Ford mechanic question

[kycrawler]

Check for spark at a spark plugs. Screw a compression. Gauge in a cylinder. And snap a noid light in one of the injector harness plugs. Hooking a fuel pressure gauge up also. If it has spark and injector pulse. The pickip coil and module are good. 125-150 psi compression. Will rule out a timing belt. I would have to look up fuel pressure spec for that motor. But in that year range. Ford used an in tank booster pump that was low pressure high volume and a frame rail mounted pressure pump. The frame rail pump was mounted on the inside of the frame about where the driver's feet sit if it has one. Those trucks also had an inertia cut off switch for the fuel pump. To cut power to fuel pump in case of accident. Usually mounted on fire wall by glove box or in passenger kick panel . A heavy footed passenger. Kicking around can trip that switch. I learned that one 20 years ago with a pretty little blonde.

[waksupi]

Found the problem, clogged fuel filter.

Thanks for all the help!

[Rick Hodges]

Found the problem, clogged fuel filter.

Thanks for all the help!

Not bad for a 30 year old truck eh? Of all the possibilities....a fuel filter seems like a good deal. My son had one of the very early Rangers with a 4 cyl. Outside of the fact that it barely had the power to get out of its own way it was a solid little truck.

[bdicki]

Ranger is coming back in 2019.

[Finster101]

Glad you found it. It's nice when a thread like this gets kinda finalized so folks don't keep wondering.

[jmort]

^^^ Agree
Closure is good

[waksupi]

Not bad for a 30 year old truck eh? Of all the possibilities....a fuel filter seems like a good deal. My son had one of the very early Rangers with a 4 cyl. Outside of the fact that it barely had the power to get out of its own way it was a solid little truck.

A friend says they don't have enough power to pull a sick ***** off of a p*** pot! True.

[Tenbender]

check the fuel pressure.

[white eagle]

I had a similar experience with my 04 150
seems in all their wisdom Ford engineers put
the gas line for the tank in such a spot that all the
road salt collected there and ate the line
I lost power just like you did like no gas

[starmac]

Hopefully that is the end of it, but that has not been my experience. 9 out of 10 times I have had a ford quit because the filter stopped up, it had already basically killed the pump trying to pump through a mostly stopped up filter, and it had to be replaced in the next week or so. hopefully this is not the case in yours.

[waksupi]

Hopefully that is the end of it, but that has not been my experience. 9 out of 10 times I have had a ford quit because the filter stopped up, it had already basically killed the pump trying to pump through a mostly stopped up filter, and it had to be replaced in the next week or so. hopefully this is not the case in yours.

Pump seems to be running strong so far.

[starmac]

Hopefully that does it, the only real way to see, is either wait and see if it does all right on longer trips, where to see if the pump heats up, or run it for an hour or so and then check fuel pressure with the vacuum line pulled off of the regulator.
I expect it will be fine this time of year especially combined with your location, even better if not running over an hour between cooling off periods, it might just last forever.
I had an 89 regular cab with a 5 speed for a parts chasing pickup, everybody and their dog drove that thing and it did a fine job for about 160,000 miles till the tranny literally exploded. I always thought the guy that was driving it at the time stuck it in reverse on the interstate.

[Petrol & Powder]

Glad you got fixed

[largom]

Good idea to carry a spare fuel filter. Easy to get dirty gas or have rust in the fuel tank.

[William Yanda]

Good idea to carry a spare fuel filter. Easy to get dirty gas or have rust in the fuel tank.

'specially in a 30 year old truck!

[tomme boy]

Change the fuel filter every 40K miles. You will be replacing that pump shortly. About as bad as running them out of gas.

[bdicki]

This thread inspired me to change the fuel filter on my new to me 1998 F150 hunting truck. It needed it.

[myg30]

Went thru similar troubles past few years with 91 F150. Dropped the tank to replace the fuel pump and it had a gallon or better of sludge/ water in it which clogged the fine screen on pump.
This year was intermittent start/ spark. Found a NEW distributor on line complete with cap,rotor and the little module on the side for $60 shipped.
Old 300 cui 6 runs like a champ. Guess it’s time to change my fuel filter again !

Glad you got er running.
Mike

[bdicki]

Went thru similar troubles past few years with 91 F150. Dropped the tank to replace the fuel pump and it had a gallon or better of sludge/ water in it which clogged the fine screen on pump.
This year was intermittent start/ spark. Found a NEW distributor on line complete with cap,rotor and the little module on the side for $60 shipped.
Old 300 cui 6 runs like a champ. Guess it’s time to change my fuel filter again !

Glad you got er running.
Mike

When I dumped the fuel out of the input side of the filter it was a little milky, so some water in the tank I guess. Next project I guess, it won't be as bad as the heater core change.

[Petrol & Powder]

myg30 - The Ford 300 (4.9L) inline 6 was one of the best engines ever made. It's a shame that Ford stopped making them. (it was in production for about 30 years) In addition to Ford trucks; the 300 was used to power aircraft tractors (tugs), generators, UPS trucks! and about a hundred other applications. That engine was a workhorse and nearly indestructible if given just a little attention.

And I'm not even a big fan of Ford products