My 96 Disco will be driving just fine and then will cut out completly. Headlights and dashlights still on but the engine dies completely. It will not immediately restart but I pull the key out of the ignition and try again and it starts. Any ideas?

 

Crank Position Sensor? You can pour cold water on it to cool off and should re-crank. If replacing make careful notes of where spacer goes. See attached.

 

When it dies do not remove the key, just wait about 5 min and they try.
Does it start?

 

it will start either way. is there a way to check the CPS?

 

When it dies, remove a spark plug, reattach the plug wire and crank it over and look to spark, no spark means bad crank sensor.

 

will it give a code?

 

No. No crank sensor code.
Either it works or it doesnt.

 

For further description, the car will act like it's completely dead. Turning the key and the engine wont turn or energize at all. after a few minutes and attempts, it will start back up. Still the Crankshaft Positioning Sensor?

 

OK - right church, wrong pew. Crank sensor inhibits spark, not the starter. Does not turn over, does not click, does not make rapid click - these are all symtoms of a bad starter (in particular the soleniod that shoves the starter into contact with the ring gear). But a bad starter rarely "un-cranks" a car. But check all large cables near the starter and especially any that run over and bond to the chassis or engine block.

One way to trouble shoot a bad frame ground is to attach a battery jumper cable from (-) battery to the engine block.

Now Murphy's Law is a multi-volume set, and no one is going to say that you only have one problem, because you were on Santa's "good" list and might get two...

There are a number of electrical issues that could bring a car to a halt. Bad fuses, cracked fuse links, loose bolts on fuse links (under hood fuse box), loose wires in same box, etc. Could also be the ignition switch. Might use a hair dryer to warm that up (simulating driving for a while with heater on).

Pages from RAVE on starting attached. Your issue will be duplicating this and finding the problem before things cool off and start working again. One thing old school guys did was spray brake cleaner on stuff to quickly cool it off.

 

Well now that we have more much needed info it is not the crank sensor, it is a bad/loose battery cable or ground.
Check the negative battery cable to make sure it is not corroded or loose at the starter.