Engine won't start

[tongy66086]

I have a '01 Explorer Sport, 4.0 engine that has about 230K miles on it.
The truck runs, or ran, perfectly, but with the miles, I don't trust it to be my daily driver any longer.
A while back, I parked it next to my garage so it would be handy if I needed it.
We had about a week of temps that hovered around 0F.
I went out one day to start it just to let it run. It would not start at all. That was odd since this truck has been super reliable in the 12 years I've owned it.
The weather has warmed up to the 60 degree range now, so I went out to see if I could get it running.
It will not even fire. I shot a small squirt of starting fluid, and still no fire.

What could have happened from sitting in the cold to have caused this?
Thank you in advance for any ideas or suggestions. I appreciate any help you can give.

 

[84FLH]

The man "koda2000" on this forum has tons of posts about all kings of "no start" problems.

I don't mean to sound trite or unconcerned, but if you search "no start" you'll find 2000StreetRod's posts. That's the best place to start.

 

[MillerAPF97XLT]

Hey, tongy. Sorry to hear your Explorer is giving you fits. Koda and StreetRod will be great sources of info. If you've got fuel (or a substitute) and compression (valve timing is correct), the only thing missing is spark, at the correct time. Just my $0.02, and your mileage may vary, but if it were mine, I think I would look at a camshaft position sensor or whatever strategy is used to give the ECU an ignition timing reference. Assuming, again, that all else is good and the shot of starting fluid was enough to make it try to start. Hope you get it going - let us know what gives. - Chris:exp:

 

[tongy66086]

I did do a search. Many searches actually, and really found nothing that matched the problem I'm having.
I did try starting fluid, and it would not fire at all.
What I have found is this.....the engine will not fire while the shift lever is in park. I will not fire with the lever in neutral, BUT, if while cranking, I pull the lever down towards the drive position, it fires right up.
So, now that I know where to start looking, I'm going to wait until the temps warm up a lot before going out and fixing it.

 

[Flash]

I did do a search. Many searches actually, and really found nothing that matched the problem I'm having.
I did try starting fluid, and it would not fire at all.
What I have found is this.....the engine will not fire while the shift lever is in park. I will not fire with the lever in neutral, BUT, if while cranking, I pull the lever down towards the drive position, it fires right up.
So, now that I know where to start looking, I'm going to wait until the temps warm up a lot before going out and fixing it.

The neutral cutout switch is out of adjustment.