I've checked that rotor and cap so many times now, they are making contact and I don't believe there's a short anywhere else. I replaced the Distributor Pickup Coil as well. What else should I be looking at to be shorting out?

 

I'd be checking the rotor to make sure the spark isn't jumping into the distributor shaft or something. Unless the spark is just so weak that it can't jump the gap of the cap and rotor it's got to be going somewhere. That sensor in the distributor tells the pcm which half of the stoke the engine is on. I believe 180deg of the rotation of the cam the sensor is activated and the other half it isn't. That combined with knowing where the engine is via the crank sensor is enough to tell if a cylinder is on a compression or exhaust stroke.

 

I've had time to look into it more, and it seems the Coils I've purchased (2 different ones now) have been doing NOTHING. The original coil I took off was a very weak spark but the 2 new ones do nothing. What controls the coil? I'm clueless at this point and hopeless.

 

The pcm controls the coil via the crank sensor and cam sensors. If you bought store brand coils from the parts store, return them and get a good one. The ones the parts stores sell are junk. Napa is about the only parts store that sells decent stuff anymore.

 

What brand do you recommend? All the ones on napa look like cheap knockoffs as well

 

Factory mopar, accel, msd, ngk, etc would be good choices. Standard motor, ultra power, duralast, etc should be avoided like the plague.

I have an accel on my truck. I have some other one in the back as a spare for emergencies, but wouldnt trust it for daily use. The amount of crap aftermarket parts out there anymore is rediculous.

 

This saved my life. Lol NGK worked like a charm..it was the coil. Bought 1 off Rockauto (lol) and 1 from autozone neither worked. Thank you!

 

Glad that worked. Cheap electrical parts can really bite you. I've had parts store coils, throttle position sensors, crank sensors, o2 sensors, etc all be bad out of the box or die very quickly after installing. With that kind of stuff it's worth the extra money to avoid the hassle.