No idle, has power

10

Asked by Rbagley70 Jun 13, 2013 at 01:24 PM about the 1997 Ford Ranger XLT Extended Cab Stepside SB

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

2.3 l4 1997 ford ranger
One day I got out of my truck and 3 minute later I got in
started it and it had a misfire in cylinder 1 and could not
hold an idle.
When Iam at low rpms the cylinder seems to die down. But
when I put my foot in it, the cylinder seems to come to life
and the power is all there.... but when I push in the clutch
the rpms drop and the truck dies.    

The two trouble codes say misfire in cylinder one
Mass air flow circuit low

Performed compression test on all cylinders. Came out
good. Have spark on both plugs.
Cleaned iac.
Replaced sending unit
Replaced #1injector
Injector is getting power and is clicking when hotwired.

if you have ever seen this before please let me know so that
I can get this truck running right again.

3 Answers

795

It sounds like you have a bad coil. When you get into the throttle all the way, your truck runs fine because your engine is forcing a ton of current through your coils and plug wires. when your just putting around, its not forcing so much current theough, so if there is a mass of resistance somewhere... ie... a bad coil, or even a bad ground wire from the engine to frame, your cylinder wont get enough current to fire the plug hot enough to burn the gas inside the combustion chamber. You could also have a hairline crack in your plug, or a short in your wire. both things will be fine under full throttle, and both things will appear to work fine just by looking at them.

1 people found this helpful.
795

just do a switcheroo from cyl 4 to cyl 1. if the problem moves with the plug, wire and coil, then you know its one of those three things, and you can start weeding it out from there. good luck, and keep us posted.

10

That would make sense because when I tested the spark they sparked orange and not blue

1 people found this helpful.

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