I have an 88 ford ranger 2.9L automatic that will be running just fine and then all the sudden just completely dies. If I let it set for a while it will restart just fine. Then it will run for days, weeks, sometimes even months without it happening again which makes it hard to take to a mechanic and replicate the problem. Also once it starts working again I just forget to get it taken care of but it is leaving us stranded more and more and tonight it didnt restart so easy like it usually does after 15 or 20 minutes of setting. I went and bought some starter fluid and sprayed in the intake or maybe the throttle body, I really dont know what im doing but I take the big hose that goes from the air filter to the top of the engine and after monkeying around with that for a little while it finally started and drove home just fine but this was the worst its ever been. Also just an FYI the battery is 2 days old and the starter cranks like a champ but it just wont turn over. The starter fluid will get it going and it will really rev high and then die but after a few tries it will just stay running and when i give it throttle it finally starts responding as if nothing ever went wrong in the first place.
Sometimes it would start for about thirty seconds but it would spit and sputter and then finally shut off and giving it gas while it was doing that had no effect. I tried turning the key on and off to prime the fuel pumps but that had no effect and I cant ever hear if they are working or not. I have read online a lot of people have issues with this or something similar but I can never pinpoint if there is a certain fix that is almost guaranteed to eliminate this issue. I keep reading about an inertia switch that could be tripping but I thought before the truck would ever run again that it would have to be reset manually?? Is this the case or could it be my inertia switch. More than likely I assume its my fuel pump or pumps. I dont know how to determine which fuel pump it is or how to repair them.
Does that sound like what is the case to you guys? Also which fuel pumps would I need so that i can order them online at a much discounted rate before having them put on. I assume I cant put them on but if you know of a good online video guide that I could follow please post it.

If none of that sounds right please throw out some suggestions.
Thanks

I went and had the fuel pump replaced today. Only the one in the fuel tank, It was $130 labor and the part was $129 so it was around $275 after taxes. I hope this fixes the problem but I ran across something today that mentioned it may be the TFI Module so if it happens again I will change that to see if that was the problem.

I went to autozone and changed the tfi module and of course on my drive home after having both the fuel pump and tfi module replaced it cuts off and randomly dies on me. I sat for about thirty minutes trying to start it multiple times and no luck and then it just decided to start and run fine. WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY TRUCK!!!!

Anyone?

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88 Ranger 2.9L V6

Mine was doing similar things which was caused by the fuel pump.
Did you change your filter also? I connected my fuel pressure gauge and tied it to a hose to keep it from moving. When I had the problem I popped the hood to see what the pressure was doing. Low pressure could be the pump, filter, or regulator.
Have you taken the vacuum hose off the regulator to see if it smells like gas, this would indicate a bad regulator.
Since it starts with starter fluid it seems to point to a fuel problem. To run you need sufficient fuel pressure, and working injectors. This would be where I concentrated first.

I agree with 2trux replace the fuel filter and check the regulator

I will try those but something interesting happened today, I pulled into a parking lot and when I went back out to start it, it would not start. I have always had it shut off randomly and leave me coasting on the road and then it would take a long time to start again. Today it just wouldn't start after I got back to my truck after I turned it off. I tried and tried but no start just cranking so i reached under dash to the inertia switch and pulled UP on the grey tab (I dont have the red button type but the grey button type in this pic)

I figured pulling it up would break the circuit and pushing it is what would reset it but i felt it click when I pulled up on it and then I turned the key and it started and ran like a champ. I need the car to leave me stranded one more time to confirm that it is an inertia switch problem but I thought you had to push down on the button to reset it but does pulling or pushing on it reset it??? Also, the truck has always restarted after a half hour or so in the past without me touching the inertia switch so my question is, does the inertia switch have the ability to reset itself and that's what makes me be able to restart it after a while? Or is it still something else, and I just happened to touch the inertia switch reset button and got lucky when I turned the key and it started and it never had anything ever to do with the inertia switch? I hope you guys understand all that. I am not good at explaining things.

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88 Ranger 2.9L V6

Besides my red 1988 2.9 Ranger w/auto tranny, I also have another 1988 2.9 w/5 speed tranny.
My 5 speed blue & silver one I had the same problem. Since its an everyday driver I removed the inertia switch and did a hard wire on it.
No more problems.