95 ranger idles rough, stalls, may or may not restart

95 ranger idles rough, stalls, may or may not restart. sometimes runs fine the rest of the day after acting up. usally acts up after being driven awhile. Sometimes small backfires, vibrates the entire vehical, sometimes cut out at higher speeds (mild jerk only) and then is good again. if I'm able to get it on the main road I can usally get it home when it acts up, but if I get stuck in traffic I'm constantly restarting and or holding the gas down to prevent stall. in a bad day it has not restarted again untill hours later (maybe after it cools)and may drive fine again for a few days. I've replaced the fuel filter, and added fuel injector cleaner into a new tank of gas(after driving the old tank nearly empty, in case it was bad gas). I bought a fuel pump but have not installed yet (not sure it is the problem unless it's getting weak, the truck runs fine 80% of the time). If I take it straight to work and back home it never stains me, but If I drive around town after it warms up and get into traffic it may to act up. Others have suggested clogged catalytic converter, crank/cam angle sensor, Ignition module/coil. I've never even heard of the last two things.

 

If you can, check for crack in distributor cap. Also pull plugs to check for piece of junk that got caught in the electrode. When that happens - when the engine gets hot the junk glows and prematurely fires and can actually jerk the engine because the engine tries to momentarily run in reverse (it can do this because it does not have to wait for the spark. If plug 'ember' starts glowing it can fire gas at any time, prematurely) while all the other cylinders are trying to get it to go forward. Carboned up in engine/plugs can cause this also. Also carbon tracks around distributor. Make sure also no leakage from plug wires (idle engine with hood open at night and look for sparks) and that plugs are clean from the boot outward so no leakage to ground. Easy stuff that can indeed cause said problem, and costs you nothing to check out yourself. This is a methodical diagnostics approach. Then if all that pans out, move onto other fuel or spark or emmission-control/ sensor devices.

 

I had Ranger and the fuel line running along side of engine was getting too hot and boiling gas out of fuel line.I split rubber hose and placed over fuel line along engine and that took care of it.

 

I changed the spark plugs and spark plug wires, and it ran worse than ever. Drove it to work and back (bearly). almost no power at all, almost like I was running on 4 cylinders, (1995 Ford Ranger with small V6). before then it alwas ran good and then bad after it wormed up. now it runs bad and then really bad. I replaced the wires one at a time, put double checked the fireing order just in case, it was fine. I tested again for spark at the plug, took off the gas line to the fuel filter and with key turned fuel flows out like water would from a garden hose. I took off the catalytic converter and tryed to start, it ran for about two seconds (vary loudly) and would not even try to fire again. took off the distributer cap, It has some whiteish corosion on it, I scraped it clean with screwdriver and then sandpaper as well as the roter but it was no help. I plan it get new of each tomarrow anyway, just cause they are kind of cheap and it need replace anyway.
Now I'm thinking cloged injectors, earler (a week ago) I had put some cleaner in the fuel but I'm not sure that stuff really works. not sure injecters can go from cloged to spraying back to cloged either? before while it was running I was never able to test anything now I does not run everything seems Ok, maybe fuel senser regulater to the injecters is bad??

 

#1) Don't throw any parts at the problem(s) w/o some testing/diagnostics
Short of consumables that "need changing anyway", pretty much any/everything can be checked before replacing
#2) The first step in diagnosing/troubleshooting a computer controlled vehicle is ask the computer...always...even if if tells you nothing, that's something (tells you what it isn't)

IIRC, your '95 still uses the (pre-OBD-II) Ford connector, and can be DIYed
See Here:
http://www.troublecodes.net/Ford/

If not, if it's OBD-II, then most DIY Auto Parts places will read the codes for a small fee, or more often for free-just don't buy a part until posting up the actual code(s), if any, here for interpretation (ex: an "o2 sensor reads lean" code does not mean replace the o2 sensor)

On another note, what did you replace the wires and plugs with?
I ask because this vintage EEC-IV (Ford) computer controlled engine often does not do well with aftermarket (non-Ford) parts
Some things it doesn't seem to matter (like Ford o2 sensors are Bosch sensors anyway), but for ignition parts (plugs/wires/cap/rotor), Ford (or Autolite, Ford's parts brand) seems to be the best way to go (Bosch Platinum plugs will make this engine run worse, and after market wires-even "racing" wires- can mess up the computer pretty bad)

Those you can replace if they are not Ford/Autolite
But really, don't replace anything else w/o pulling those codes and posting them up here
The EEC-IV computer can store dozens of codes w/o lighting up that Check Engine Light
First things first on a computer controlled engine-get the codes

 

I took it to a shop, they said it was the points inside the distributor (the electronic version that replaced what the points use to do). The shop said they had a lot of time involved in trying to find the problem and some how they broke the distributor while getting it out, they replaced the distributor with a new one. (bill was ~$280), my brother in law had suggested replacing that next, he said new elec. points should have run about $20, had I listened to him I may have broken the distributor as well though.