High idle on 94 Ranger and abs light on

[crazybrit]

Howdy. First post. Hope I'm in the right place.

I have a 1994 Ford Ranger. 4L V6 with that lovely manual transmission It's coming up on voting age soon 150k miles

Anyways, it's on major life support at this time. The a/c went last year. It's useful for about a week in Oregon so rather than drop the grand that they wanted at the shop or try and do it myself I just installed the shorter belt bypassing the A/C pulley. The a/c shop also mentioned that the fan clutch had failed and the fan had cracked. So I replaced those also myself.

After I did this the truck now idles high when it first starts. 1000rpm, sometimes as high as 1500rpm. After about 1/4 mile it drops down to the usual 500rpm and stays there. Friend suggested disconnecting battery to reset the computer, did that for 30 mins, no change.

Anyone have any idea what is causing this? I got new tires today and the Firestone courtesy check said that the belt tensioner is loose. That's pretty easy to replace but not sure if it's in anyway related to the high idle. Seems doubtful and the belt doesn't make any noise.

Other thing is that the yellow abs light comes on. Not every trip and not at the start. Also sometimes the red brake light comes on when I'm not braking. In 2003 at 109k it was doing the same thing and the stealer replaced the the rear ABS valve which cost me $306 which fixed it. From reading I believe a normal code reader won't work and that there is some special diagnostic tools to query the abs computer? So I'm off to the dealer at least for diagnosis? Depending on whats wrong are there any aftermarket parts available or am I better off just letting them fix it. Personally I'm not that convinced that the rear wheel abs is that useful. Front would be.

Thanks!

 

[Nomad767]

I used to have the rabs/brake light issue on my explorer. It would come on sometimes, and stay on for a while and would sometimes go off after braking. I just went and bought some new brake fluid and bled my brake system like a was doing a complete bleed without reusing the old fluid. Started with the closest caliper all the way back to the farthest brake drum till the fluid started looking nice and new. Lights went away and never came back. Not saying that is the fix, but it may be worth a try.

As for your idle...have not seen that prob for me yet.

 

[prince402]

After I posted my problem I then saw your post. I have the same two problems.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=344276 but didn't mention the ABS light.

I'm going to follow Nomad767's reply; my brake pedal is a little spongy and I was thinking that anyway.

I'm following both of our posts and maybe get out of the woods on these two problems.