crankshaft pos.sens. question

95 jimmy 4wd 4.3 vortex 175000 miles (give or take) needs TLC

With alot of help from these forums, Hubby & I have replaced: oil & filter, fuel filter, CPI & nut kit, plugs & wires, new distrib., TPS, radiator flush, pcv valve, cleaned egr valve.

we pulled code P1345, was told this had to do with "crankshaft pos. sensor/ camshaft pos. sensor correlation". had a garage look at it, their advice replace crankshaft pos. sensor. (which we tried to do, but autozone sold us the wrong one, so Napa here I come)

My question is this, will the engine start & run with a bad crankshaft sensor? the Jimmy is drivable, it evens out aprox. 35 mins. after starting.

thanks in advance.
S

You do not have the dist back in exactly right, the crank sensor is out of phase with the cam sensor, you will need a scan tool and look cam sensor synch signal and get it as close to 0 as possible by moving the distr. Don't buy parts yet.

ok, that's what I thought after reading other posts here, but the mechanic swears that the dist. is in right "or I would run at all" direct quote. I was told there is no way to adjust the dist. it's either in right or it won't go in.
Can't get my hands on a scan tool, which was why we went to this mechanic in the first place. I'm willing to pay the guy to do it but he insists we need this sensor & the Dist. is fine. Guess I need to find another mechanic to get it done right.

Thanks
S

forgot to say - during that "warm-up" time if the lights are on they surge & flicker.

Since you have a locked distributor and it is running but running horribly, more than likely your dist is off one tooth in either direction. This will cause it not to run at all or run badly. You can try the new sensor but I'm gonna bet that isn't going to help. When putting in those damn locked distributors, most of the time even the dealer mechanics have to drop them in 3 or 4 times to get it right. (Took me 6)

Go back to the mechanic that changed the distrubutor and request he look at it again.
Did he mis-diagnose the problem and sell you a distributor that you didn't need, when he should have found a bad crank sensor?

my darlin' hubby is the one who put the distr. in, honestly not sure why he felt it need to be changed. I do know he had a hell of a time getting it in. I took me months to get him to quit throwing parts in this thing. After we replaced the CPI, I finally convinced him to take it to a shop to have distr. set (I was thinking along those lines, "off a tooth") thats when mechanic said the sensor was the problem.

Are you saying that the truck will start & run even if it does have a bad sensor?

thanks to everyone taking time to read this!

With a bad crankshaft sensor, the truck will not run. If its not totally gone, it will usually start, run, then stop for no apperent reason, and sometimes it will not always do it in any apperent order. If you have a bad crank sensor, then no, it will be a no start.

I'm not sure, but isn't there a brown and white wire that you use to reset the timeing on the engine. I don't know if you would have to disconnect it and reconnect after pulling the distributor or not. Might be an idea. Of course, a tooth off does sound like the most logical explination.

I'm not sure, but isn't there a brown and white wire that you use to reset the timeing on the engine. I don't know if you would have to disconnect it and reconnect after pulling the distributor or not. Might be an idea. Of course, a tooth off does sound like the most logical explination.

No, that wire isn't there on late 95 to current engines. They use a locked distributor. The ECM handles the timing.