Okay, here is a troubleshooting guide written by Jimmy Testa that makes a lot of sense to me.
"OK, to diagnose ANY car, you need to find what you have and dont have. The way *I* usually go about it (which might not be right to some people, but its methodical and consistant so I stick to it.
1) Note the check engine light (if EFI). If its not on, STOP and find out why. Listen to how it cranks. I can pick out compression problems doing this. If you are in tune to your car, you can too. Listen to the starter as each cyl comes up on compression stoke. You'll hear the starter slow down a little at that point. You bight hear deerdeerdeerdeer, where a dead cyl m ight sound like deerdeeeeedeerdeer (great sound effects huh?)
2)Depending how accessible the intake is, I'll shoot 3 or 4 seconds of carb cleaner into the plenum. Either thru the throttle body, or the brake booster vacuum port. If its a lack of fuel problem, the car may start, it may simply kick. If it does either, its time to look to fuel system (usually, although enrighening can bring out a low sec output problem too, so dont take my suggestion of fuel as law)
3) If the car kicked, I'll put a FP gauge on it. If fuel pressure isnt in spec, now you need to see why. Fuel pump, filter, resticted line, bad reg, low batt voltage, bad relay, blown fuse etc. If FP is in spec, its time to hook up a noid light and verify our injectors are getting pulsed. If youre not getting a pulse you will want to hook up a scanner and look for RPM during crank. If you are getting RPM signal, check for spark. If you're getting spark and no fuel, although there is a commanded PW (see below) you probably have a bad ECM. How fast it cranks isnt as important as the fact you get a RPM signal. Next you'll look at Coolant temp to see if it coincides with ambient )if the car is cold), and verify TPS isnt shorted to Vref which will put the car in clear flood and cut off fuel. If these all look OK, you'll want to take a look at commanded PW.
3) If the car didnt kick, I'll yank a plug wire and see if I got spark. If I got no spark, then I'll check also for inj pulse using a noid light. If I have neither its usually due to a dead crank sensor. If I have no spark, but I have injector pulse, its usually a module.
Typically:
No start - no spark, has inj pulse -> Module
No start - has spark no inj pulse -> ECM / cam sensor prob
No start - no spark OR inj pulse - crank sensor or module
Oh, and if the module is dead, I suggest putting a coil pack on it as well as most of the module failure are caused by an overheating or arcing coil.
See, its pretty cut and dry when you go back to basics of what the car needs. Air, fuel, spark, and compression. If any are missing, the car wont run. The hard part I guess is finding out what you DONT have, then finding out why. I guess I take my experience for granted, maybe it is difficult. Kinda like Me trying to learn or diagnose a Linux problem (Right Jeremy?)
Hope this helps, and if you have any ?'s, email me:
jtesta1966@aol.com, or post them here so everyone mgiht be able to give some more."
Then here is Chuck's cam sensor installation guide that someone referred to the other day and seems to be close to what you are doing.
" you move the crank to 25* ATDC on the compression stroke, THEN install the cam sensor. DO NOT install at TDC, and then rotate to 25*ATDC.. you will be 25* off as the sensor gear meshes w/ the cam at that point and turning the cap only makes a mess!!
Bring the engine to TDC on the compression stroke.. BOTH valves on #1 closed. Continue to rotate to 25* ATDC.
Look at the cam sensor gear. there's a dot on it near the bottom. Install the sensor w/ the dot facing the pass. fender and the wires in the cap are pointing towards the dr headlite. Once the gear meshes w/ the cam gear, you should be close to the sensor bottoming in the cover.[ A little "sneaky cream on the o'ring helps!!] If it's still up a bit and the gears are meshed,[you can't turn the sensor shaft], it's OK to bump the engine a bit to get the oil pump shaft to mesh into the bottom of the sensor gear.Once this is done, put the cap on, and hook up the indicator lite. Turn the sensor CLOCKWISE until the lite goes out, turn it COUNTER CLOCK until it just lites. I then continue CCW about 1/8 to 1/4" and lock it down. [Lite should still be on]
HTH,
__________________
Chuck Leeper "
Hopefully the above will help you out.
