1995 Ranger 2.3 L Bucking and losing power when accelerating

[shumiron]

My '95 Ranger 2.3 L (270,000 miles) runs excellent until about a month ago when I was accelerating up a fairly steep hill and it felt like it was cutting out - but was OK when I eased up on accelerator. This happened off and on for a couple days. The CE finally came on and gave a 0701 code - lean mixture. At idle engine ran perfectly. I checked for vacuum leak and discovered the clamp on the rubber air tube from air cleaner and MAF connected to the throttle body was loose. I tightened that up and made sure all other vacuum elbows and connectors were OK. Wow! Truck ran better than ever. Problem gone.....for two weeks. I live in San Diego so no weather related issues.

Same issue has returned but now seems worse. Checked all vacuum parts, hoses and clamps again and all seem to be OK. Any ideas what I should check next?

 

[shumiron]

I typoed the Check Engine Code - Correct code - 0171.

 

[Tbars4]

..Have you re checked for codes and a "flash frame" of when it occurred?

..Have you cleaned the MAF?

 

[Jeffrey t hatfield]

My '95 Ranger 2.3 L (270,000 miles) runs excellent until about a month ago when I was accelerating up a fairly steep hill and it felt like it was cutting out - but was OK when I eased up on accelerator. This happened off and on for a couple days. The CE finally came on and gave a 0701 code - lean mixture. At idle engine ran perfectly. I checked for vacuum leak and discovered the clamp on the rubber air tube from air cleaner and MAF connected to the throttle body was loose. I tightened that up and made sure all other vacuum elbows and connectors were OK. Wow! Truck ran better than ever. Problem gone.....for two weeks. I live in San Diego so no weather related issues.

Same issue has returned but now seems worse. Checked all vacuum parts, hoses and clamps again and all seem to be OK. Any ideas what I should check next?

 

[Jeffrey t hatfield]

have u tried changing the o2 sensor, and tps?

 

[Jeffrey t hatfield]

Could be also the ground stra
p between tran and body,would cause such effect.

 

[Tbars4]

...The original post is from November 2014

 

[Paul Kleinschmit]

May have bad spark plugs and wires. When you put a load on the engine, you increase the voltage required to jump the spark plug gap. This voltage may get high enough that the spark will short out to other places like bad wire insulation, cracked or even contaminated porcelain of the spark plugs. The code for lean fuel mixture comes on because the oxygen sensor simply detects excessive oxygen in the exhaust. It doesn't distinguish why the oxygen is in the exhaust, whether it's actually from a too lean mixture, an exhaust leak, or unused oxygen due to a misfire.