff is when I had something that kept blowing PCM "drivers"/diodes decades ago, and a short finder and ground cleaning wasn't enough to fix it. I basically spent $1,500 on a blank-ECM and wiring loom to fix that, though... I suspect it was a digital or PWM bus short

Best Guess: Some position sensor on trans that shares ground with something fuel/air related; if it was PCM or TCM it'd do it regardless of position