Need some help with my 2003 Caravan not turning over. Everything was just fine till yesterday, went to start and nothing, good dash lights and horn, tryed jumping for good measure, no difference. I can crawl under the van and jumper between the battery lead and starter solenoid and it cranks over just fine, but will not start, no ignition. So i started playing around with it and I can get it to start every now and again if I turn on the ignition and move the shifter to neutral, move the van a little and put back in park. Sometimes it will start just moving the shifter around in park or in the area of neutral so I am assuming its a neutral safety switch. This switch is inside the transmission if my research is correct and runs about 40 bucks and will need to be ordered. my question is can I bypass this switch on a temp basis both to confirm my troubleshooting and have the ability to get the van into my shop under its own power. What color wires go to this switch? and approxamatly where is the wires going into or out of the trans? There are two plugs facing forward on the trans and these dont seem to be what I am after. There is another plug going into the trans on the left front under the battery tray that is vertical and I think that is it. Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

 

If you turn the key on and remove the starter relay and jump the starter from there, and will it start. If not do you have spark?

 

I removed the starter relay and jumped the forward and rear terminals, the starter spins the motor over just fine like a normal start but will not start, Key on or off, thinking the powertrain control module is cutting off the ignition, also the poor wiring diagram I got from the library, says i should have 12 volts at terminal 30 I think and my meter confirms this so I think I can rule out the ignition switch and wiring from it to the relay.

 

After looking at my poor wiring diagram again it looks like the starter relay gets its ground from the PCM, no ground no start. Where is the PCM? right in front of the battery? and why would the PCM just loose its ground? is there something I am missing?

 

Have a buddy that works at the local dealership, was able to loan out the factory repair manuals, did all the troubleshooting steps, looks like a new PCM is needed. The dealership has 9 on back order with none on the inbound list so it could be quite some time. Any good advice on an aftermarket unit, or possibly using a used unit? Also looks like the dealer will need to reprogram a new or used or aftermarket one. Any advice on this?

 

Being that it's an 03, and women are terrible drivers(lol j/k) you should be able to find a used one fairly easily in a local wrecking yard. Where are you located I can look up the nearest yard with a suitable unit in stock. Would also need to know the engine, FWD or AWD, FFV or no FFV

 

Ok, I was replacing the manual range selector inside the trans, had to drop the valve body to do it. The wrench bender at the dealer told me to be careful because there are 2 pistons with springs that will fall out and sure enough they fell out, problem is the pistons and 2 of the springs are identical but there is a third smaller diameter spring that rolled a ways down the garage floor before I cought it and now I dont know which piston it goes with, the forward or aft one? anybody have any knowledge on this as I would like to get it back together as soon as possible. Thanks