Crank Trigger question

[steele_verus]

My '95 Talon TSi has eaten up 2 crank sensors in the matter of a couple weeks, so I took the gear and trigger off, and the inside of the crank trigger has grooves in it. It doesn't appear to be bent, and both wings on it are equally worn. This block has about 2k miles on it, and there is no crank play. My question is about the setup between the block and the gear. Obviously, I have some placement issue between the trigger and sensor. Does the trigger go directly between the balance shaft pulley and the crank gear, or is there a spacer that goes on? Any other ideas on why this would happen?

 

[Doctor DSM]

Yes there is spacer and the trigger plate has in and out side. It's oval, if you turn it wrong way it will be closer towards the sensor. Layout of this is in CAPS and on numerous websites, as well as in most Chilton and Haynes books for DSMs. Easy way to see if you got the plate facing right way is to look in to imprints of the pulleys that are on it. One side will have a flat round imprint while other will have teeth embeded in it. Let me know if this helps at all.

 

[steele_verus]

Yeah, but today I found that it was the right way, and after talking to the Mitsubishi service dept., it sounds like it may have started to walk. Can it walk in towards the transmission?

 

[rstchris]

You think the crank is walking? The crank will usually walk away from the trans due to the clutch trying pushing the crank through the front of the engine. It won't hurt to check for end play.

 

[steele_verus]

End play is within the .0020 to .0071 specification. What I don't understand is what would cause my trigger to get into the sensor if everything was within specs. Any ideas? I haven't had any other evidence of crank walk, and I hadn't even considered until the Mitsubishi service department said that was likely cause of my problem.

 

[white92talontsi]

Crankwalk. Really not any other explanation.

 

[steele_verus]

Yeah, I checked it again for endplay, and nothing excessive. I pulled everything off, adjusted, and re-timed it three times today to no avail. DoctorDSM said there is a spacer that goes between balance shaft pulley and trigger, does anyone have a diagram or picture of this?

After I got it together for the last time today, I got it to idle roughly. I decided to pull plug wires out of the coils to find that the engine was only firing cylinder 4. I'm going to go ahead and try new plugs, though it is unlikely that all three of the remaining ones died at the same time.