Hello, I am new to this forum and I am in desperate need of some advice. I have a 99 caravan with the 3.8 v6 motor. The van was hesitant to start a few times and then one day nothing. after some testing I removed the starter, took it to be tested, it was bad, I replaced it. Now is when the trouble starts. At first the key would turn and nothing. then, after jiggling some wires and finding a loose wire harness, it began cranking every time. but it will not start. I don't know where to look next. is it possible there is another loose wire and I am not getting spark? how do I check for spark? the fuel pump kicks on so I don't think that's it. as an amateur diy guy, my only idea is to unwrap and physically look at every wire. please tell me there is a better way. thanks everybody.

 

Easiest thing to do is spray starter fluid in the intake. If it sputters to life while spraying you have a fuel problem. If it doesn't even cough you have a spark problem.

 

definitely spark problem. no spark to any wires. registering about 11 volts on the green wire on ignition coil so i think that means the crank sensor is good. but i replaced the coil and that didn't help. can you?

 

I would verify the harness to the crank position sensor and the connection. I had a 96 GC years ago and it went through 2 of these sensors in a week because of the cheap replacements. My symptoms were the same: power to ignition coil, fuel pump energizes but no spark. Could be in the process of replacing the starter the wiring was already weak and it got disturbed causing the failure.

 

Very unusual for all three PCM coil drivers to fail but wouldn't hurt to check. Connect a test light to the other three wires on the coil plug. Each should blink as you crank the engine. If the test light stays on or doesn't light up the drivers are dead.

 

thanks. I will be testing other wires tomorrow after work. I did try testing for continuity from the harness to the ignition coil to the harness for the pcm. the result was continuity from end to end and even between different wires. I also had continuity when touching two different wires in the ignition coil harness, with the pcm unplugged. does this make sense?

 

ok I am an ***. the crank position sensor was bad. van is running. replaced a year and a half ago does that make sense. well thanks