I would not buy anything electrical from AutoZone.. Actually I hate AutoZone with a passion..

 

I've had great results with autozone, to each his own I guess. I wont go anywhere else but there when I need a part.

 

I hear ya.. at least our experience we've had nothing but problems with their parts..

But thats just us..

 

steve, i think the SFI vs MFI is a misprint and not important, or its possibly the same part for either. either way - any modern parts store computer application is going to give you the right part, provided they guy pulls the right part number.

i think our trucks are all SFI, because the injectors are right at the intake valve, and they fire under pcm control timed to the cam... unlike an older MFI which squirts a bunch of gas at the top of the intake just like a carb would.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...0130853AAL2gsZ

i buy parts from autozone all the time. they're almost always fine, except that autozone has gotten too expensive. autozone used to be cheaper than advance, but now they are consistently higher. compare prices with advance, you might save $5.

 

back to your original question, i'm not following what's wrong. if you have no fire at the plugs, it could be coil, pcm, crank position sensor, or cam position sensor. typically the cam position sensor is more for controlling timing, not killing the spark. lack of signal from crank position sensor will cause the ASD to shut down the fuel pump and the power to the coil.

if you're not finding what you need, come over to 2nd gen ram and browse the "no start" threads. the problems of the v6 and v8 are identical, so all the info from the ram applies to the dakota and durango. they use all the same crap. especially check the posts from mckenna. they are very... ummm, detailed.


you're original question - what does the sensor do? it tells the pcm the exact position of the distributor shaft, so that it can time the fuel injector exactly to the spark. the pcm somehow factors in all the timing advance features electronically, instead of through old fashioned mechanical and/or vacuum controls.