first off i would like to say hello to everyone as i am new here.

nextly i have a few quick questions about a situation that i have with my '96 GST auto tranny. well here goes:

so i was driving my car, just cruising at about 25 mph and the next thing i know my rpm gauge just plumets to 0 (zero) and my steering wheel becomes hard to turn, so i pull over as best i can and turn my car off. i turn it back on and all my electricals come back on (radio, turbo timer, etc.) and my engine cranks but it wont turn completely over. and now i am stuck. i was told by one mechanic it is the CAM sensor AND the CRANK sensor. i was told by another mechanic that it isnt possible for it to be both sensors. and i was told by a 3rd mechanic that it was the fuel pump. i have yet to decide on who's right because everyone's diagnosis is so diffrent. ive read the thread "if your car cranks but wont start" and it is helpful but can anyone help me determine whos right with out spending a lot of money? if any has anything i should check or test i can gladly do that and post my results, but pics and or diagrams would be very helpful with any instructions on what to do. please help if possible. thanx

If you wanna test your fuel pump just disconnect the fuel line from the fuel rail and crank it over . if it squirts gas out your pump is good

Prob. one of the sensors. If the fuel was cut you'd spit and sputter to a stop, not suddenly die. But it wouldn't hurt to check for pressure while you got the hood open. Just depess the pin in the middle of the schrader valve and crank the car over. The hard steering was caused by the low RPMs of the engine not being able to drive the power steering pump effectively. Dont worry about that. CPS's go in a split second, but either one of them will stop the engine dead in its tracks if it fails. ASE type answer: technician A and B are correct. First mechanic knows it's one of the two sensors and figures he'd replace both and cover all the bases. Second mechanic knows that the probibility of those two sensors failing at the same time is less than getting struck by lightning on a sunny day. But the problem is neither sensor is cheap.

You can use a multimeter to check the sensors.

can i just go to a salvage yard and get the 2 sensors? or is that a bad idea

I had that happen and found out that my distributor died...or maybe this is the same issue...either way, I'm having to get a new distributor.

The 1g's have a large Cam Angle Sensor that kind of functions like a distributor. 2gs have a CAS that's tiny and sits under the intake cam gear and senses the readings off of the plate that's on the inside of that gear.

That's for the 2.0 liter motors, I'm not sure about the 1.8's. If you have one, I'm guessing that you have the 1.8?

i actually have the turbo 2.0 engine

are u gettin spark? take 1 plug out at a time and and plug the wire while the spark plug is out on tto the plug. have another person crank it over while u watch for it to spark

i havnt tried that yet. do you have any pics or diagrams that may assist me in doing this? as i am a visual learner

just take a plug wire off the oil and hold it close to the coil then have someone crank the car. if the spark jumpps from the coil to the wire then that cylinder has spark. repeat for the other 3 wires.

EDIT: actually jugs way is prolly better. take the whole plaug out and plug the wire onto the plug and have someone crankt he car if the spark plug throws a spark then its good. reapeat with other 3 plugs

could this be my problem though? because from what ive read its one of my sensors but im not sure which one.

I don't know about the 4g63 engines but if the crank or the cam position sensors on a 420a engine goes bad it kills the spark and the fuel. Autozone can test one of them but not both of them. I don't remember off hand which one they can test. I think its the cam position sensor. Testing the distributer idea works if you know both sensors are good. Well at least on a 420a car.

well i would love to just replace them but i cant seem to find either one. i have he haynes repair manuel but there description doesnt seem to match up with my engine set up. is it possibe the previous owner moved the sensor locations?

is a way to see if ur cam or crank sensor is good or bad. if u dont get spark it will either be cam or crank sensor or maybe even coil packs. and u have a 96 i think u might also have a power transister i think its called just hope that is good its over $100 to get that and its a tiny lil piece lol.


edit if u get spark u can eliminate all those and get sum startin fluid and spray it into ur TB while sum1 cranks it over and if it starts ur pump is goin or relay is gone

He doesn't have a distriutor, he has two coil packs, so if one went bad we would know bc it would only be running on two cylinders.