dobberoldman

My 96 f150 300 6cyl will not run.It will start but is impossible to drive it acts like its running on 1 cylinder using either tank.I have been smelling kind of like hot electrical smell from a circuit board or wiring for abut a month. The other day i was driving down the hiway and it just died i had gas in both tanks so i switched tanks and it picked up and ran until i got where i was going.When i left there it started bucking and losing power i switched back to the tank that failed me and it died so i switched back again and bucked limping all the way home at best 10 mile an hour. The next day i changed fuel filters and that didnt help.A friend told me to change mass air flo sensors that didnt help. I checked pressure regulator and it was allright.A guy could keep changing out parts and it would cost him a fortune.So i researched for quite some time and since i had been smelling that burnt electrical smell i am thinking it is the engine control module.The only reason i am not sure about it is in the past my experience with theese they died and wouldnt start at al sometimes they would start again when they cooled down.This one starts but barely i mean barely runs please advise tyvm

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

Get a fuel pressure tester. Also check for codes.
You don't need top of the line testers just to work on your own truck once in a while. A f/p tester, a multimeter and a code reader could cost you less than that MAF did.
You may need a new PCM if it's frying but that may not be why it's dying. Or it very well may be.

dobberoldman

in extensive research and trying to self diagnose i am now thinking the throttle position sensor. It certainly falls under symptoms of a bad tps it completely stumbles upon acceleration when unhooking electrical connection to the tps there is no change it still falls upon acceleration so im thinking bad tps.please advise is my thinking wrong if not any tips on changing tps thank you very much

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

Test the TPS before throwing money at a new one. If you try to guess your way to a solution you might get lucky right away or you might spend a whole lot of money buying parts you don't need.
That truck came with OBD2 - on board diagnostics (2).
Not to use it - well, it's ok if you have deep pockets and nothing better to do with your money.

You'll find that easyautodiagnostics.com is a pretty straightforward site for explaining how to test stuff.

dobberoldman

thx chris 1

needshave

This may not help you one bit, but I had a very similar problem on my 4.9. I was on a back road and went around a round about. AS i was leaving the round about the truck was acting up shaking barely running on about two cylinders. It stalled. Coasted off to the side of the road. Tried to restart, it would try, but just not keep running checked fuel in both tank, gauge said I had plenty. It finally started and I could just barely get it moving, finally got off to a parking lot. Opened the hood and it smelled hot and metallic like the smell of a die grinder. Messed around with it for a while checking harnesses, etc and finally started checking for spark. I had intermittent spark on 1 and 6. Took the distributor cap off and found that the center button on the distributor cap had worn a perfect 5/16 hole in the contact metal of the rotor button. Contact was being made only around the hole of the rotor contact strip. The rotor was very hot. Changed it and the cap out and all was good. It was a stupid problem and it was just luck I found it as soon as I did.