I have proof here at the house that a car with crank walk will start up and run. Although you are right if it were that bad then the crank would hit the cas which in turn would hit the plate causing your car to shut off.

BTW I'm not the one who posted the crank walk suggestion it was Dave, He was on my laptop.

My best suggestion for you is to bring it over so we can look it over, It is very hard to tell what is wrong with a car without actually looking at it. There are way too many variables.

 

pm'd

 

What is 'crank walk'?
What is a 'walking' crankshaft?
Is there a recall or TSB regarding the crank walk problem?
How can I tell if my car has a walking crankshaft?
Search for this topic now!

A 'walking' crankshaft is a crankshaft that moves too much inside the engine. This is also known as excessive thrust bearing play. The movement is usually due to the crankshaft not fitting inside its bearings correctly. While not bad for the crankshaft, the movement can place excessive or uneven loads on the bearings, causing premature failures.

Many 2G owners have suffered from walking crankshafts. It appears that Mitsubishi built many 2G engines using defective crankshafts, which were machined out of specification and are thus capable of moving around too much inside the block. All 2G model years appear to be affected to some degree.

To fix this problem, Mitsubishi has designed several versions of matching crankshaft bearings. This allows the defective motor to retain the crankshaft, yet matches the bearings correctly so as to eliminate the excessive crankshaft movement. Matching the bearings in this manner is tricky and requires exact information about when the crankshaft was manufactured, which may be determined by color markings on the crankshaft itself. The 2G factory manual includes information on how to match crankshafts to bearings.

1G owners do not generally need to worry, as there are no chronic problems with crankwalk in per-1995 cars. However, it is possible for any engine to experience crankwalk if there is a problem with the crankshaft bearings. It has been reported that 'small rod' / 7-bolt flywheel motors (manufactured from later 1992 through 1994 on 1Gs) are more prone to crankwalk than 'big rod' / 6-bolt flywheel engines (manufactured from 1989 to early 1992). However, there can be no guarantees, since big block V8s and all other engines can also suffer from crankwalk.

It can be difficult to tell if a particular car is experiencing crankwalk. Symptoms are usually indirect and difficult to diagnose until major damage occurs.

Since the clutch places pressure on the crankshaft, many owners have reported clutch or shifting problems associated with the walking crank. Having the clutch 'stick' down on left-hand turns is often a telltale sign of crankwalk. Other symptoms include inconsistent engagement height, poor or rough engagement, difficulty shifting, ticking noises and varying pedal height or pressure. Another possibility is having the engine RPM decrease significantly when the clutch pedal is down.

Another problem with crankwalk is that the crankshaft may move so much as to literally tear up and destroy the 2G crankshaft angle sensor. This problem usually manifests itself as a ticking noise coming from the timing belt area, as the sensor is literally and slowly ground away by the crankshaft. Any such noise should be investigated right away to prevent serious problems.

Unfortunately, cranshaft angle sensor failure usually leads to a replacement sensor, rather than a replacement crankshaft, as mechanics fail to diagnose the underlying problem. 2G owners who have experienced premature failure of the crankshaft angle sensor should investigate the possibility of a walking crankshaft immediately.

For more information, read this post by Paul Estavez, which describes the crank walk problem in detail. Also read Road Race Engineering's archive of posts that contains all of the Talon Digest posts about the walking crankshaft problem. Those who appreciate that a picture is worth a thousand words will appreciate the Crank Walk Photo Archive.

Although 2G DSM owners have been anxiously awaiting a recall or TSB on the crankwalk problem, there is none as yet. According to Paul's second post on the subject, there may never be a TSB, although some members of DSM Canada are pushing for one in this thread on their discussion board. As a result, it is doubly important that affected 2G owners get their bearings (or blocks, if necessary) replaced before their warranty expires. This might be difficult for owners of aftermarket clutches, as dealerships often claim the aftermarket pressure plates are the cause of the problem.

copied and pasted from:
http://members.shaw.ca/costall/1000Q/answers-terms.htm

 

well to give you an example(non DSM anyway) in my neon at one point it wouldnt start, it ended up being my fuel pump, it would draw too much current and keep blowing fuel pump fuses, after hardwiring it temporarily it started up and ran fine...for awhile, eventually my fuel pump went out completely on it though, but once a clogged fuel filter gave me a similar problem to yours back a few years ago when I had a 91 laser NT, also for another example, my current SRT swapped neon just today gave me a problem it would start then immediately cutout, I had just hard wired my tach(since I use a standalone and no longer have a tach signal coming from the stock computer) anyway, i still had(until today anyway) my stock computer plugged in, I would try to start it and it would immediatley die...I was like WTF? then I finally realized...my stock computer was reading my stand alone computer's crank signal and trying to take control of my engine...and of course one engine cant obey 2 computers at once...once I removed the stock computer completely it ran fine again, or another possible scenario...it could simply be a short in the wiring leading from your crank sensor to the computer...once some wiring laying against my EGR pipe burned through and caused an intermittent short which kept causing my ignition engine feed fuse to blow...causing my motor to shut off....too many things it could be, some of them time consuming to find, and yes Dario, I know what crankwalk is, but just because I have a 7 bolt motor(which I actually do for the talon) doesnt mean I am automatically going to assume that its the cause

 

Josiah I have a 7 bolt and im never worried about crank walk reason being that number one I have a late model 99 which means that mitsu suposively actually nitrated the crank. also i dont start my car with the clutch down and i dont sit at a red light with my foot on the clutch either. There are many many reasons why cranks walk includeing the way you drive and its not only with dsms either supras have the same problem. So again I say there are too many variables for someone to decide what the ectual problem is over the internet.

 

I agree with your notion that a car will run with an "early" walking crankshaft. Rob and Dave diagnosed my car to have some slight play in the crank and I will probably be a victim down the road as well. The only reason why the damn thing hasn't totally walked off yet, was due to me driving the car pretty conservatively for the most part, doing regular syntheitc oil changes, keeping the car in neutral while at a red light, until the light changes, etc.

However, wouldn't a DSM, that has a severe enough condition of crankwalk (in other words, the crank is in walking enough to make the car not run), not run at all. Cornflake said that the car will run fine at times. Wouldn't the crank pretty much make the car undrivable, regardless of whether or not the CAS is damaged? I would think that if the crank is off spec enough to make his car shut off, it would consitently do it.

Obviously, I am not a mechanic, but I believe what I stated would almost seem logical. Perhaps I'm wrong though.

Any news yet Cornflake?

 

crankwalk, lets not even talk about it. Until we know for sure what cornflakes problem is. I just hate how its always talked about. And if cornflake bought a dsm im sure that he had already investigated crankwalk before he bought the car.

 

The reason it bugs me so bad. Is that if you go anywhere and you talk about your car and your clutch is slipping guess what the damn problem? CRANKWALK... Every damn honda boy in the world thinks that every 7 bolt has crankwalk. It just shows that putting a intake and welding a muffler on your civic makes you a master mechanic with 7 bolt 4g6`s

 

FYI And I do think that Rob and Dave do know their shit when it comes to dsm`s. Dont want anyone to misinterpit this thread.

 

Again I state that im not the one that posted crankwalk! Dave is the one who posted under my name because he was on my computer and most of the time he does it to fuck around. I am by no means a master tech so whenever I have a problem he brings it up just to fuck with my mind.

Cornflake call me I took the day off today 813-766-8725