Chrysler Repair: 95 INTREPID 3.3L: dies/restarts; cruise intermittant, crankshaft sensor, crank sensor

Question
VEHICLE DIES AT ANY SPEED AT ANY TIME. THEN HARD TO RESTART, BUT SO FAR WILL RESTART. ALSO CRUISE CONROL TURNS ON WITHOUT WARNING, THEN TURNS OFF. NO CODES-JUST 12 AND 55.

Answer
Hi Chris,
I suspect that either the camshaft or crankshaft sensor is beginning to fail. That die, restart after cooldown behavior is typical of the hall effect-based sensors when they are breaking down. The only way to tell which, until it sets a code, is to carry along a voltmeter and check the signal from the sensors immediately the failure. You would measure between the black/light blue wire and the tan/yellow wire (cam sensor) and the black/light blue wire and the light blue/dark blue wire (crank sensor) by turning the engine by hand using a socket wrench on the crank bolt and having the ignition switch "on". The voltage should vary between 5V and 0.3V several times per revolution of the engine. You could instead test for spark if you carry a spare spark plug and have a helper on board to crank the engine, again right after the engine dies. That would corroborate that a sensor is bad, but not which one. A code would have to be set for that (11 for a crank, 54 for a cam sensor).
On the cruise control, it could be a switch/wiring/connector problem in the steering column, or a fault with the servo system for the cruise control. There are a couple of pages about how to test the system that you might try but an intermittant may be difficult to diagnose. If you want a xerox copy of the pages let me know a postal mailing address to which I should send these.
Roland