lol Thanks, I do try!!

 

Hey you're welcome! I'm not gonna fault anyone for not knowing what Engine has a distributorless ignition system and which one has a Distributor system! Especially when that person is using good sound judgement trying to help! All that means is that you were slightly wrong, that statement acted like you were totally wrong.

 

OK heres the latest, we took the coil into autozone, it tested fine back to square one, lol at least we have another item to check off the list to test.
I do appreciate all the responses I have gotten guy's big thanks you to all who have responded. I'm a Mustang guy (have had 6 at one time this year, now down to 3)so I deal with the eec-iv electronics. Mopars are new to me but same principles.

 

PCM fried?

 

Ok, I suppose the next step would be to check your Crankshaft and Camshaft sensors as well as the automatic shutdown circuit. I was just looking in the Chilton manual on page 2-7 Engine Electrical. For the Distributorless Ignition - 8.0L Engine it says the following:

"The 8.0L engine uses a distributorless ignition system. The main components of this ignition system are:

Powertrain Control Module (PCM)
Ignition Coil Packs
Spark Plugs an Wires
Crankshaft and Camshaft Position Sensors...

...Two separate coil packs, containing a total of five independent ignition coils, are located on a common mounting bracket above the right side engine valve cover...

(Which you obviously already know. I'm just quoting! lol)

...Each coil fires two cylinders simultaneously. When this occurs, one of the cylinders will be on the power stroke, the other will be on the exhaust stroke, the resulting spark being a waste spark. It is important to note that isolating one lead of the pair will eliminate the spark at both plugs...

(This may be why you weren't seeing any spark at the plugs)

...Cylinders are paired as follows: 5/10, 9/8 for the rearmost four plug coil pack; 1/6, 7/4, 3/2 for the front six plugcoil pack.

Battery voltage is supplied to each coil's positive terminal by the Automatic Shutdown (ASD) relay. If the PCM does not see a signal from the crankshaft and camshaft sensors (indicating the key is ON but the engine is not running), it will shut down the ASD circuit."

It says back in the back in the sensor section that you need a DRB II scan tool or equivalent to completely test them.

You've already checked your relays you said along with swapping the PCM for known good ones. You've verified power supply to the coils and that the coils are good. So I suppose since it cranks over its not the Ignition switch and you said fuel comes out of the fuel rail schrader valve when it is depressed. (which doesn't in and of itself let the fuel system off as a possible suspect I've seen injectors loose whats called noid and not allow the engine to crank!) If you have a DRB II tool at work or know a friend that has one you could use it to check your sensors and depeending how fancy the model of DRB II tool it is possibly the injectors themselves for noid (or pulse i bellieve is the correct explanation of what noid is)!

Check those things out and let us know how it goes and if we need to keep searching! Hope It turns out to be something simple like a wire to maybe your crank of cam sensor needing to be repaired! That'd be awesome since wire repairs are super easy and cheap! haha!

 

things replaced to date
Powertrain Control Module (PCM)
Ignition Coil Packs : tested ok
Crankshaft and Camshaft Position Sensors

Broken,
i'm not concerned with fuel injectors yet even though i know it takes fuel/air/spark for any motor to run. I knew it was a batch fire coil similar to what GM has used for years. it does concern me there is no spark from any coil position. this leads me to believe the computer is not telling it to fire the pulse hence replacing known sensors and relays along with pcm. So i'm back at believing bad wire some where. Have you seen a neutral safety switch go bad and allow car to crank in any gear but not fire? I need to test this theory to rule it out. test by seeing it not crank in gear. this truck is on the verge becoming a parts truck or donor for another v10 with high miles as it only has 86k on the clock thus the reason i want to save her along with the factory 4:10 axles.

 

Ok, I remembered you saying you had replaced Relays and PCM with Known good parts sorry must have forgotten or missed where you had said the Crank and Cam sensors had been replaced also! Which is why I quoted that part of the Chilton Manual. Wish it had been more helpful. lol

Yes, I have definitely seen Neutral safety switches go bad and cause a no start except when the transmission is placed in neutral. I've had to replace my own neutral safety switch before and apparently I will be needing another one shortly as my truck is occasionally acting up in the same manner! Dang It Hahahaha!

The the way I understood the Chilton Manual is that you can't pull a spark plug wire, hook up a spark tester and it work the way other ignition systems would. It said you couldn't isolate one lead from the other and that was my personal interpretation which I'm not presenting that as fact. It's just another reason I quoted that section. I was just trying to throw out some ideas for you and see if one would stick.

The reason I brought up the injector issue is that I had a friends Camaro for 2 weeks trying to track down the problem it had plenty of fuel pressure that I was able to verify with a pressure guage at the schrader valve! It had a few other minor problems that were actually just driveability issues such as the Radiator fan not coming on stuff like that! I kept avoiding the injector system because he had just had a lot of work done on the injectors at a shop. But that was the problem. Once I verified the problem and wrote down my findings for him he towed it back to the other shop who of course song and danced their way out of taking care of their customer by fixing it the right way for him. And of course in the process they lost a customer. He and his uncle who works as a mechanic at Mercedes changed out all of the injectors which is what that shop should have done in the first place instead of just changing one and then cleaning the rest. Ever since his car has been doing great!

As you've stated before different type of vehicle but the same principles apply to all gas engines. If you have good Crank and Cam sensors, good Relays, and a good PCM then unless you're experiencing the same thing he had then yeah I'd say you're on the right path by wanting to check the Neutral Switch along with verifying all of the wires in the harness to check for shorted out wires and open circuits where they should be closed! Hopefully the Chilton or Haynes manual will be detailed enough for you to be able to have a descent schematic to run down the appropriate wires! Don't give up on her yet unless you want to make a charitable donation To the ME Charity Foundation! Hahaha just kidding! Seriously though don't give up on her yet the mileage you stated means she'll be around for a long time once you get her back up and running!

 

The ignition coils may read fine when they are NOT under load, but won't fire when under load. There is a special tool for load testing coils. To tell the truth I don't know if any auto parts store would have the tool, may have to get them tested at the stealership or an outboard motor shop (YES, I realize that sounds insane).

 

Any Updates? Did you get her fixed?

 

Alas its was a hopeless never ending nightmare. Found out along with the wiring issue the frame was bent from cowl forward and donor truck searches from local yards and craigs list yielded notta. Local boneyard offered 1500. I called a spade a spade,so shes gone. I do want to thank you all for the help and insight where to steer my diagnostic trek. I still got my 360 3/4 4x4 and will be on the boards. lol i think shes going to be do for the intake fix soon. I have never seen a truck with the exhaust pipe clean as mine, no soot in it at all! truck got 180k on her.