Hello, I'm new to the forum. My name is Steve Spencer and I live in North Fort Myers, Florida. I'm a marine electrician and I make my living wiring boats and installing marine electronics and electrical equipment. I have a 2000 Dodge B1500 that I use as a service vehicle. The old girl has been with me for 125,000 miles and, until last Friday, has been utterly reliable. I was driving down the road and the van just quit running. No sputters, no cutting out, it just died. Fortunately, I was just coming into Matlacha, so there was a parking lot I could turn into. Also, fortunately, it's not tourist season, so the owner didn't have me towed or come out yelling. I checked the fuses...all good. Pulled the distributor cap and checked it and the rotor button for crust, cracks, etc....all looked good. Pulled #5 plug and cranked it to check for spark... it started. Re-assembled van and headed for home to investigate. Made it about 10 miles and it died again, this time at an intersection. Not good! Directed traffic for about a half hour until it started again (couldn't check for spark this time), continued heading for home. Made it about 5 miles this time, when it died, again in an intersection. Wouldn't start. After an hour (and it still wouldn't start), got help pushing it out of the intersection to the side of the road. Called wife for a pick up. Tried it again when she arrived, and it started. Made the last 3 miles to home and shut it off. Checked for spark later....none found. Went to parts store, got new cap, rotor, pickup and coil. No spark. Thought about it for a while, replaced coil wire. It sparked. Reassembled. It ran (very smoothly, too). Was going to go for a test ride but it was fixing to rain, so I decided to wait till this morning. No spark! Any ideas? Bad ECM? Broken wire? Any help would be greatly appreciated! My livelyhood depends on this thing running. Thanx, Spence.

 

No spark where, at the plugs or at the coil?

 

Allpro,
That's no spark at the plugs. It's intermittent. As I said, the starter cranks, the dash energizes, but when it doesn't start and I pull #5 plug (the easiest one to reach), there's no spark. Is there a relay that the ECM energizes to turn on the ignition circuit. That's what it's acting like. The coil, cap, rotor and distributor pickup are brand new. I'm going out now to see if the negative side of the coil is "opening" and "closing", and to see if there is 12VDC on the positive side. Thanx for your reply. Spence

 

Keep us posted

 

The ASD relay turns power on/off to the PCM, ignition, injectors, and the fuel pump. The next time you don't have spark, test for spark off the coil wire. This can help tell you if the problem is with the distributor or spark plug wires. If there's still no spark, then you (using a non-digital meter) test for pulses across the coil's primary wires. If it pulses, the new coil is no good, if it doesn't pulse, then likely the crank sensor is no good. After 125K miles and the symptoms you're having, I really think the crank sensor is going to be the problem.

 

Hey, Alloro (I got it right this time)!
I checked yesterday afternoon and found no spark off the coil wire. Also found no power (12VDC) to the coil. Don't have an analog meter, so I couldn't check for pulse, but if I don't have power I probably wouldn't have a pulse either (?). About an hour after I checked this, I tried to start it again and it fired up. Instantly, like it always did. Started it 10 times in a row. Bingo! Tried it again an hour later. Nada! Would a bad crank sensor act like this? Thanx, Spence.

 

Yes it could, but I'd focus more on the no power at the coil issue. You're correct about no pulse at the coil if there's no +12v, so no need to do that test at this time. You need to find out why there is no power getting to the coil. The first point to investigate would be the ASD relay since it is what turns power to the coil on and off.

 

Back again! I tested the ASD relay by replacing it with the one for the A/C clutch (same P/N, same schematic). I guess that's not it. Bought a new crank position sensor (the parts guy will let me bring it back if that's not it). It's going back, didn't change a thing. I'm getting down to disassembling the underhood fuse box to see if there's a loose or bad connection to the ASD relay or the ASD supply fuse. The parts guy also said that it could be the airmass sensor telling the PCM not to supply the coil with power. Doesn't make sense to me. I went out at dark this evening to see if I could see any errant sparks when I wiggled wires (the van's been running (starting) regularly since late this afternoon). Nothing happened. It just continued to run like there was nothing wrong. The idle did get a little rough for a few seconds when I wasn't doing anything. I revved the motor a little (to maybe 2,000 RPM's) and it smoothed right back out. I was just wondering if water in the gas could cause this type of thing? Just a thought and doesn't seem too possible, but I did get some gas (I had about 1/4 tank showing at the time) at the local cheapo gas station (that smells like incense inside). Bought $40.00 of their finest 87 and the pump shut itself off at $39.95 for some reason. I get my gas there all the time and haven't had a problem, but I only made it about 8 miles down the road from there when the van died. I'll suck out a sample from the bottom of the tank tomorrow and look. The car parts guy said if I can get the van up there, they have a diagnostic comptuter he'll hook up for free. If it's running tomorrow when I get home from work, maybe I'll take him up on it. Any more ideas? Thanx, Spence.

 

Water can do this. When you start it up next try wiggling the wiring harness and see if it misfires or quits. A loose wire connection can also cause this problem. The wire from the ASD runs to the coil pack, injectors and O2 Sensor heaters so it has multiple connection points.

 

Bad gas or water in the gas can keep an engine from starting, but it won't prevent spark or keep power from getting to the coil, so that's not the problem. Check the other red wire coming off the positive battery terminal. It's like a 6 gauge and runs to a bulky black in-line connector. Sometimes this connector gets corrosion inside, so you might want to take a close look at that.