And checking the output voltage while cranking would be what I would do if the Res was within (or at all close) to tolerances. I just couldn't imagine it being anywhere close with the resistance that far out of whack.
5 meg ohms is an open circuit, completely dead sensor, wires (1) not making contact. I had a new one from Autozone 10 weeks ago that would work when it wanted to. And for 10 weeks when I tested it with a meter it would suddenly start after a no start. Then last week I had a no start after 10 days of working perfectly, and the gremlin finally showed itself, with a 5 meg ohm open circuit, and zero cranking voltage. I tried cranking it 3 more times, next 2 cranks it was still dead, and the third time it came back to life. I have a theory now. The coil wire (1) is extremely thin ( I took the bad one I had apart the other day), thin like fine human baby thin hair, insulated ofr the coil, but the end needs to make contact with the apx 20 gage wires (1) that go to the weather pack connector and male pins in it, in some kind of crimp joint I suspect. That contact area sealed inside the CPS, is I think where these beasts are failing, sometimes intermittently, with heat stress and vibration adding to the problem. If the coil to connector wire contact area connection is poor, moving the sensor closer to the flywheel, which boosts the peak signal voltage, can jump the gap of a poor connection inside the CPS better. The isolated Renix CPS should have 125 to 275 ohms of resistance, no more, no less!
I doubt an OEM dealer part is any different or better for the Renix era parts (now 21 years old), since OEM car companies tend to stop supporting vehicles over 7 years old. At this point I would expect many dealer parts like a CPS to be the same import junk everyone else has. That said, there do seem to be different Renix CPS OEMs supplying the same vendors like Standard Products, so some may be better than others. Lastly, even the new ones seem to need to be drilled out larger, the mounting holes, to move the CPS closer to the flex plate to get a stronger signal and to eliminate periodic non starts.
Cruiser54, have you ever wondered how many CPS problems might be aggravated by flex plate bolts slowly coming loose?
While swapping AW4s recently, we discovered several loose bolts on the flex plate on my 87, the one that has always started with an AZ CPS that has not been drilled out to move closer, that only shows .27 V AC while cranking.
