hello to everyone,

i have a problem with my 98 xlt 5.0
last nite i removed my throttle body to clean it cause the pedal was sticking, had alot of carbon on and around the plate. well after cleaning it, i remember a while back ago, i had a problem with my iac valve and to help it from stalling out, i had ajusted the idle screw until i had the money and time to replace the valve, and it was the idle screw the whole time making my pedal stick due to it being set too low, it made the throttle plate close too far back which made it stick. well anyway., after adjusting it to where it needed to be, i reinstalled everything and i also did the throttle cable mod as well to get better throttle response, well after that, i started my X and it ran rough on idle and hesitated on acceleration. I thought to myself, well maybe its cause it still had some carb cleaner in the throttle body, so i let it idle untill it reached norm op temp and still no change. heres the thing, i started to raise the rpm's to about 3k and pushed it a lil more and noticed the temp gauge start to go down?? i also disconnected the battery for about 15 min to reset any old parameters that i had when the pedal was sticking, cause when it was sticking, my mpg dropped a bunch due to i was always having to punch the pedal in order to free it from sticking. does anyone have any ideas on why it might be running rough and why my temp gauge would go down when i would rev it passed 3k, i checked to see if i had any vacuum leaks but didnt find anything. my X ran perfectly b4 all this not one miss. my plugs and wires are all brand new, installed them about 6 months ago, IAC is new along with TPS and EGR. Well sorry for this being soo long, but just wanted everyone to get an understanding and to rule out any ideas on what it might be.

P.S.
im thinking about putting 275/60 15 on my X, would these tires fit?

 

update:
I was talking to a mechanic friend of mine in FL and was explaining to him what the problem was and he told me try the TPS sensor, so i did but it had no effect. The engine is sounding like i put a higher lobe cam in it if you ask me. it doesnt backfire at all, just at idle, the whole truck shakes cause the engines is loping and when i take off, it sputters until i reach highway speeds, then when i back of on the pedal, it bogus down pretty quick. my cel is on but its always been on before all this happened and the truck ran prefect, the cel is on cause i have a bad DPFE sensor. PLEASE HELP!!!

 

ok heres another update....got my cel checked again and the camshaft position sensor(CMP) came up. Bought new one went to install it and theres a half moon on the drive assembly that needs to line up centerline to the engine so that the magnet on the CMP will fall in place. Was reading my Haynes manual and staied i need to do alot of things in order to get that half moon centerlined to the engine. Does anyone have any ideas or shortcuts on getting this??

98 4DR XLT
5.0L
AUTO
137K

 

well one last update.........the vane or the "c" shape looking piece of metal that everyone refers to is bent, i guess from when the magnet along with the plastic portion that holds it broke off, it spun around in there which in turn caused it the vane to bend. SO im out looking for a new camshaft drive assembly. Ill keep you posted.

P.S. 39 views and 0 replies.....come on now............

 

well one last update.........the vane or the "c" shape looking piece of metal that everyone refers to is bent, i guess from when the magnet along with the plastic portion that holds it broke off, it spun around in there which in turn caused it the vane to bend. SO im out looking for a new camshaft drive assembly. Ill keep you posted.

P.S. 39 views and 0 replies.....come on now............

 

I'm sorry to hear all that, probably though if it worked b4 you started, try and make sure everythings back together properly. The tires will fit fine, but depending on what rims you have the 275/60 might not work.

Josh

 

ok heres another update for all you 110 viewers and 1 replier.
bought my new cam synchronizer from ford yesterday($150) thats the name for the part that everyone might be wondering what the camshaft position sensor goes on top of. going to put it all back together tommorow, wish me luck, and ill post another after im done. keep on viewing fellas.......pushing for 200 views.....lol

 

Sorry, no ideas on the problem. Symptoms sound familiar to what I'm having with my 99 X, except the temp gauge. Been to a few shops & no one knows what is wrong with my X. Be thankful you got the CEL, I've been trying to diagnose my problem for 1.5yrs without a CEL ever coming on. Let us know the verdict, maybe it'll be another piece to the puzzle for me to fix.

Hope it works out for ya!

 

hello v8explr thank for replying

well the temp gauge was a normal thing i found out from my mechanic being that i was reving my engine passed 3k rpm i was just forcing the coolant passed the stat making the temp go down and have found my problem and thats what im going to replace tomorrow. even though you have no cel, have autozone hook it up to the scanner just to see if anything pulls up.

 

98TxExplorer: Thanks for the reply. I have taken the X to 6 shops (2 being Ford Service Centers), which none of these shops could find a code stored. Like you stated, I have also taken the X to AutoZone, which again they could not find any stored codes.

So was your problem the cam synchronizer, cam position sensor or both?

Glad to hear you've found the culprit though. Good luck!

 

well my problem was the cam position sensor(CMP) to begin with but when i tried to install the new one, it didnt fit right being that when the sensor broke, the magnet inside the CMP started tumbling around which caused it to bend the vane on the cam synchronizer. i'll post some pics for you guys

 

ok nm....i cant post any attachments yet.....i guess you have to have a certain number of posts b4 you can post attachments.

 

98txeplorer: My wife has a 97 Mountaineer with a 302 and has been making a loud shreiking noise from the engine for the past two weeks. I finally narrowed it down after the loud momentarily noise changed to a chirping noise. It is also my cam sensors/synchonizer and it has been driving me crazy for the past two weeks! I would like to know how you successfully placed the cam synchonizer for I hear it must be done almost like a distributor with the timing. Thanks for the info and I'm going to take my cam sensor off tomorrow to see what is happening. Maybe I'll get lucky but I expect to have to replace the synchronizer. Thanks