I had a sudden starting failure. It's a 1989 Dakota, 3.9 V6, 2WD, Auto trans and happens to be a convertible. One morning, it turned over fine but wouldn't start. Previous night, everything was normal.

First thing I did was replace the coil, cap & rotor.

This was 3 weeks ago so I've had plenty of time to go all over the Dodge Forum and search for help. I've readabout and checked(replaced where applicable)the ASD relay and the problematic wire harnesses on the driver's side, inside thefenderwell.

I get no sparkout of the coil now allthough I did when the failure first occured.At that time, it may have been a weak spark.

I finally checked the system with a voltmeter and found the following:

I have 12 volts of power to all3 relays.

I have 6 volts of power to the two leads going into the coil. (Checked with the leads detached from the coil while cranking.)

Presently, I only get fault codes 11 & 12. Previously,I got codes 42, 33, & 32 but they all went away.

I've jiggled & cleaned every possible wire & connection I can locate.

Question: Why would I have only 6 volts to my coil? Remember, I have no fault code 53 - module-computer problem.

Thanks all, Rich

 

In the run circuit the coil gets about 8 volts .In the start circuit the ballist wire is shorted giving the coil 12 volts for cold starts. If you only get about 6 volts while loading the starter then the start circuit must have a bad connection.

 

Thanks, I'll check out everything I can see & think of.

Just for the record, where would you check? The only circuit I can visualize is the power going to the starter solenoid and the ground for the same.

Is there anything else?

Thanks, Rich