Ok, this is a hair OT because it's about a ford, but...
I've got a Ford Econoline van (F-150) that is having a hesitation problem. Details...
It seems to mainly happens starting when you reach 35mph. It happens mainly when you are giving gas... ergo to climb a hill.
So far, we've replaced the rotor and distributor. cap, which were oddly black. Within a week, the new ones were also black.. which led to replacing the coil as we suspected maybe she was getting 12v instead of 6v. That "seemed" to stop the problem for a couple of days, but the hesitation came back.So the coil, wires were replaced, grounds checked and secured, and no change.
We then tried testing the fuel pressure. We think it might be loosing pressure too soon, but we're going to run another test to be sure our first results were correct. When the hesitation starts, you can give it more gas and it seems to be fine. We're not hearing a miss or anything odd. We checked the timing and it is better than we expected.
I finally was able to get my neighbor to smell the little bit of gas odor that "occasionally" occurs. What happened here was we turned the key on-off-on-off-start and noted the van started instantly, instead of the usual delayed start it normally does... and that's when, someone other than me, got a wif of gas.
We can't find a leak. Nothing on the ground or along lines that we've been able to discover so far. Anyone have any ideas on where to look next? We haven't changed the fuel filter yet (got more snow :p) but will very soon.. it can't hurt and we're probably overdue (should be every 12k). Any ideas welcome and appreciated.
Oh, and please ask questions if you need more info. I try to be thorough, but you can't think of everything all the time.
`Casper