gonna make this a short read. I bought the van with a rod knocking, replaced it with a 3.9 from a ram truck with 88,xxx miles on it. been great for months. took on a 30 mile drive yesterday , about half way there the CEL came on and now it wont start again, odometer showing code p0340 for camshaft position sensor. was not getting any spark out of ignition coil upon cranking. replaced coil , no change. let it sit over night, and it fired right up.. after running for a while and shutting it off, it won't start again... any ideas?? oh and auto part places say it doesn't have a camshaft position sensor , just has a pickup sensor in the distributor which has been replaced..

 

This past summer my bosses van with the 5.9 had same code and same scenario, died at a gas stop. We pulled the code, took off the distributor cap and quite a bit of dust and bit of shavings inside. One of the pickup coils screw mount eyelets was broke off, both the (pickup coil, rotor and cap's) contacts were crudded up pretty bad, he hadn't done a tune up on it in quite some time.
We went to an O'Reillys nearby for a new replacements of the above mentioned items and installed, fired right up and running well ever since.

Pickup coil is the cam sensor btw... pull the cap and have a look check/clean the wire connector and harness of the p/c too

 

have already replaced all that when I installed the engine a few months ago. but yes, there were a bit of shavings inside the cap and the pickup coil was a bit dirty, will try another new one.

 

You replaced it with an OEM or an aftermarket one? Lot's of issue with aftermarket electrical parts these days not lasting long.

 

I know there brother ,, unfortunately an after market one as they are cheaper

 

True, but as with most things you get what you pay for. Take your pickup coil with you to the parts store to match em up and try out the new one to see if it resolves your no start. If yes that's great, if no you have option to return it.
I fortunately haven't had an issue with the pickup coil in my 99 van but have gone through 3-4 crank sensors in recent years which would only last a few months. This most recent one is a duralast autozone one and has lasted 1 1/2 years about 20k + miles so far

 

so nothing else other then the crank sensor??
already installed a new ignition coil and when it ran seemed to run a little better, showing that maybe the other one was going out. but now I'm left with either the crank sensor or the cam sensor??

 

I'm not quite sure what you're asking here... yes I've experienced other problems over the years of owning this van, PCM was replaced back in 2004 and the auto electric shop here that worked on it probably replaced the pickup coil and crankshaft sensor and a few other parts then while chasing down my no start situation. Cost me $1800.+ for that. Since then I've done most all my own service other than transmission and never had a problem with nor replaced (so far as I can recall) with the p0340 code relating to the cam sensor/pickup coil is what I meant.

pardon me if I'm wrong but i get the impression you are thinking" ignition coil" and "pickup coil/cam sensor" are one in the same? The pickup coil is located in the distributor cap below the rotor button, it's a fitted plastic disk with wire harness attached to it and plugs into exterior harness on the driverside valve cover area.

In my bosses case (mentioned above) the check engine light and code popped up before it died and would not restart, He did also mention it had been running a little bit funny beforehand.
He checked for spark (none) and tried a bit of fuel down the throttlebody (no luck) we replaced the distributor cap and rotor and pickup coil (all inside the distributor) and that was what did the trick

 

I will try another pickup coil and see how it goes,, just baffled why it starts and runs when cold then wont after a drive, unless the sensor is getting hot and malfunctioning
Thanks for all info

 

No problem, just trying to help out
So your engine does start and run now? But only till it warms up then wants to shut down? still displaying same code or did that change? I may not be able to give help but someone else may if the details are a little clearer friend.