A few weeks ago, I would have trouble starting my van after it'd been sitting for over 8 hours. Im in austin Texas, and its NOT cold out, even in the morning. Sometimes it takes five minutes, before she fires up. It went away for about two weeks, and just came back yesterday. I pulled the doghouse off, and found out that when this happens I get neither a spark, or an injector pulse. Once its on it runs just fine, and it only does this when it sits for hours. I do know my battery is starting to go. Yesterday, it wouldnt fire up, and after a while, the battery started to die, so I put a charger on it for a couple minutes and it fired up no prob. Today after work, Same problem happened. I hooked up the charger after the second try (the battery was charged.) It took several more tries before it started... Any ideas?

 

This can happen when the ECM is on it's way out. The next time it's cold use a hairdryer to warm up the ECM before attempting to start it. If after warming the ECM the engine start like it should, then it's time to start shopping for an ECM.

 

Distributer pickup / Crankshaft position sensor / camshaft position sensor --- the engine in motion sensor! Believe all are hall sensors and are temperature sensitive.
ECM does not produce sparkplug fire signal (spark) or FI fire signal (fuel) unless it senses the engine is turning and it has fuel pressure.
Could be the ECM but I would verify the simple first.
If will not start it is almost certainly generating error codes --- determine what the ECM thinks is going on.
Good luck.

 

Well, I replaced my battery, and I was hoping that was the problem, and for a couple weeks, it ran fine. Then it came back. Im NOT getting a check engine light when this happens, btw. Oh, and one time last week, I was ad a red light, and the engine suddenly died, and wouldnt start for about a minute. If there is no check engine light, does it still generate an error code?

 

Check the engine ground straps and the ones in the engine bay to the frame. Something this simple can cause a little crazy pain of solving.

 

Yes, the ECM generates many status codes that do not turn on the check engine light. The dealer ECM code checker can read everything including things like cruise control and power door locks.
My elcheapo ecm code reader will only read the error-light on codes required by the EPA. Actually, I have not found a cheap one that will read any codes other then light-on codes.
The error light codes are required by the EPA are expected to relate directly to excessive exhaust emissions. They basically do not a consider a dead engine to be an issue for smog police.
I was surprised to see how many codes Mopar reported in the 2001 A1500 van we have.
Without the ECM the dealers would not be able to troubleshoot and repair anything other than a broken window!!!!!
Chrysler has the complete service manual for the A1500-B3500, including all service code data for less than $30. [or about] shipped to your door. Or did have earlier 2013 when I got ours. Best deal in repair manuals I have ever received in the 60 years I have been working on vehicles.
Good luck

 

I'd change the ignition coil next.
Just my .02 worth.

 

That has my vote too. Thinking back, this is similar to how my van's coil went out.

 

The other day, I actually tried to test the resistance on the coil. It was different than the specs, but I dont know if I was doing it right. I checked the voltage across the two poles while the engine was running, and it was reading around 3 volts, but I dont know if thats normal or not. It wasn't the spark voltage I was measuring. Then, I tried to test the ohms on the dist. pickup, and I got no reading whatsoever, so I figured either my tester doesnt work, or I dont know how to work the ohms settings. I might have a new coil buried somewhere. I just moved across country, so I might not be able to find it if I do.

 

Well, just to update, I ended up shelling 90 bucks for a diagnosis. It was a bad pickup coil. Twenty-five bucks, and a five minute fix. didnt even need to take the distributer apart. Thanks.