96 E350 stalls going in drive or reverse many things replaced

[Master Luke]

advanced searched for a resolution no results for my problem...

invested lots of money. have replaced many parts. been to ford dealer and a diesel shop for diagnostics... several faults given when scanned at dealer, NO faults given with the basic autoparts store scanner.

96 E350 powerstroke van will stall when you select from park to drive or reverse but if you give it a lot of throttle it wont stall just bogs down till you get the van moving, it also runs a little rough and randomly stalls while driving and parked idling. this happens most of the time but not always.

it always runs a little rough and has little power on the hwy. seams like anything over 50% throttle just bogs down motor.

engine light comes on right when you crank the engine.

van has about 320k miles on it.... and when i got it, it had a lower mileage tranny and what appears to be a reman motor with over 100k on it.

several shops said my tranny was bad, ford dealer said i have a bad torq converter and or tranny pump. so i just replaced the E4OD transmission with a fresh remanufactured tranny and the problem is still the same.

diesel shop said the ICP was bad so i replaced with a new one.. still not fixed

i replaced the glow plugs and glow plug relay because it wouldnt start in cold weather and installed new under valve cover wires and gaskets, completely removed engine wire harness and inspected for bad or burnt connections none found except for the EBP sensor has corroded and loose connector and the 2 prong connector hooking to the turbo has a broken latch. havent fixed these yet..... could this be it?

IDM was replaced with remanufactured unit as it had water in it, still not fixed.

swapped the PCM with another working unit from my other 96 powerstroke van still not fixed.

CPS was replaced before i got the van and looks new... maybe it went bad?

fuel filter was replaced..... still not fixed.

there arent many sensors left to replace......
could it be the MAP sensor? or the EBP sensor? TP sensor?

bad ground or fuseable link?

all this started right when i replaced the starter control relay on the core support. i pulled it back apart and rechecked and cleaned the connections as this relay is used as a junction block for several other items.


i really need this van going soon, i figure as many things that have been replaced so far doesnt warrant a new van.



thank you for your help.

[Master Luke]

follow up,

today i found the #8 cylinder is not firing by feelling the exhaust header is always a lot colder then the other 7 cylinders

and when i unplug the wire for cylinder 6/8 the motor doesnt run much different unlike unplugging the other 3 one by one makes the motor barely run.

i ohmed out the plug for #8 all the way back to the IDM from the valve cover plug, it has continuity, taking a volt meter set to dc voltage i am not reading anything over 6v between the 3 center inector wires on the valve cover plug while the motor is running. im not certain a normal rms meter will read the pulsed 110v dc coming from the idm.

i dont think replacing the injector will fix my stalling issue. i know it will make it run better however.

i tried out the van again today and sitting in the driveway selecting back and forth between drive and reverse i was not able to get it to stall on me, but when it is in drive with the foot on the brake pedal wile idleing you can feel the tranny pull and release intermittantly.

[Master Luke]

i just got the bad injector back from the shop. they rebuilt it and found that the coil was fried. they repaired it and flow tested good.

i just finished reinstalling it and put everything back together. now it runs good and is firing on all cylinders. however the stalling is still a problem. it wont do it every time. just once in a while.

could this possibly a problem from too low of an idle ? im running out of ideas here.

[OldIronMike]

This sounds similiar to a problem I was having. When I would shift out of park into reverse, the engine would bog down significantly if not stall. Bog down like being heavly loaded, not a miss fire.
I flushed the trans and cooler lines, replaced the filter and installed an inline filter as well. Solved my problem.

[Master Luke]

ok that makes sense. maybe i have a plugged or restricted trans cooler or line. also it might not be getting the commanded high idle that the EEC sends. i will look into this by attempting to bypass the cooler.

[Chris3677]

I have the same problem in my 1999 E-350 7.3. Sometimes the van will die when put into gear. If i turn it off for a sec and restart it is usually fine, but sometimes it takes several tries.
My trans was just rebuilt and the trans cooler flushed.
Strange?????

[forddieseldoctor]

My truck was boging down in reverse intermittently, but I was getting a baro sensor code. I had a bad baro sensor.

What's your guys trans line pressure at when it stalls? If you have low line pressure it can cause the convertor to lock up inadvertently.