06, 3.8

had a coolant leak from timing chain cover. have to change it. never did it before.

haynes says to pull camshaft sensor out of cover.

a man on a forum said he had 02 caravan and left it in place and pulled it out with cover. wondering is it same for 06.

haynes says--if circle paper spacer is not on end of sensor then put one on it. is this necessary since engine runs fine. and if i didn't see spacer on end of sensor then why would it need one?

can i make one out of paper and put it on the end with some sort of stick-um.

i understand spacer is need to reduce air gap.

 

It is literally just a piece of paper that is sticky on one side. It seems to set the air gap between the sensor and the teeth to be about 0.75mm. In my case I bought the $6 piece of paper from the only dealership in town that had one in stock and stuck it on the sensor, then went to fit it and found it bottomed right out against the bolt without touching the cam gear. The van runs fine like this and the sensor is most certainly further from the gear than the spacer dot allows but there is nothing I can do without yanking the front cover again. I'd just cut a piece of post-it note or other similar sticky paper and adhere it to the end of the sensor, then adjust the sensor until it just barely touches then tighten it down. The piece of paper will get pulled off / eaten by the cam gear and your sensor should be properly gapped. The biggest thing is to make sure it is far enough from the gear so that the sensor does not get eaten.

 

Zero10. Hey, thanks for the info.

Is there anyway that you believe that i can leave the sensor in place on the cover and just pull the cover off after a few other items h20 pump etc.

i never took a sensor out--so how do you determine when the sensor bottoms out? you can't really see it, right, because the sensor tip as it is turned into the port of the timing cover.

hope i was clear enoug

 

The new sensor comes with one, but you can get it separately.

It's thicker than a business card. I'm not sure exactly how thick in thousandths of an inch.

I don't think you can tell when the sensor bottoms out because if your cam is not in the position where it gets closest to the sensor, it could rip the end of the sensor off when you fire it up. At least, that's my understanding of it, how it was told to me.

 

Since i won't be buying a new sensor, just replacing after removing. But I do need help understanding.

My limited thoughts are: The distance that sensor will travel down through its port is regulated by the outside of the timing cover port , thus keeping it from hitting that which could destroy it. I don't see how a spacer on the sensors tip would assist in preventing the sensor from running into the cog inside the timing cover, especially since you can't see the position of the sensor once positioned into the timing chain cover.

I would understand the purpose of the spacer if it was positioned under the bolt that attaches itself to the sensor and secures it to the timing chain cover then i would understand its purpose.

I looked on youtube and say a few camshaft sensors placed into its port and none had any spacer on it.

the design of the sensor length would be made to prevent running into a wheel/cog. wouldn't it?

 

No it wouldn't. The design needs to allow the sensor to get extremely close to the gear, and the timing cover is adjustable by more than that margin during installation. Therefore it is quite possible to get the cover and sensor into a position where it interferes with the gear. The sensor's travel is limited by the depth of the adjustment slot cast into it, not by the sensor hitting the cover. The slot runs out of adjustment and fits tightly against the bolt. I think you are assuming that the timing cover only fits in one very precise position and is not adjustable at all.

Save the money, use a blob of wheel bearing grease or a bit of glue and affix a small circle from a business card or stiff paper to the end of the sensor for re-installation.

In my case the sensor bottomed out against the cover, but when I removed it this was not the case, the sensor was 1-2mm from bottomed out.

 

That is not quite accurate, the gaps in the gear are far smaller than the width of the sensor so you can't really push it past where the teeth are, and even if you could, the spacer wouldn't save you in that case. I think it is more to give enough play for when you push the sensor in directly above a gap and it goes in a fraction of a millimeter further than if it had hit the face of the gear itself.

 

Makes sense, thanks for the clarification. I was going on the "dealer horror story" that I was told when I asked about the spacer and whether or not it was necessary.

 

Not sure I understand all of this. i just got back from dealer. the parts guy at dealer looked in his computer and still showed no spacers for a camshaft. he got a new camshaft sensor out of box infront of me and pulled it out and said there are no spacers on it or in box. maybe mechanics push them in until bottoms out and pulls them back a bit and then bolts it down.

I went around back at dealership and talked to mechanic about situation camshaft spacer and is there one. he didn't look as he knew. he said crankshaft sensors have a spacer on the end, said he puts crankshaft sensors in all the time. told me to got inside and ask parts guy if he had crankshaft sensor. told me to use it on camshaft sensor.

parts guy said he doesn't have any in stock.

if timing cover is installed by torque specs against engine block then it is adjusted as it should be, right? therefore install camshaft sensor in place.

Can i really feel the camshaft bottom out against the gear. if so i can't understand more how the spacer helps.

 

I had a rough time finding this part number myself. I have one in the basement but I am not at home. In one of my threads on this forum I posted the part number in response to Zero10's timing chain issues, but the searchability of the forum is not great and I can't access that post now for some reason as it has been a couple of weeks. I'm having trouble finding the original post. Anyway, the part I got was a little button and it wasn't even in a Dodge bag, they just gave me one and put it in a small plastic bag for me.

It may not be necessary, however, it was recommended to me by a tech at the dealership and by the parts manager to purchase one.