Hey everyone. Newbie here. I recently bought a 94 ranger and found that if I step on it hard for a while, eventually it completly cuts out. If I let off the gas, it fires itself right back up but after that, it takes less throttle to make it happen again. The check engine light does not come on though. I'm going to try to get any codes that might be stored that don't light the cel this weekend but if anyone has any experience with this issue, I would appreciate the shortcut. Thanks.

 

Plugged fuel filter would be first guess and weak fuel pump next.
Welcome to the forum.

 

Fuel filter was my first guess too. The pump was replaced maybe 20,000 miles ago so I was thinking that wasn't the most likely issue. Could it be the pressure regulator not creating enough pressure? I will hook up a gage on that too. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

Thanks for getting back to us with what the fix was...

 

Must mean it was the fuel filter then, huh?

 

I had lots of things go wrong all at once at my house so I haven't had time to work on it since posting this thread. I am trying to find my fuel pressure gage so I can do some diagnosing before I go out and buy parts. The fuel pump was replace maybe 25,000 miles ago and the fuel filter looks like it was replaced at the same time so I'd like to see if I can duplicate the problem with a pressure gage attached. I might take the hood off and drive it hard to see what happens to the gage reading when it cuts out. Kinda like I do with a vacuum gage. I will update when I learn anything.

Any ideas out there would be greatly appreciated.

 

Ok, I hooked up my now found fuel pressure gage and drove it up and down the road and got it to cut out. The whole time the needle was rock solid on something like 30 psi. It doesn't sound to me like it's a fuel delivery problem. I also put a vacuum gage on and did the same thing but under full throttle, there's never any vacuum so I couldn't get anything useful out of that test. What else can it be?

 

Here is a way to pull the codes yourself for 94 and older OBD
http://www.troublecodes.net/Ford/

Does it cut out as bad with the engine cold ,or is it mainly after things are warmed up ?
It almost sounds as if the ignition coil is breaking down after it gets hot.

 

I haven't tried punching it when cold so I don't know. I would think that the coil would misbehave at low, medium or high power settings. This only seems to happen at high power settings. Its hard to get it to happen but after it happens once, it seems to happen a lot easier the next time. When it cuts out, it cuts out completely for a second or so and then spits back to life. I am wondering if it could be a dirty MAF sensor. After high power on an old engine, maybe there is enough blow-by to temporarily coat whatever sensors are in the airstream going into the intake manifold. I'll try to clean things up tomorrow.

 

Also, I have a code reader but there don't seem to be any codes set.

 

I had a problem with that on my 03' Ranger 2.3 cyl. Installed new plugs, wires and coil pack and that fixed the problem. Runs great now.