New crank sensor ran me about $50CAD. Not expensive at all.

Will, are you sure about that wiring? At least on my 96, those two sensors don't attach until they come back up to the ICM, they appear to be seperate feeds.

mmm, no...

15 minute job?! Anyone have pics/process?

I just did it on my 96

Remove Front Passenger Wheel

Remove splash guards

Untension belt

Remove crank bolt

Pull balancer with a duck foot and 3 M6x60mm+ bolts (1/4" fine thread will work as well)

Unplug crank sensor electrical connector

Remove plastic shield covering sensor

Unbolt sensor

Reverse to reinstall, making sure you line up the key on the crankshaft with the notch in the balancer.

Don't lose faith John.
Messing with cars will be a continuous thing, especially if you like to play.

*UPDATE*

Ok, Come hell and high water I'm going to try my best to have this car track ready by October 15th. PLUS, it'* getting anemic driving the Explorer all the time!

Can I buy a crank sensor from NAPA, or is it a Get-Raped-By-GM only part?

Napa, Advance, Autozone, O'Reilly... they all got em.

Ok, I'm going to go talk with my insider man at NAPA

John.. price on my year at Advance was around $30

The fun part comes in to replace it. Make sure you pick up the correct bolts ahead of time.

If it'* hard to get at,, i'd get rapped by the stealership and use oem, you only wanta
go that road once..$.02

Daman..

It'* not overly tough. The job is
Jack passenger front
Remove wheel
Remove splash shield
Untension belts
Fun part w/o air tools
Remove bolt in the center of balancer (block flywheel if necessary)
Using proper bolts and a balanacer puller (proper bolts are the key here) pull balancer
Remove plastic shield
Remove two bolts holding CPS to block, unhook electrical connector
Reinstall