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I have a '95 Eddie Bower 351 c.i. Bronco. Bought it twenty years ago @ 40k miles. It now tops 160k miles. It has been a great truck. I'm a stickler with the FORD Maintenance Schedule. Haven't missed a check up of any kind for twenty years.
Late last year the following symptoms occurred:
Rocking along at 70 mph on a flat highway when the engine "stumbled" but only for a heartbeat. However, the sensation was like hitting a pot-hole at 70.
The tachometer was steady at 2,000 rpm when the stumble occurred. Tachometer instantly bounced down to 1,000 for an instant and jumped straight back up to 2,000.
The engine did not stall and it continued without a hint of a stumble for a few days and the symptom repeated itself.
These repeats came about once every week or so. It never happened at anything except at highway speed and it never shut down.
The techs at my repair garage didn't have a clue. They advised that they were somewhat unarmed as the '95 Bronco was born a few years too early to enjoy modern diagnostics equipment. They acknowledged that diagnosing the "gremlin" would be difficult and that, in all likelihood, it would have to fail while it was at their shop. They drove it over a week's time in all kinds of conditions but it never stumbled; not even once.
Their assessment was that the throttle positioning sensor was failing but they couldn't prove it. I let them replace it for $400. I picked it up and almost made two miles when the engine stumbled at 40 mph and shut down in traffic. I returned it to the shop the next morning and it stumbled again in an intersection @ +/- 5 mph but did not shut down.
At this point the management advised that they didn't have the "old car guys" required to diagnose my problem. Also, that the FORD dealership also didn't have the tech's either. I am on the lookout for that old car guy.
I would appreciate any thoughts you might have. My Bronco can't be trusted so it spends most of the time making short hops and avoiding highways.
Hope someone can give me a few leads. I can answer any and all questions about the truck's history. I have all of the work history.
Red Dog
Late last year the following symptoms occurred:
Rocking along at 70 mph on a flat highway when the engine "stumbled" but only for a heartbeat. However, the sensation was like hitting a pot-hole at 70.
The tachometer was steady at 2,000 rpm when the stumble occurred. Tachometer instantly bounced down to 1,000 for an instant and jumped straight back up to 2,000.
The engine did not stall and it continued without a hint of a stumble for a few days and the symptom repeated itself.
These repeats came about once every week or so. It never happened at anything except at highway speed and it never shut down.
The techs at my repair garage didn't have a clue. They advised that they were somewhat unarmed as the '95 Bronco was born a few years too early to enjoy modern diagnostics equipment. They acknowledged that diagnosing the "gremlin" would be difficult and that, in all likelihood, it would have to fail while it was at their shop. They drove it over a week's time in all kinds of conditions but it never stumbled; not even once.
Their assessment was that the throttle positioning sensor was failing but they couldn't prove it. I let them replace it for $400. I picked it up and almost made two miles when the engine stumbled at 40 mph and shut down in traffic. I returned it to the shop the next morning and it stumbled again in an intersection @ +/- 5 mph but did not shut down.
At this point the management advised that they didn't have the "old car guys" required to diagnose my problem. Also, that the FORD dealership also didn't have the tech's either. I am on the lookout for that old car guy.
I would appreciate any thoughts you might have. My Bronco can't be trusted so it spends most of the time making short hops and avoiding highways.
Hope someone can give me a few leads. I can answer any and all questions about the truck's history. I have all of the work history.
Red Dog