94 ford ranger code 18

[Kanish]

I have a 94 ford ranger 3.0. Recently I have been having problems after the truck sits for a while. When I go out in it during the first mile the check engine light will come on. The truck will hesitate when I try to give it gas and sometimes stall. It can be hard to start after this. Once I do about a mile of driving the check engine light goes out and the truck runs fine. I did notice the idle seems to be a little higher than normal. I had to replace the distributor about a month ago because the lower gear had broken teeth. Everything was good for about 2 weeks then this problem started. I also noticed my temp gage on the dash stopped working. Could a bad coolant temp sensor cause these type of problems? I checked the codes and got a code 18. From what I read that has to do with timing. Do I have a faulty distributor.? I am totally lost on this one. Can anyone help?

 

[FR-425]

Code 18 = Base timing is off.

Distributor come loose again?

I say "again" cause that's probably what ate up the gear on the other.

 

[Kanish]

You were right. Thank you so much. The distributor moved.

 

[FR-425]

Merry Christmas!