Bad camshaft sensor that isn't bad

My Grand Caravan would randomly just stop running every half hour or so, and it showed a 54 code. I replaced the camshaft sensor and after briefly showing an 11 code, it has reverted back to the 54 code with the new sensor but ran more badly (just seconds before dying). The sensor is clearly continuing to provide its signal as the engine first runs, then stumbles, and then dies.

Testing method: I used an old fashioned moving-needle VOM to observe the sensor output. These antiques show the product of the voltage times the duty cycle, whereas digital meters periodically sample their input, and hence show random variations. Doing this, I got a pretty steady ~1 volt AVERAGE output from the sensor regardless of how badly the engine was running. A DVM showed 0.05 volt output when the engine was stopped.

Unless I am missing something (certainly wouldn't be the first time), this MUST be either the computer (e.g. the camshaft sensor input threshold has drifted to some absurd voltage) or intermittent wiring between the sensor and the computer. I tend to dismiss wiring because this has shown two DIFFERENT intermittent modes of operation that changed suddenly when the sensor was changed, which seems (to me) to be pretty far fetched as a wiring problem. Are there ANY other reasonable possibilities?

Are these computers repairiable? I would guess that whatever chip the camshaft sensor goes to has probably been fried, so if it can be identified and changed, the computer could be repaired.

I looked on eBay and other places and did NOT find a replacement computer. Is there a source of them somewhere?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Steve Richfie1d

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Steve
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