1988 ford xlt with 2.9l v-6 ranger check engine light

     I have a 4wd 1988 ford ranger xlt with 2.9l v-6. Back in december the timing chain jumped and the thing wouldn't even stay at an idle. I was able to get some help and replaced the chain and gears along with the plugs/wires, distributor, and starter, and then alternator (the cap looked pretty good). After all this the truck ran great except for the fact that the check engine light had come on. A friend of mine couldn't clear or pull the codes on his computer and neither could the local chevron shop, (although they did replace the O2 sensor). And i've unhooked the negative a dozen times over night.
I'm not sure if this is a result of the worn starter that was in it before but now when it starts it grinds allot before it fires. Right after it fires it revs up for 2-5 seconds and then goes back down to normal idle. There is some white smoke but not allot. A compression check was done a couple months back and all the hoses are connected.

Broke college student
Sounds like you will be needing an advance OBD-1 reader to bring those codes up.

I hooked everything up the way that the diagram showed with a test light. All that I got back was a solid light (test light stayed on and check engine light never blinked any codes) I can't find out what this means anywhere. Does anyone know what this could mean?