I'm in Mich. for a vacation and my sister asked me to check out her son's '96 Ranger 3.0L 4cyl. (8 spark plugs), 5 spd. 2WD. that has been sitting for a while. The bat. was totally dead, so we put in a new one along with new gas. It starts up but won't idle. Drives fine, goes through the gears good, maintains speed fine, but dies when slowing to a stop with clutch dis-engaged. Restarts but doesn't idle. I have to hold the gas down a little to keep it running. I have no experience with this engine and was hoping that with all the knowledge on here someone could help me to help my nephew out on this. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Dan

Edit: Note to Mods- if I posted this in the wrong place please move it for me.

 

my dad had a 99 ranger 4cyl that had a similar problem. turned out it needed the ecm reflashed at the dealer. was some kind of recall or tsb i think. the other thing you can do is unplug the idle air motor and raise the base idle to make it drivable/usable.

zedpapa

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll try the idle thing first.
Dan

 

The engine should be the 2.3 OHC dual spark version that was fitted also in the 1991 Ford Mustang, with coil packs and distributor-less ignition, based on the Ford Pinto engine and manufactured in germany.
Anyway it's either the idle stepper motor or the debimeter (air flow meter) if it hasn't a map sensor.
Should look like one of these:

 

Thanks Stephano. I'll check that out today if it's not raining again. Good morning friend.

 

Probably the pintle is stuck inside the stepper motor, you might try to move it in with some pliers and spray some wd40 on it.

 

Thanks for the tip sir.
Dan