'87 Ranger misfire issue

[polarbear]

'87 Ranger 2WD. Has a 2.9 V6, 5 spd, and factory A/C.

Symptom: between 2 and 3000 rpm, an intermittent miss happens. Could happen warm or cold, but always starts under a load. Really random, not throwing any codes or triggering the "check engine" light.

Any thoughts?

 

[d-kuzmen]

How fresh are the plugs and wires? Could be a coil or I can't remember 100% if those had the TFI module on the distributor (the little grey box that always went bad)..

 

[blacksnapon]

Yeah, I'd go with plugs and wires. For a "not exact test", use a spray bottle with water, and while its running, spray the wires slightly with water (doing it at night makes it easier to see the arcing). That'll show you precisely where the trouble is (in theory)

 

[polarbear]

Thanks guys!

Plugs/wires are new (3 weeks ago?), the issue continued. I'll pass that along. This truck has about 260,000 miles on it, but been in the same family since new.

 

[polarbear]

FYI- it was a bad plug wire- thanks for the tip!