[Colt Hero]

I'm going to go with what I've got. I think I'm OK. The manuals say not to turn the synchronizer body AFTER attaching the CMP sensor (if it doesn't line up with its old position), but that makes sense because the 'vane' would be turning inside as you did this and now your sensor would be in its old position but the 'vane' inside wouldn't be. As long as my sensor goes back in the same position (and it HAS to because the small notch opposite the wide notch lines up with the mark I made on the block), everything should be OK.

The only thing is: do I have the 'vane' in the same place as before. Not really sure (because of the extreme damage to the vane), but it's VERY close if it isn't exact.

One interesting thing here: the picture in the Hanes manual for the 3.0L OHV CMP shows the sensor turned well away from that large silver 'star' bolt head nearby. On my car, after the plug is attached, there is virtually no gap between the plug and that bolt head. You can just about wedge a tiny slotted screwdriver between the two.

Does this mean that my Taurus' timing is more retarded than the example car in the Hanes book? In other words, their synchro appears to be turned more clockwise (toward the front end of the car) than mine. Does this advance the timing more? The reason I ask is my Taurus has pinged a bit for as long as I can remember. The synchro was last (first) changed by a mechanic back in July of 2002 (79.5k miles) and I'm wondering now if he changed the timing a bit in the process.