Alrght guys first off, Im glad this forum exists because i have gotten so much help and info from other forums about other things i have and hopefully this will be the same. Now for the problem....

My mom has a 1991 caravan with a 1992 3.0 in it. It was a good van until recently. Whats happening is the idle is bad almost like it has a couple cylinders missing. When it idles it tries to stall and then revs back to life and other times it will slowly stall. When your driving it is perfectly fine under load ( like when going up a hill or accelerating) but when you are trying to maintain a certain speed it runs terrible. It feelslike the transmission is slipping really bad but its in the engine. It always stalls when slowing down and turning everytime and stalls most of the time when you come to a stop at a light or sign. The computer is throwing 4 codes, well actually 2 but its throwing one code 3 times.

Its throwing 54 (which to my knowledge is either a cam sensor, ignition pickup or timing)

and its giving me 26 3 times (which to my knowledge is peak injector voltage is not being reached.)

A while ago I broke the thermostat housing bolt off in the manifold so while i had the motor apart I put in new plugs, new air filter with crank case breather filter and also a distributor out of a 95 Caravan with the 3.0 with only 97 k miles. All with no effecton the poor running. Also got injectors out of a 95 motor that were alot cleaner than the ones already in the van and cleaned them up real nice along with a better condition fuel injection harness. Also cleaned the runners of the new manifold up real nice. After all this its still running like garbage! Oh and put a new fuel filter on the thing. The one thing i haven't tried for the 54 is a new timing belt but i wouldnt think thats he problem since it runs good under load.

Oh and after i put the new parts on it Icleared the computer and now its just giving me a 54 and two 26's instead of three.

If anyone has any ideas for me to try or if anyone has a solution it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

I did a bit of looking up your codes you said you had, this want what I found
(Which you already stated)

Code 26 Peak injector circuit voltage has not been reached (need to check computer signals, voltage reg, and injectors) (see note #4)

NOTE #4.During cranking, the computer will test the current through the injector to see whether there's too much resistance in the injector's path. If there is, code 26 is set.

The problem may be cured with tuner cleaner on the connectors.

For TBI engines, the injector's cold resistance should be between 0.9 and 1.2 ohms (specs vary with year). This is a peak-and-hold injector. With the engine idling the peak period should be about 1.2 milliseconds whereas the hold period will vary. If it's lower than this at idle, then the injector's shorted or there's a defect in the injector driver circuit.


And code 54
54 No sync pickup signal during engine rotation (turbo only)
OR
54 Internal logic module fault ('84 turbo only) - or camshaft sensor/distributor timing (see note #7)

Note #7 Inside your distributor you have two pickups, one is for the ignition and one is to tell the computer where number one cylinder is in its rotation. If you look at the four slotted tangs inside there you will see one has a bigger slot, that's the one that tells the sync pickup what's number one. In other words, the pickup inside the distributor is bad.


I also noticed you said you swap the injectors and a distributor out of another caravan are you sure the parts from the other van were good? I’d check to make sure that the resistance on the injectors were fine and take another look at the distributor just to be sure that you didn’t accidentally put on some bad parts. (I have a couple of times pulled a bad part and didn’t know it until after I’d put it on the car)

If the parts you swap are fine then I’d probably check the computer and or wiring circuit for the injectors and distributor.

It might be possible that the reason it showing code 26 more then once is that its showing it once for each injector that’s failed. (Although I haven't had that happen before.)

Hope this helps

 

Hey man thanks a lot for the input. AllPar is actually is where i found the best info i could on the codes.

On the injector part, I didnt pay a whole lot of attention to the connectors but i guess i will have to pull the upper plenum again and clean them up. My buddy said he listened to the injectors and said they were running pretty, ummm eratic is the word im looking for i think.

As for the distributor, I was thinking this could be the problem but im not really sure how to check the optical cam sensor or the ignition pick up. It would probably work out to be that given my luck. If anyone knows how to check those things please let me know.

I do know that the 2 big harness connectors under the battery tray (the light grey ones) are pretty much gone. The grey plastic parts are in pretty bad shape. Im hoping for my friend to come through with a DRB II scanner that might hopefully pinpoint it. If not, hopefully my brother in law can figure it out. I dont get too deep into the newer motors and cars. Im more of an auto body guy and i would much rather work on an old Chevy 350 or any of the old muscle motors for that matter unless i have a good direction to go. Thanks again man

 

You’re welcome

I could type out the test procedure but it might take long while and maybe one to many type o’s to understand. lolBut on a serious note they can be a little trickying testing them. however I think this link has most of the info for testing Optical Distributor I believe it’s the same test procedure you do on a single module engine system. Or as I think they call it (SMEC)

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm

And here’s a link for testing the injectors but if your buddy check them then their probably good.

http://www.ohmcheck.com/fuelinjectors.htm

on the distributor if you don't want to try and check ityou could buy a new one then you would know the part is good and if it turns out not to be that part return it they’ll usually give you a refund as long as the part wasn’t damage and you have the receiptjust make sure you hold onto your old distributor until you know.


I only keep thinking that it is the distributor from knowing that the distributors in those systems can be a little tricky like throwing you’re injectors out of synic a little. I have a 85 caravan and it had similar problems and itwould stall at every single stop and once I tore into itI found it was the distributor causing all the problems the only difference is I didn’t have injectors on that van still the old carburetor but I guess I could be mistaken and it be something else.

Hope it works out for you let me know how it goes. And I love the old muscle motors just thinking about it makes me want my v8 350 back (I miss those old breaker points.)lol

 

Thanks for those links man. Ill chck them out tomorrow cause im about to call it a night. I ate way too much chicken and dumplings and i got the "itis". lol.

I was wondering....I was under the impression that the cam sensor was in the distributor. But now im reading that the cam sensor is near the serpentine drive. Is this the case? I have also been reading that some others have had similar problems and it ended up being the crank sensor. Any input on that?

 

Sorry it took me a bit to get back to you on that.

But on a good note, I did look at the books on that model and the optic sensing unit and corresponding parts are located in the distributor and about the crank sensor I didn’t think that year and model had one. That is if we’re talking about 1991 dodge caravan 2 wd non-turbo 3.0 liter V6 and not a grand caravan.

And if we are, I went ahead and pulled up the wiring schematic for a 91 dodge caravan 2 wd non-turbo 3.0 liter V6 ignition and fuel injection system just to be sure and it doesn’t show it having a crank sensor in the wiring schematic and I also would think that you would have gotten a trouble code for the crank sensor shown to you when you got the 54 and 26.

But if we want to assume that my eyes ran together or something lol then the crack sensor is still pretty easy to test. So if it did turn out the book was wrong which I don’t think it is but if indeed it was then the test procedure would be.

First locate the Magnetic crank sensor then unplug the electrical connector and the check resistance by touching the appropriate terminals. If resistance is not within your model specs then it would be a good ideal to replace the sensor the other way it can also be done is to check its voltage.

Since the crank position sensor will produce an alternating current when the engine is being turn over you should be able to check the voltage output.

So with the sensor still connected, probe the appropriate terminals/wires and while having someone cranking the engine over read the output of the voltage on the multimeter if you readings are within your models specs on the AC scale of the multimeter, then sensor is probably good. If the however output voltage is low, then more then likely the sensor is bad sometimes though you can clean them and their start working again because it was rust or debris that was causing it not to work but if you do remove it to clean it make sure when you reinstall it (if it is the adjustable type) that the air gap between the sensor and Magnetic wheel isn’t to great or to close and gap is correct and after you get the sensor back in you might want to retest it just to be sure it was the debris and not that the sensor was actually bad.
The other type is the Hall Effect crankshaft position sensor they usually have three terminals one for power, one for ground and one for the signal output. The sensor has to have power or voltage which ever you want to call it and a good ground to be able produce a signal, so you should check the power and ground terminals first with your voltmeter or multimeter set to read ac volts. Then unplug the dis module then place your probe on the ground terminal and the signal terminal have someone crank the engine over for you and watch the voltmeter if the sensor is producing a voltage signal you should see voltmeter needle move or reading change each time one of the shutter blades pass through the Hall Effect switch if you don’t see voltmeter move or change or it doesn’t reach your model specs the sensor will probably need to be replace.

Or youcould use a good sensor tester to test the crank sensor but I’m pretty sure you probably don't have one

I also pulled out the tech book on the computer codes and indeed it does show that you will get a code 26 for each injector that has failed so you could get code 26 shown to you up to six times one for each injector.


Let me know how it goes