Starting

My '91 Ford Tempo - a 4 cylinder automatic with 59,000 miles on it - will start and run easily until you place it in gear from park and then it stalls. It will work better if the emergency brake is left on and with the car in park and then place it in gear. This seems to remedy the situation most of the time. I have had it to two Ford dealers. At one they replaced the map sensor but this didn’t help. Changing brands of gasoline to Shell seems to help but not always.

The throttle positioner might be dead. The throttle position sensor may be done. On the Tempo, i call the TPS “engine candy” because some of them just get eaten. The other thing I would check would cause a no-start condition and it’s the rotor if the springy contact isn’t touching the center electrode of the distributor cap. Then there is the coil, but not usually for stalling. Your ignition leads could be bad if they have been replaced with $9.95 wires or if they haven’t been replaced at all. If the plugs are fouled. If your firing order is wrong, the car will sometimes run alright until you take a hill… The rotor rotation is CW on a 2.3 engine and the firing order is 1 3 4 2.

I assume that you apply the service brake when you shift from park. A bad power brake booster could cause excessive vaccum leakage when you apply the brake and cause the engine to stall. (The parking brake does not use the brake booster)