Crank sensor question

[hundo]

I have a 92, recently me and a buddy did the timing belt, even since then it runs severely under powered.. thinking it was a tooth off sent it to a shop to see if they could set it for me. They ended up telling me the crank sensor was damaged and they wanted to replace that and the harmonic balancer.. to my knowledge the sensor controls the timing so if it is faulty , I would have a no start condition.. so sounds like they are trying to rip me off?

 

[tomw]

I'll be the cynic. Maybe... They damaged the sensor and damper when they re-set the timing belt.
I'd want to see the parts involved. If there is freshly broken plastic, I know who I'd blame, but I'm wary of something that worked a minute ago suddenly needing to be replaced immediately after being fiddle with by someone with an impact wrench.
I would also want to know what could go wrong with a damper? Some with a rubber 'sandwich' between the inner and outer can get damaged by oil leaks, but a cast iron pulley is more difficult to break. An impact and hammer along with a large prybar might be needed. The damper is the more expensive part, I think, as no one will carry them as they DON'T BREAK very often.
One of the Ford ignitions will try to start the engine w/o the crank sensor, and will 'guess' on different trys as to which cylinder is on compression, and which is on exhaust for a 'limp home' mode. At least I think so.
tom

 

[RonD]

Crank sensor could be damaged but still work, and yes it does control spark and fuel injector timing, without it generating a signal you would have no spark and no fuel injectors, so a no start.

If it wasn't seated correctly to get #1 TDC at the correct time then spark timing could be off causing loss of power.

If you don't trust the shop mechanics then don't use that shop next time, but if you are just guessing that they are padding the bill then I would believe what they say.

I have a business that does similar work, not auto/truck work through, when I have to service something I often have to replace more than just the broken part, reason is that I see that something else was effected by one part breaking so if I just fix that one part I know client will have another problem shortly.
I don't want the reputation of repeated service all the time, it looks like I can't fix the problem.
Clients keep using me because things get fixed and stay fixed.

Most auto shops are the same, and why they usually use more expensive OEM parts, it is too expensive to use 3rd party parts in warranty repair cost and reputation.
And fixing a problem when you know a related part could fail is also bad for business.