Crank position sensor. Oh what a fun time

I pulled the intake manifold off last night and it took me about an hour and a half to get it off. All in all its not that hard to do and the fuel rail can stay right where it is. My wiring harness was already routed over the top of the manifold from a previous engine removal so that made life easier. All of the bolts came out without issue and the biggest challenge was just figuring out which extension to use where. moving the hoses and aux electric circulation pump out of the way and undoing the 3 bolts for the extra steel manifold bracket give a bit better access. The only tricky part i the fuel line that passes between the gap in the intake manifold casting.....the gap is big enough to get the steel line through but the rubber hose gets bound up because the clamps are too wide. I just removed the clamps and rubber line and I'll replace the rubber as its looking a bit cracked anyways. Now I have nice line of sight to the top of the sensor (well the part stuck in the block...the top broke off after renewed prying after a week of soaking in penetrating oil.

I'll probably get back to it some time this week and start working at removing the stuck bits. This isn't my daily driver or my work vehicle so I am working it slowly when i have the time and energy. It is amazing how much oil crud is built up in the intake ports though.
 
I put the van aside for 3 years and dealt with life which was busy enough to prevent any van work.

recently I had time to go at it again. I had to drill the remnants of the old sensor out as they were thoroughly bonded to the iron block. Even with the core of the sensor gone I had to pry pieces off the walls of the hole.

new sensor in. Sensor is made by VNE iirc as it was the only option I had when I orderedparts from europarts SS back then or even now for that matter.

to answer an old question the truck cranks but no tach needle movement. Also no injector clicking when I had someone else turn the key while I touched stuff.

I put everything back together with new t stat and new intake gasket. I also opened the wiring harness for a visual check and no obvious breaks. I pulled the ecu and checked continuity between the CPS plug and pins 88/89 on the ecu plug and good continuity.

my mbII scanner had some codes which I cleared and cranked again. New P0336 code came up for cps range. So I think I’m down to 2 possibles. 1) theCPS sensor I got needs to be oem Bosch as I’ve read about aftermarket issues. Or my tone wheel is bent/broken/ some problem.

so I’m thinking next I will pull my cps out and see if I can look down into the tone wheel. Maybe source a Bosch cps in the mean time.
 
Also in doing this work and while I had the manifold off....realized that I should have opted for the EGR elimination tune instead of getting the EGR valve. Would have allowed me to cut off a significant portion of the intake manifold and make access to that side of the engine so much easier for the future.
 

Njclimber

Active member
Silly question but happened to me before: is the shifter completely in park? Is the neutral safety switch working? I was about 30 minutes into troubleshooting a no start issue once when I realized that somehow the shifter didn't make it all the way into park...

Along those lines: is the skreem and FOB working?
 
Silly question but happened to me before: is the shifter completely in park? Is the neutral safety switch working? I was about 30 minutes into troubleshooting a no start issue once when I realized that somehow the shifter didn't make it all the way into park...

Along those lines: is the skreem and FOB working?
I think it is...but I don't think I ever checked the neutral safety switch. As for the Skreem and FOB...not sure my sprinter has either. I have manual locks and windows in my van and the van didnt come with any sort of key fob...and there are not electric locks in the van I know of. Do I still have the Skreem then?


Also...would the neutral safety switch still let the van crank?
 

Njclimber

Active member
I think it is...but I don't think I ever checked the neutral safety switch. As for the Skreem and FOB...not sure my sprinter has either. I have manual locks and windows in my van and the van didnt come with any sort of key fob...and there are not electric locks in the van I know of. Do I still have the Skreem then?


Also...would the neutral safety switch still let the van crank?
I believe you are correct that the van would not crank if the neutral safety switch was engaged. IIRC I just got a click and nothing. I thought my starter went out.

As far as the Skreem goes, same thing: a message comes up on the instrument cluster and the van won't crank.

As the above poster mentioned...that fuse block can cause a lot of issues as well. I also dealt with that at one point...
 
This was linked the other day, but it’s such a great write up on how to access the cps from above. https://sprinter-source.com/forums/index.php?threads/70135/
That fusebox under the steering wheel was the root of all evil for me, no problems since I worked on that.
Good luck!
I saw that write up. Planning to do that this weekend so I can access the sensor to check the waveform and maybe try to see the tone wheel. Also make sure the sensor is seated properly.
 

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