johnny94

Hello everyone , this is my first post here , but have been a lurker for awhile now. You guys have a great forum ,and i hope can help me.

I have 97 Ranger that i bought new in late
96 ,ran great till 130 ,000. Then the cam belt broke . My brother inlaw replaced it for me and it ran great for another 40,000. This is where my trouble began. I got an error code for a bad camshaft position sensor. So i went an purchased one and replaced it. The truck ran better than it has in 4 years. Then two weeks later the same code popped up again. I replaced the sensor again. Still no luck , still the same codes. Yes I did clear the computer after making the changes. And even after they first popped up(the codes that is).
Anyway after that i found an article suggesting that the camshaft synchronizer could be the culprit. This sort of confused me because my repair manual mentions nothing about it, yet i can get a part number and a price from for, but nobody has an exploded view of this engine , and nobody knows wheres it's located at. I called 4 different dealerships all with the same result. From what i can gather is that some engines used them while others didn't. I know the engines WITH distributors had them , mostly mounted on or near the distributor itself. But mine is distributorless.

So...Does my engine have one and where is it located. I also understand that there is some sort of special calibration tool needed for installation. Where can i get that as well?

Thanks for you time and great forum!
~Johnny~

johnny94

seriously? No answers at all? This has been up a week now. I was sure somebody would know something here. Oh well, thanks to all that took the time to read my post

johnny94

Just a bump...still looking for help please

ranger_guy_82

From what I've been told, it's on the back of the engine right above the transmission and it's a bitch to get to. Wish I could be of more help......

lvcabebe

i have a 99 Ranger 4.0. Found out the camshaft synchronizer is under where your distributor housing is. It's like your distributo drive. You have to either pulled the top of your engine off or drop the transmission to get to it. At least that is what the tranny shop told me. Ranger made a lot of noise and it was traced to the camshaft synchronizer. Hope this helps.