Explorer wont start, please help

[Chini42]

Friday I told my sister she could move my car into the driveway after she got home (94 Explorer 4x4 XLT). I went to go to work Saturday morning and I get in the car, and I hear that the radios on without the key being in. I think that she pulled the key out before it was completely off, but Im not sure. I thought my battery would be dead because I have an 10" sub that was also on, but the car started up with no problems.

I looked at the Voltage gauge and it would stay around 14-15v as normal while I was driving. If I would stop at a light, they would dip down to about 10-11v, which it has never done before, but the car still ran fine.

I came home after work, still no problems. I went to a buddys house later and it got there with no problems. We were going to the store and the car started up as usual, but it was shaking a little bit. I put it in drive and I hadn't hit the gas yet, i was just idling and it was moving slowly as normal. I try to give it gas (I have a full tank) and nothing happens. The RPM's wouldnt even move, it was like I wasnt even hitting the gas. I turn it off and start it again, I still have no engine power. I tried Reverse, 1, 2 and Drive. It would idle, but no power in any of the gears (wouldnt rev in Park either). We put it in Neutral and moved it to the side and waited a little bit. I came back outside and now it wouldnt even turn over. We tried to jump it just for the hell of it, and noting happened. Do you have any ideas of what could be wrong? Thanks for your help.

Chris

 

[spiper]

Computer is bad I think,EFI isnt getting the message. I cant say for sure, but thats what it sounds like to me.

 

[drnaline]

fuel pressure

You have a little pepcock on the fuel rail under the hood. unscrew the cap. Turn on the key while some one depresses the litle valve. if fuel squirts its not the pump. Pull a plug wire and lay it close to the spark plug. Have some one crank it ( jump start if you have to) see if spark jumps the gap. If it does you have fire to the plugs. If it doen't its probable something electrical.

 

[Chini42]

drnaline, we tried that and no fuel was squirting out. We did not try the spark plug test because we now know that its not getting any feul. Thank you very much, so you think the fuel pump is bad?

 

[zensius]

It's the pump or the relay. I'm told the relay is under the hood near the fuse box. Some have said that they've smacked the relay and the fuel pump came on. Do a search on fuel pump relay. I just saw a lot of info on this recently.

 

[Chini42]

We looked at the fuel pump shutoff swith and it was fine. Then I took out the "Fuel Pump #7"(20A) fuse and it was blown. We replaced it with the 20A fuse from the trailer tow fuse which was also 20A and it started for a second, then it blew that one too. Do you think the fuel pump could be shorted somewhere? What should we look at? Should we drop the fuel tank to get to the pump? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[TPLYNCH]

Sounds like you have a short. You can try and follow the wires and see if you spot any visible breaks or rubbed spots that are hitting metal. To check the pump itself, you need to drop the tank. Search for Fuel Pump and you'll find lots of threads with the details. See also the Singleton maintenance site. I think instructions are there as well.

 

[drnaline]

fuel

It could be a ground too. Don't just check powers. Any connections you can check for continuity if you disconnect the Battery. But it does sound like a wiring problem. You might have to drop the tank a little to check the wires from on top. Buy alot of fuses cuz your gonna need them. But you will find it eventually. I know they have circuit breaker for the old style fuses. It would be neet if they made one for the little fuses.

 

[Chini42]

We couldnt find any shorts for the wires that we could easily see. We started to drop the fuel tank to get to the pump, but it started to get dark and plus it started to snow, and it was just to damn cold. We will finish taking the tank down tommorrow, so I'll tell you what we find then. Thank you guys for all the help so far, I'll tell you what happens when we finally get to the pump.

Chris

 

[drnaline]

short

Another thing you can do if you have a pretty good idea of which wire has the short. Start from the fuse blosk and work your way to the pump. The wire color and wrap should have its own distinct color. trace at least three of four feet of wire or a place you can get to it. QWhen a proper place is found, cut the wire with it touching nothing, Put a fuse in it. If it doesn't pop, that part of the line is ok. Splice it back together and move on. If it does pop, your short is some where in that length of wire.

 

[Chini42]

We finally got to the fuel pump and put a Ohm Meter across it, and the whole thing was shorted out. We replaced the whole unit and it runs fine now. If the thing were easier to get too, we would of had it done a while ago, but its a '94 and all the bolts are rusted. Thank you guys for all your help, and I'm so happy that it finally is running again.

Chris

 

[Adam Foote]

was it hard to drop the tank and get to the fuel pump

 

[Chini42]

the only problem was some of the bolts were rusted and when i was trying to get them off they just snapped. just put a jack underneath the tank with like a peice of wood in-between the tank and the jack to make sure it doesent fall (we used cinder blocks to hold up the other side) also try not to have 3/4 a tank of gas when you do it, because it gets interesting that way. if you have any more questions just ask. also it was cold out so we couldnt really work a whole lot each day, but it took us probably about 3-4 hours to get it down, replace the pump and put it back in.

chris