1992 Ford Explorer racing and lugging

WATERDOG74

MEMBER
1992 FORD EXPLORER

Engine Performance problem
1992 Ford Explorer 6 cyl Four Wheel Drive Manual 130K miles

1. Turn on ignition and tac jumps immediately to 4K rpm, without the engine running.
2. Hard starting. Usually 3 tries or more, and engine catches/dies. Eventually starts but engine races, high revs.
3. Engine continues to race when out of gear, but if I step on the accelerator it will usually lug down, lose power, sputter. If I hit the "sweet spot" with the accelerator I can get it to gradually get up to speed, but the racing engine will keep it accelerating until I have to step on the clutch to keep it at the correct speed. At a stop, usually revs high, but occasionally rpms will drop down to a more normal idle (temporarily).
4. Tac never seems to go below 3-4K unless the key is turned completely off. But this seems to have little connection to reality.

7 Replies

MERLIN2021

MECHANIC
17,250 POSTS

Is the check engine light on? Try reading the codes this way: Do this and count the flashes...Count the flashes, a 22 will flash as 2 flashes then a short pause, then 2 flashes, if more than one code is stored, the pause will be longer. The codes will display three times and end with 11 or 111. Write them down and post here. First do this with the ke on engine off, then again with it running.

Also disconnect the throttle cable and operate it by hand, if you now get a normal idle, the cable needs to be replaced.

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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 AT 6:00 PM

WATERDOG74

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5 POSTS

Do I need a scanner to do this?

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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 AT 6:22 PM

WATERDOG74

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5 POSTS

Never mind. I see now how to connect the jumper to get the flashes from the MIL. I will post results.

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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 AT 6:39 PM

WATERDOG74

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5 POSTS

I was able to use a test light at the self-test connector. I first tried with the key on/engine off, but all I got was a steady light. I then tried with key on/engine running and got this:
412, 116, 411, 538, 412, 116, 411, 538

I shut off the engine and turned the key on and got this: 116, 539, 116, 539, (at this point I got confused as to where the breaks were between codes. It seemed to go like this, which does not seem right: 1113, 121125.

Then back to 3 digits: 157, 172, 181, 113, 121, 125, 157, 172, 181

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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 AT 8:32 PM

MERLIN2021