my father law unfortunately has not wised up after multiple trips to the dealer. Recently, his truck would not start. after cranking and craking it finally fired, ran then died. the dealership told him it was a cam sensor. I have no idea what this part does, but can this be the cause of this?

I think this mishap, stranded on a logging road for multiple hours convinced him to say bub bye to it. thanks for any help

 

I know of two people who had that problem on their 7.3's. I have no idea what it is though.

 

That cam sensor is a known problem with those 7.3, especially the earlier ones. Me and me brother got stranded out in the middle of nowhere with his 95 PSD.

 

My friend had same thing happen, Crankshaft ? sensor? He was P***ed off, His $500 Subaru would crank and his 40K truck would not. IMO the 7.3 is a great engine, I have an old 6.9 with Banks Turbo that still runs great. BTW I bet our trucks have the same sensor. I may get flamed, thats OK, but IMO these new diesels are overdosed on electonics and ARE NOT AS RELIABLE AS THEY ONCE WERE. My old 87 6.9 has never stranded me in 14 years I've had it, I just hope I can say same about my new CTD. But even if it did I guess I would still love it. If an old gear driven inj pump was an option with no computer on a new truck that is what I would have gotten.

 

does anybody know where it located and its function?

 

Most of the 7.3L Ford guys I know carry spare sensors in their glove compartments - sorta like 24V Cummins guys carrying spare lift pumps.

Rusty

 

front of engine bout the 10 o clock position----takes a ten mm wrench to change

 

my buddy has 287k and now problem with his sensor yet
my father in law has 170k heavy towing 18k every other day and no problems with either I guess they are lucky..

 

Thanks guys! my father in law was very thankful for me getting some info for him. again thanks. he is going to take the advice as to carrying an extra one, I told him to spend the money on dura or cummins.

 

You might have to crawl underneath to see it depending wether its a 94-97 or 99-early 03.

 

It doesn't take very long to change. Basically the 10mm bolt holds a bracket in place that holds the CPS (Cam Position Sensor) in place. Remove the bolt, and wiggle the old one out, and replace.

I had to replace two of them in my 97 F250 in 120K miles, and yes, I started keeping a spare in my glovebox. Kind of what some guys do here with the Dodge lift pumps :-)

It's kinda funny - the Ford CPS will make the truck just 'die' and can leave you stranded, just like the Dodge lift pumps. But I think the CPS is cheaper than a lift pump...

Buy the CPS's online if you can; you can find some decent deals out there...

 

Sheesh - I wrote all those lines of info in my last post and RustyJC did the same thing in one sentence. Man - I need to get a life.

 

I changed one on the '99 PSD, gave same sympoms you mentioned. It wasn't a cheap sensor by any stretch. It's not hard to change. Did some walking until I figured out what was wrong with it.

Changing the sensor fixed the problem.

 

this might help, just some useful reading

http://www.thedieselstop.com/faq/949.../ecsd/cmp.php3

http://www.thedieselstop.com/content...ps/image01.jpg

http://www.thedieselstop.com/content...S%20Failure%21

 

Cam or Crank position sensors are known issues on the 7.3 you're supposed to keep one in the truck with you for this situation.

I will PM you with some direct links for the sensor.