air conditioner problems

slayer2000 · #1 07-21-2010, 02:25 PM

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum and to fords in general. I've got a couple of problems I'm looking for help with. I'm not new to mechanics as I've been working on car,truck,bikes and atvs for 20 years or so. So I'm not a novice but like I said I'm new to fords. Here's my situation. I've got a 96 ranger 2wd regular cab with a 4.0 and auto trans. No power anything except brakes. I got it with a blow engine so I swapped another one in and it runs fine but I can't get the air to work. The compressor clutch won't engage. I've checked the refrigerant levels and they're fine. I jumped the clutch directly to the battery and it worked fine (air got cold no problem) but I'm not getting power from the harness. I've checked for obvious things like damaged wires or blown fuses and haven't found anything. I'm going to test the fuses to make sure they aren't blown but after that I'm not sure where to go.
also I'm wondering can anyone tell me where the cam position sensor is located? This is the first truck I've owed with a coil pack and I can't for the life of me find it. My s10 and my cherokee both have sensors in the distributor but this one just has a plug where the distributor would go. I'd really appreciate any help you guys could give.

stephensimmons · #2 07-21-2010, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slayer2000

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum and to fords in general. I've got a couple of problems I'm looking for help with. I'm not new to mechanics as I've been working on car,truck,bikes and atvs for 20 years or so. So I'm not a novice but like I said I'm new to fords. Here's my situation. I've got a 96 ranger 2wd regular cab with a 4.0 and auto trans. No power anything except brakes. I got it with a blow engine so I swapped another one in and it runs fine but I can't get the air to work. The compressor clutch won't engage. I've checked the refrigerant levels and they're fine. I jumped the clutch directly to the battery and it worked fine (air got cold no problem) but I'm not getting power from the harness. I've checked for obvious things like damaged wires or blown fuses and haven't found anything. I'm going to test the fuses to make sure they aren't blown but after that I'm not sure where to go.
also I'm wondering can anyone tell me where the cam position sensor is located? This is the first truck I've owed with a coil pack and I can't for the life of me find it. My s10 and my cherokee both have sensors in the distributor but this one just has a plug where the distributor would go. I'd really appreciate any help you guys could give.

First off. Did you check the pressure switch on top of the dryer? Thats what cycles the clutch on the a/c compressor. Unplug it and put a jumper wire in it and see if the clutch engages and if it dose then replace the switch(you can change it without loseing the freon). Now as for you cam sensor ether its mounted where the distributor should be(in top of the timming cover) OR you have a crank sensor that is triggered off the harmonic balancer.

slayer2000 · #3 07-21-2010, 07:22 PM

thanks for the reply. I didn't check the pressure switch but I will do that tomorrow after work. I forgot all about that switch. I can see there's just plug where the distributor should be. I'll look over the timing cover tomorrow too. I know it has a crank sensor because I can see it but the chiltons manual says there is a cam sensor as well. I've got a po340 code that keep coming back so I need to check the sensor or change it.

slayer2000 · #4 07-22-2010, 07:06 PM

got the ac working. It was the low pressure switch on the compressor itself. still haven't founf the cam sensor though

csharp100 · #5 09-20-2010, 04:33 PM

The cam sensor is located at the "back" of the engine, real close to the firewall opposite the fan and belts. It is sitting on the intake manifold. It has two screws on the "cap" and a wiring connector coming out of it.

slayer2000 · #6 09-21-2010, 02:19 PM

I actually figured this out a while back but here's what happened. The engine I replaced the blown one with came out of a 92 or 93 explorer. When I stipped the ranger engine I took everything off that was any good including popping the cam sensor and its drive unit out of the block. It was nearly a year before I found a good engine locally and I got time to work on it so by then I'd fogotten about the sensor unit. The explorer engine didn't have the sensor unit but instead had a blank plug in it's place. When I finally put the new engine in place I just assumed that plug was normal. I figured out I was wrong when I was doing some cleaning and found the sensor from the old engine. It' been put in and the truck's running great. I gave it to my dad who wanted a smaller truck and so far he's pretty happy with it. I really appreciate all the help from you guys.