Chrysler Repair: 95 New Yorker:cam sensor failures, blower on hight only, no gauge readings on cluster., blower motor resistor, camshaft sensor

Question
if the car keeps going through cam sensors, what is that indicating? i think something must keep making it go out but not sure.  the person who had the car before me said they had to change that sensor every week, they tried checking computers but their mechanic couldn't find one of the computers. can you offer any kind of help on what to do. none of the guages work either, and you can't turn the fan lower on the a/c, you can press all the buttons but none of them do anything.  any recommendations?

Answer
Hi Tracy,
On the camshaft sensor my thought is that there is probably too much 'play' in the bearing that secures the camshaft at the front of the engine such that the cam is then rubbing on the tip of the sensor and damaging it. A new sensor comes with a paper spacer which when there is no excessive play will make sure that the tip is not touched by the sprocket. But because of the extra 'play' in the bearing you would be well-advised to try using a double thickness of paper spacer so as to get additional protection against the tip actually being touched by the sprocket. Of course when installing the sensor the mechanic would want to look in the sensor socket to be sure that the sprocket is showing a metal surface of the sprocket and not one of the notch areas of the sprocket (an opening). I would doubt it is anything related to the computer but just in case you could verify that the orange wire at the sensor's plug is showing 8 volts rather than 12 volts (which would indicated a short circuit of that wire which could possibly damage the sensor). Those are the 2 reasons I can see for premature sensor failure. So buy an extra spacer when you have to replace the present one, and check that voltage reading on the orange wire with the key in the 'run' position.
On blower motor, the reason it only runs on high is because the blower motor resistor block (conventional control) or blower motor power module (if you have the automatic temp contro) is burned out. That is easy to replace by going under the dash on the passenger side and remove its plug and the two screws that hold it in place. Remove the duct/silencer on the lower edge of the dash for access to see the block/module mounted in the side of HVAC unit neart to the blower motor (follow the wire from the blower to find the module).
One the gauges, I would check fuse 17 in the box behind the left end-cap of the dash. If that is OK and the problem is exclusively the gauges, then I would believe that there is a 'cold' solder joint of pin 2 or pin 3 of the black plug socket at the cluster where it joing the cluster circuit board. Removing the cluster and heating those joints with a soldering pencil would re-establish electrical connection to the digital data wires that bring the information to the cluster as to where the gauges should be 'reading'. Losing that connection would loose the function of the gauges.
I hope this will prove useful in solving your problems, and none of them is a major cost issue.
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Thanks,
Roland