Not the cap/rotor or the whole thing. Just the optical/cam thing.

 

GM does not sell it, AFAIK. Don't know if any aftermarket suppliers do.

 

Hmm...is there a way to visually see if the one that i have (optical/cam thing) has gone bad?

 

Not really.

It's also not a GM part, it's a mitsubishi

-Shannon

 

I doubt it, unless it looks burnt up or something. The optical portion does not seem to be a weak point. Bearings, cap and rotor are the real wear items.

 

Are you throwing any codes? If the optical portion is bad you'll get a code 36(hi-res failure) or you may also get a code 42(est grounded). You can see my post in the Forced induction section titled "attention Vortech owners" where I talk about some of these problems.

 

Well i did throw a code with a hard start the last time i started the car. And i don't have any scanning software to check the code.

 

Take it to your local GM dealer they can pull the codes for you. They do it for free for me all the time.

 

The car is missing a wp right now so it's not gonna be goin anywhere.

 

The ECM supplies a regulated +5 volts to one pin of the Mitsubishi optical device.
There are two sensors in the one optical device -- there are two sets of "slots" in the optical wheel, one for high-res and one for low-res.
You can monitor the output pins of the optical device with an oscilloscope and see the pulses. I've done bench tests this way to prove the device is functional while turning the shaft by hand.
You can determine which cylinder is in the firing position by determining how many high-res pulses are in a low-res time frame.


Tom Piper