I checked pin 5 on the Auto Shut Down relay...it was grounded.

I've gone through the wiring harness and wiggled, jiggled and inspected it while I had my continuity meter buzzing away the whole time. Couldn't find any short. I also disconnected devices one by one (coil, fuel injectors)...no change. This was all done with the ignition key off.

When the key is OFF or in the RUN position this wire (GRN/ORG) goes to ground. I tried my voltmeter on it when the engine was cranking...then it indicated 12 V (or damn near to it...11 point something.) I also pulled a connector at one of the fuel injectors. Same story, grounded until engine was cranked, then it had voltage. Now I'm totally confused.

Plugged my coil lead back in, checked spark with a new plug figuring that if the coil had power into it then it should be sending it to the distributor...still no spark when cranking. I pulled the lead from the coil to the distributor and put a plug in it. Grounded it and cranked a few times...no spark at plug.

Questions: does this seem right? No power to GRN/ORG unless the engine is cranking? How would the coil maintain power when the key is in the RUN position if that was the case?

Any suggestions on where to look next? Faulty coil?

 

Yes the dark green/orange striped wire will have power as the engine trys to crank and it will have power as the engine is running.

With the key shut off this same wire will seem that it goes and grounds out. It does go to ground for the fact that in the PCM the transistors are what is ungrounding (opening) and grounding (closing) the cirucits for the componets to work. So as the motor is in rotation (starting or running) the wire goes hot and the PCM tells which injector to fire and "tells" the coil to send spark to the distributer by grounding the other wire from each injector. Your coil pack may be bad or that new Crank Postition Sensor may have gone bad. The ASD relay is working for the fact that you are getting power in this wire while cranking the motor.

Another posible problem may be the Oil Pressure Switch, if the PCM does not get an indication that there is sufficient oil pressure it may cancel out any engine operation. I know GM PCM's does that, I am not sure if Dodge's PCM's do this as well.

I am still learning about these vans.

Posible problem componets, these are where I would look next.
Coil
Crankshaft Postion Sensor
Oil Pressure Switch.

 

Hey, what happened? This is a great thread. We would like to know if it's fixed and what else was done.

 

Sorry for the delay in the update....to make a long story short...the ECU (computer) was bad.

I was finally at my wits end with it two weeks ago so off it went to a local garage that was recommended to me. They pulled the crank position sensor and told me it was damaged, that it had been installed incorrectly and that the sensor end had been hit (I assume by teeth on the ring gear it was sensing?) and had to be replaced. So we replaced it...still no spark.

Next up the coil was swapped out for a new one...still no spark. The garage was good enough not to charge me for it. That left us with the ECU. They couldn't find a used one locally to swap it out with, so I went on E-bay and found one in New York. The seller wouldn't ship to Canada so I had to ship it to a relative in Michigan then forward it on from there, which took more than a week for me to get it.

Put in the new (used) ECM and it started right up.

Only issue I'm left with is that my high beam indicator light in the dash won't go off now. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that the Canadian vans had daytime running lights (which I disconnected because the module died a few months ago) and the US models did not. I'm just going to open up the dash and pull the bulb. The headlights are so wimpy that nobody can tell if your high beams are on or not.

Thanks again for posters who helped out...much appreciated.

 

hi new to site im a small shop owner and not getting on demand but mobile auto repair has lots of very good answers but i read all the posts on this problem and i just wanted to say dont forget that green wire only has 12v for maybe 10 seconds if not cranking jm1062

 

woops didnt see your #12 post your on the ball