Anybody know (mechanically) about Ford vans?

[Jim Alfredson]

I took The Big Gig (ie, my 1995 Ford E150 conversion van) into the shop today because it has been shifting rather hard lately. Sometimes its fine and will run for hours on the highway just smooth as butter. Sometimes it jerks and hesitates and shifts hard. It also idles really high when it's warmed up. When it shifts hard, the check engine light comes on for a bit, then turns off.

So on recommendation from my regular mechanic, I took it to a transmission specialty shop today. The transmission was rebuilt at 90,000 miles (the van has 143k on it). They drove it, felt the hard shifts, and ran the computer diagnostic on it. They got back some codes dealing with the TP sensor. They said it could also be vacuum related. They suggested taking it to another place, since they only do transmissions.

Any ideas? Can I replace a TP sensor myself? Gotta get this baby running smooth for organissimo's trip out East in two weeks.

[Larry Kart]

I'm certainly no expert, but Googling under "TP sensor" brings up several sites, and a glance at this one:

http://www.automedia.com/Throttle_Position...ccr20040701ts/1

suggests that you almost certainly have a TP sensor problem. As to whether you can fix it yourself by adjusting what you have now or by buying a new TP sensor and installing/adjusting it, you're probably an accurate judge of your general capabilities as a mechanic and can measure them against what this site (and others) say about TP sensor work. Good luck.

[Jim Alfredson]

Interesting... that would explain why sometimes when I accelerate, I get no power and I hear this "clicking" sound. I bet it is the TPS that is bad or going bad. I'm going to have to figure out where it is.

[Chuck Nessa]

check for online owners sites - even usenet. I find these useful and you might find fixes/prices and workarounds.

[randissimo]

This has been very helpful.. It's a forum board for Car Talk and a lot of knowledgeable mechanics hang out there..

http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/carta...show/12202.page

[Dave Garrett]

Throttle position sensors themselves are not very expensive and shouldn't be too difficult to replace. Unfortunately, I recently had to replace the entire throttle body on my Honda because Honda, in their infinite wisdom, does not sell the TPS separately for my particular model (although based on some online research, I might have been able to get an aftermarket one and hack it to work, but the results seemed to be mixed). So instead of a $20 part, I had to pay $500 for a new throttle body plus the labor to install it.

Hopefully Ford isn't as insane as Honda when it comes to this part.