Hello fellow ford owners I'm new and have serious problems my truck is my life without it I don't make $. Here goes! About 6 weeks ago I bought a 1997 ford explorer 4.0L sohc or overhead can not to the 4.0L pushrod motor.I bought because the suspention ,the interior, windows were shot in my other ford explorer 1996 4.0L pushrod motor 4wd, automatic transmission. I got the brute idea to pull the 4.0L pushrod motor and put it in the 1997. Well I opened a can of worms. Theverything about he 1996 and the1997 are exactly the same except for the overhead cam . but $700.00 later and after six weeks it still won't start only if I prime the carborator at first nothing no starter no fuel no spark to the plugs. Found out starter was bad. Replaced it,then the fuel pump bad. Replaced it.the transmission's sensor or shifter module bad. Replaced it still wouldn't turn over. I kept the PCM from my 1996. Every time I fix something something else wouldn't work. Found out I fried the pcm as well as the gem replaced both now it turns over fuel pump working on it's own but found out crankshaft sensor was bad replaced it only to find out the camshaft position sensor is bad now here's the thing after replacing the crankshaft sensor everything started working except still no spark to plugs I.e. camshaft position sensor the sensor shows voltage getting to it but no signal comes out so$120.00 later still no spark to plugs when I took out camshaft position sensor I did not mark where it was positioned .just pulled it got new whole complete sensor with installation tool put back in someone told me I didn't get it right. I did all the book told me to do tdc etc etc but not the 60 degree thing so I pulled back out then I made the mistake of turning the engine over without the camshaft position sensor back in which someone said I shouldn't have done been trying to watch videos on installing it all day on line but nothing specific enough to help what do I do now? Someone PLEASE help me figure this out I've lost a few thousand dollars not being able to use my vehicle I need to get this thing going. Anybody?

 

Hello, welcome to the forums !

See this thread, it's for the 3.0 Litre V6, but the procedure should be the same.
The idea is to get #1 coming up on compression and then to stop at TDC.
As the article shows, that is indicated by the Crank Shaft Position sensor pointing to "ZERO" on the crank shaft damper.

When number one is at TDC (and on compression, don't get it 180 degrees out), use your Cam Shaft Position Tool to set where the tooth on the synchronizer goes and lock it up.
It may take a few tries to get things lined up.

https://www.ranger-forums.com/engine...9-3-0v-114186/

The manual is terrible, it's incomplete and its instructions are confusing.
When I put mine in, I got the synchronizer close to where I wasn't going to be stressing the wires that connect to the actual sensor ( there is only one position where the wires will be happy)
At the same time you want to line up the tooth (or half moon, which ever one you have) as close to the alignment tool as possible.
Once mine was in the approximate position, I simply rotated the synchronizer a tiny bit until the tool dropped into place.

The other method is to have the tool on the synchronizer in place while you're installing it making sure that the wires for the sensor will reach the synchronizer with out stressing them out.

It's like putting a distributor in and getting the rotor lined up to #1 piston while on compression.
The only difference is that you use the plastic tool to line things up.