Did you check the cap for condensation? Water hitting a hot motor turns to steam and can build under the cap. Water in there will short any spark to ground so you will have nothing at the plugs. Is this your issue or is it more involved? Any codes? The pcm supplies a ground to the asd relay to trigger it.

 

good advice, but unfortunately it's not that simple. at least I don't think. I have the distributor completely out of the loop. I've got a test plug hooked up directly to the coil wire. checked the asd relay with another battery and it operates as it should. I checked resistance from the normally open slot on the asd socket to both a chassis ground and the negative terminal of the battery. i'm showing low resistance. i'm guessing that I might have a break in my wires shorting to ground on the positive side of my coil wire. haven't found it yet.

 

The asd relay is triggered by the pcm by supplying a ground to it. The asd relay(when triggered-on) supplies 12V + to the coil. This is only during cranking and run, If you leave the ignition on the pcm will cut off the asd relay killing power. The negative is supplied by the pcm to fire the coil. The pcm needs input from both the crank sensor and cam sensor. Without both of them it will not run. Check all your fuses. On the later years there was a fuse for the relays(asd-fuel pump). Don't remember if it was for both or just the fuel pump or asd. ??? My 96 doesn't have them the relays go direct to 12v positive. Hope this helps.

 

Are you getting any codes? Did you check all the fuses?

Test plug? Use a multimeter. You should have positive power at the coil as soon as you tun the ignition to on. The pcm will shut off the asd relay in a few seconds if you don't try to start it so keep that in mind.

 

You already have an existing thread regarding your ignition problems: https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...o-proceed.html

 

no voltage at the coil plug. tried voltmeter, trouble light, and test plug. across both terminals on the coil plug and with a chassis ground.
the thing that has me really befuddled is that I'm showing ittle or no resistance from the normally open contact of the asd relay (the contact that would be closed as soon as the relay is supplied with latching voltage) and ground. this indicates to me, with my limited automotive electrical experience, that the supply wire to my ignition coil has a break in the insulation and the signal is grounding out. am I way off base here?

 

If the wire was grounded out, it would smoke when power was applied. Either that, or suck a fuse.

You only get power at the coil for about three seconds when you initially turn the key on. Then the PCM will disengage the ASD relay till it sees the engine turning.

 

good point. thanks. gonna keep on easter egging until I come up with something, unless there's any better ideas out there.

 

so....
I checked every fuse and relay I could find. everything checked out but now I have voltage at the coil input plug. removed coil wire and tried a test plug. no spark. I'm now looking at the pcm. is there any way to verify that it is faulty. I don't really have the money to spend on another dead end. and tragically the most advanced piece of test equipment I have is an obd. any ideas?

 

Best bet would be to plug in with a scanner, and see if the PCM sees crank position sensor signal, and cam position sensor signal.