Cam Sensor Failure x2

[OneFastT]

I got my car running for the first time today after having it back-halved and broke the retaining ring tab off of 2 cam sensors within an hour. This was followed by a few large back fires and then the car died both times and wouldn't start. In each case this occured under very low RPM (probably less than 3000 RPM). I was wondering if anyone has experienced this sort of failure before and can give me some ideas of what causes it or what you did to fix it.

Thanks,

Jason Smith

 

[Otto J]

Did you change the complete housing when you changed it the first time or just change the the part with the tab?
Ive seen the bottom part of the sensor have too much play in it and it send the ring up int othe cap and breaks thee tab, But hte also break all the time, I fixed 2 at The nats this year for people, Call Jason and buy one of these , Well worth the money

http://www.rjcracing.com/RJC_Buick_Products/CamSensor/camsensor.html
Otto

 

[Nick Micale]

Did you check the wear pattern on the cam sensor gear? If you have a billet cam, the spacing/clearance may be off and putting a binding load on the shaft.

 

[OneFastT]

Thanks for the input guys. To answer the first question I changed the entire sensor after the first one broke. The second one lasted about 15 minutes under very little RPM. Luckily I was just making my way home after a very short test drive when BOOM.

The wear pattern looks mostly normal on the old one. Thjis one has been in the car for years. The newer one is still in the car and will be removed later this week for inspection and repair. Being that this is a new Stg II motor it should be very easy to spot unusual wear. Both caps are in perfect shape so I don't think the sensor moved up at all. Both sendor also have the normal up/down movement when installed. I have one of the new Duttweiler Oil pump adapters and am a little concerned about the pressure this might be putting on the cam sensor. This is a new addition to this new motor.

I ordered the sensor upgrade kit from RJC and am pretty excited to get it installed and get my car on the road.

Thanks again for the link and info.

Jason Smith

 

[Mac in SD]

Jason, I'm just curious...is this an on-center motor?

(Further questions to follow if so. )

 

[OneFastT]

It's off center with Stage 2 heads.

 

[Mac in SD]

Then, "no further questions."