2001 Mitsubishi Montero Limited. 3.5 engine
A couple of weeks ago I was driving home and suddenly lost power steering and air. I immediately thought serpentine belt. A few minutes later it engine just died as if it was out of gas. No noises. I had it towed home, removed the top radiator cover, and after further inspection, noticed the crankshaft pulley was off. I did know about the pulley bolt problems. Did not have the space to work on it, so ordered new bolt, new serpentine belt, new sensor and crankshaft gear sprocket sensor blade& spacer. Towed it to a local mechanic and handed him the parts and asked if he could do it. After completing the job, I went to get it and it now has a hesitation when first pushing on the gas petal. It's almost as if there was a vacuum leak or timing problem. After checking the cylinders and seeing no damage on piston heads, and he has tried several time to reset the timing, and still not fixed. Both of us are running out of ideas. Hoping someone will have a few that we have not thought of.

 

I had a similar issue on my 2001 Montero - crankshaft bolt unscrewed, crank pulley sheared the cotter pin on the timing sprocket and just plopped over on the frame behind the radiator. I just installed new cutter pin, reinstalled everything and drove without an issue after that. The timing system is entirely separate set if pulleys and belt and it is NOT affected by the serpentine pulley. Unless your timing belt jumped several teeth during this incident, you should not have any issues with timing.
One possible overlooked problem is a related to the crank position sensor or the sensor ring that moves through the crank sensor. That may have got damaged when the crank bolt sheared.
Make sure the spark plugs wires are connected to the right coils and that all sensors got plugged in. It's easy to overlook one or two of them.
If you suspect a jumped timing belt - run compression and leakdown tests just in case.
Also, when checking timing, you need to be extra cognizant of the paralax error when looking at the timing marks. It's easy to be off by one tooth without realizing it.

 

Both the sensor and senor ring are brand new. Checked compression and it was fine. You are right about it should not have effected the timing belt. Actually I replaced it about 8000 ago with not problems. It is hard to line the timing marks up, not very clear. Had a hard time in finding a decent diagram that would show them properly.

 

I hope this helps...

 

Thank You! That is very sharp and clear. The ones I have been able to find are in poor quality. Going to get back to work on this thing and get her running!

 

Have you thought about adjusting the throttle cable? I have no way of knowing if the mechanic messed with that or not, seems unlikely but I think it's worth a look. Also check the air filter if you haven't already, critters sometimes fill the box with food items, my dads jeep wouldn't stay idling because the box was full of dog food.

How long was the vehicle sitting before being repaired, sometimes just laying around can do weird things to older cars. It took me a whole month to get a new/used engine shipped and installed last month and my alternator was perfectly fine before I did the swap, but after sitting around it retired.This can happen to a number of components including but not limited to the fuel pump, sensors, etc.

 

Naeos_Valkarian
Those are some good Ideas, actually have checked all of those. The vehicle sat in my driveway only two days. Due to the fact that we have a strict Home Owners Association, and they don't allow you to work on your car in your driveway, I had to take it to a mechanic. My garage was full with other cars. I purchased all the parts for him ahead of time. We have done a smoke test to see if any gaskets are leaking and and no leaks. I have just ordered another sensor ring in case the replacement we had installed was out of wack. and will give that a try.

 

Hmm, not a lot of options left here. Perhaps sluggish/clogged injector(s), wrong/worn spark plugs or wrong gap, faulty fuel pressure regulator(doubtful), MAF or MAP sensor sluggish operation, Sluggish/faulty O/2 sensor(s), or maybe an exhaust leak somewhere? Just throwing out ideas.

 

Just to let everybody know, found the problem and she's back up and running. Apparently I was sent the wrong sensor ring. After ordering a new one, installing it, it now runs great. Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

 

Glad you figured it out! I never would have thought about the reluctor plate being the cause, heck I didn't think a different one would fit.