1997 Ford Ranger - Ignition Won't Fire

The electronics inside the distributor, are likely the photo type of timing system. The light producing diode may be malfunctioning, or you may just have a little piece if grit or a metal fragment inside that is creating one wholly firestorm as the enerts spin wildly around. Or you may be having a "brain" malfunction.

likely though if you have current into the distributor cap and no energy coming out through the plug wires you have found your source of evil, it will be something going on with the distributor.

TMF

You should do some more looking before shelling out your money. Is the distributer turning when the starter is engaged? Does it have a distributer? Did the Ranger die while driving, or just refuse to start one day? I would hate to see you buy a coil pack if your timing chain jumped. Can you check the compression?

HELLO

Here is the solution, look under the factory floor mat on the passenger side of the vehicle, you will see a plug in connector that has come loose. Reattach the two ends of the connector and tape them together. This is a common problem on that model vehicle.

Start with doing standard, no spark trouble shoot routine. Then come back at point where a fault cannot be eliminated. Asking for all possibilites is both time wasting and inefficient.