camshaft syncro issues

[ranger99]

The other day I was driving along and my oil pressure guage just dropped. I immediatly shut it off and had it towed home. Upon inspection i found the oil pump was not pumping so I bought a new pump and pulled the motor to change it, but after pulling out the old pump i submerged the screen of the old pump in a pan of oil and rotated the shaft and it pumped oil out. so i'm pretty sure it's not the pump thats bad, I had read on another forum about the camshaft syncro going bad so now i'm thinking that might be it. I'm told you need a special tool to change it though and no matter where i look I can't find one. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

 

[cbxer55]

Apparently you can do it without a tool. But the tool does come with it depending on where you buy it from. That is what I have heard anyways.

Consider this compliments of fourwheelford.
http://www.therangerstation.com/foru...ad.php?t=62810

If you take the sensor off there is a little key that sits on top of the shaft, it spins and contacts the sensor, the opening where that takes place is where the key should be at TDC on the comp stroke if its on the exhaust stroke the key will be to the opposite side of the hole. Use some white out and mark the placement before you remove the sensor so you can put it back on right, put the motor to TDC there is a small hold down bolt 10mm I think, remove it and the sensor should wiggle right out. Replace it in reverse and make sure that key stays in the center of the slot tighten the hold down bolt put the sensor back and plug it in. The critical part is putting everthing back the exact way it came off. Pretty easy job though, I did mine as preventative maintanence about 2000 miles ago. Also to find TDC you can take out the #1 spark plug and put a long screwdriver down the hole and move the motor by hand until the piston tops out.

As a note to cbxer55 I did mine a 100,000 and wasn't having problems but the bearing on the shaft was pretty rough when I pulled it out so it was nearing the end of its life.

To the op, try replacing the fuel filter and clean the MAF sensor really good and see if that helps.

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

Handsontools.com has them.
Cam sensor sync tool # OT6473

 

[ranger99]

I'm a newbie so bear with me but the camshaft sensor is held on by two bolts and can only go on one way so I don't see what I should be marking. I'm am most likely over looking something but don't know what. Thanks for any advice.

 

[wvcat]

you have to think old school like a ditributor. The housing needs marked where it matches up to the block and the vane nees indexed correctly so it setting the right camshaft position. So you need to mark both

 

[fourwheelford]

Yeah white out works good for marking the placement, and don't forget to oil the little gear on the shaft it helps it slide into place easier. There is a really good write up on this site that goes really really far into detail, I will sift through the BS and see if I can find it and post the link for you it tells you exactly how to do it step by step. You were smart to shut it down right away and not try to limp it home, probably saved the motor

 

[ranger99]

ok now i'm in big trouble. I marked everything and removed it like you guys said but after removing it I realized that when the syncro failed the gear started spinning freely on the shaft. so now how do i make sure the it's timed correctly.

 

[fourwheelford]

Ok there are two ways of doing it, 1 you can take out the #1 spark plug and insert a long screwdriver into the hole and turn the motor by hand with a breaker bar attached to the crank pully bolt until the piston tops out the screwdriver will help you tell when it does, 2 there is a TDC mark on the harmonic balancer, if you can still see those marks then line it up with the crank positioning sensor, I believe the actuall TDC is 5 teeth back from the TDC mark its something like that. Its wierd but if you use a combination of the two you should be able to get it really close. Lube up the syncro gear and put it in there so the key is in the middle of the slot and put it all back together and your set. I may have missed something, mine went pretty easily but I think I covered most of it, let us know if you get it done and the truck runs. I believe you will get a CEL if you get it wrong and if that happens just take it back out and get TDC again and redo the process good luck to you

 

[ranger99]

So I took your advise and i'm still having trouble. I looked all over and for the life of me I can't find any timing marks anywhere. I spent like 20 minutes with a work light and a wire brush and found nothing, so I went the other route and did the whole long screwdriver in #1 thing and reset the cam syncro again and it still ran rough. So I thought maybe a plug wire was trashed or something so I started checking those and then the engine stopped and now it won't restart. It's not locked up or anything just cranks and won't fire. Starting to really think this thing is posessed or something. Anyone have any ideas because i'm fresh out.

 

[fourwheelford]

Are you still getting spark and fuel? Make sure of those and you may be able to narrow it down. Maybe your coil pack went tits up for some reason, I have had things like that happen to me, fixing one thing only to have a completely unrelated problem crop up.

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

I'd also verify the cam synchro timing.

Align the 5th dampener tooth after the ring gap, with
the CPS (this is TDC), and remove the sensor and look
at the synchro vane position relative to the gap. If the
vane's about 180* off, then turn the crankshaft around
1 more turn, to get the vane close to the gap.

Loosen the 10 mm hold-down bolt, then align the vane
center 1/4" CCW from the gap center. Re-tighten the
hold-down bolt and reinstall the sensor.

This will not be a perfect setting, but should get it
close enough to start (if that's the problem).
The alignment tool is necessary to get it perfect.
Good luck.