Loose crankshaft sensor housing

JD · Apr 19, 2012

Hi folks,

Hoping someone can answer a quick easy question for me.
Doing a bit of work on the range and I noticed the sensor in the flywheel housing on my GEMS P38 is loose...the whole mounting (circular cylinder) moves back and forth by about 5-6mm even though the sensor mounting bolts seem pretty tight.

Is there supposed to be any play in this? Seems like an absolute pig to get to.

JD · Apr 24, 2012

shameless bump, any thoughts on this please?

Saint.V8 · Apr 24, 2012

Any help....from RAVE....

JD · Apr 24, 2012

Cheers for the reply Saint.
Am getting intermittent camshaft sensor faults, have replaced it but have read that a dodgy crank sensor can give the same error too.
I'm guessing I'll have to whip it off and check if someones removed the sensors and it's just worked it's way loose...there will probably be lots of swearing involved by the looks of it!

eightinavee · Apr 24, 2012

What normally happens is that the circular plate that the sensor bolts into breaks its two spot welds,then its only held by a small roll pin.Best to sort it out as the pin on the end of the cps will soon start to destroy itself on the steel tangs of the flywheel.
Its an engine out job to do it properly - I'm in the middle of putting the engine back in one after a Gems engine and flywheel was fitted to a Bosch car.... It doesnt work,even the braket is different and I had to turn part of it off in the lathe before I could Tig it back into the block...

JD · Apr 24, 2012

Great info, really appreciate it Eightinavee
Would say the spot welds have definately broken as it does slide back and forth...Will the circular plate just pull out with the sensor attached?

eightinavee · Apr 24, 2012

No,sorry - its got a rim around it,goes in from the back.Only the sensor itself will come out the front.

JD · Apr 24, 2012

So I whipped the sensor out...and I'm guessing it's not supposed to look like this:

It's a bad day for sensors, just had to replace a lambda as well.

I've heard people mention the spacers, just assumed they were small with people saying make sure you collect them. There was nothing else on the sensor apart from the large metal collar, is this not the spacer?

eightinavee · Apr 24, 2012

Nope, thats it.Looks like time for more spannering - not a bad engine to remove/replace,but still alot of work.The metal filings on the sensor tip alter the waveform from the sensor and confuse the ecu.
The only thought,(Cos I'm hating the job too) is maybe its worth a go at driiling into the block,if you can get at it.Then tap a thread and use a grub screw to lock the sensor carrier in place.The car I'm doing had to come apart as it had the wrong flywheel in it,so I had no choice but to take it out.

JD · Apr 25, 2012

Was thinking along the same lines, seems a hell of a lot of effort dropping the trans/engine to secure the housing.
Only thing I'm not sure about is how far out the sensor housing should be, pulled it back as far as it seems to want to go...will try n post some pics up later.

rasheed · Apr 25, 2012

just a point of clarification, are you getting "camshaft sensor to crankshaft sensor mismatch" error or a pure camshaft sensor error? if its the latter then it may indeed be a bad day for sensors because you'll have to look at your camshaft sensor separately too.

JD · Apr 25, 2012

Cheers for the input Rasheed, have already changed the cam sensor though so hopefully that's cool.

Here's a pic of the sensor housing, can't seem to get it any further out...was just hoping someone could confirm it looks like it's in the right place or even better have a similar pic for me to compare with?

eightinavee · Apr 25, 2012

If you can get the housing as far forward as it will go you should be ok - as long as its still on the roll pin.It should be sort of obvious if you can see a straight line between the sensor mounts and where the pin sits between the flywheel tangs,if that makes sense.As long as the sensor tip sits near the tangs without contact - and they are all still in place you should be OK. The cam sensor faults come about because the Gems ecu is being confused,the crank sensor is the one that has no back up,so if its signal is implausible any other signals that run with it wont make sense.So there are few if any crank sensor faults,the ecu thinks the engine has stopped if it stops seeing it.A continuing bad signal with the engine running is outside its understanding so it blames the cam sensor instead.
Hope this makes sense....

JD · May 1, 2012

Came back to the Range after a few days off...so the easy fix didn't work, engines still all over the place.

Bought a second hand sensor and a new one thinkin I'd risk chewing the second hand one up first.
Looks like the sensor housing is slightly out of alignment as the tangs are still shaving a little off the sensor pin.

Turning the engine by hand and it looks like two of the inner tangs are broken, unless there are two supposed to be missing. Are the tangs supposed to be in pairs all around the flywheel?

If I need to replace the flywheel and get to the sensor housing to reposition it properly am I gonna be able to drop the gearbox without taking the engine out at the same time?

As always, any help is greatly appreciated!

Loose crankshaft sensor housing

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Saint.V8

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