it's been two weeks since this first happened to my ram van 150...

i was driving in the city after about 6 miles of highway. i smelled burning solder and thought, 'i hope that's not my car.'

well, it was my car because out of the steering column at the multi-switch a poof of white smoke came up and the car stopped.

i pulled over and the car would crank, but not start.

my first thought was some wires in the steering column. i've gone through all the column wiring twice and there is no visible damage. all the the switches work, including the ignition switch and the wires going to it. everything checks out in the column....

in the engine: there is no spark from the coil. i took it into a shop and the guy there got it to spark by hooking it up directly to a battery. there is juice coming in on the positive end into the coil.

the rotor in the distrubutor turns just fine.

acording to instructions in the repair manual i did diagnostics on the camshaft sensor. the wires are all good, including grounding. the final diagnostic is to test the resistance between the signal circuit and the the ground, not engine ground, but the wired ground. the resistance there is way too high, and the manual says that means i need to replace my computer.

does this make sense? would a fried computer somehow cause elctrical smoke to come out of my column? are there any more tests is should do before i buy a computer?

thanks for any info. this has been a very tricky situation.

janssen

 

Right now I dont know why the smoke came out of you column but it does sound like your ASD relay has shut down. Most common cause is the pick-up asm in the distributor. Did you check the wiring and switches with a meter? Could be the internal contacts of the ignition switch are fried and you wont see/find it unless you use a meter to test voltage in and out.



This is the pickup asm in the distributor...

 

asr was one of my early hypothoses, but i ruled it out when i discovered the igntion coil was getting juice from the battery. maybe that was premature?

where is the asr physically located. i have tried, but can't find the thing.

thanks
janssen

 

The ASD should be On LH Front Fender, Above Wheelwell. You should only get voltage on the coil for about 3 seconds when you turn the key to "on" and then the ASD will shut down until the computer sees pulses from the distributor pickup asm, if the pickup asm is bad than the asd will not energize. If you're convinced that the pickup asm is good than that only leaves the wiring and the computer. Did you try to pull any error codes off the computer?

 

Bottom line, if you got smoke in the cab, you smoked something in the cab. You know where you saw the smoke comming from, it rises, a little common sense will help you find it. I have no clue as to what could have caused it, but thats where I would start. It may have been caused by the ASD bening bad and smoked somthing else in the colum.

 

ok, this is really weird...

i found the asd above the left wheel well.

first thing i noticed is that all the wires are different colors than what's in the diagram. the relay itself is definately the same part with the same numbers on it, but the wires are all different. then i noticed that all the wires are going to the switch and bulbs for the customized daytime running lights. it's almost as if a previous owner reworked the wiring. i can't find the REAL asd. it doesn't seem to exist. so what's up with that??

jk

 

Just reading your previous posts, I don't know how you are getting voltage to the coil ALL the time? You should only have it there for about 3 seconds when the key is turned to the "on" position, then the ASD will shut down if it doesnt see pulses from the pickup asm in the distributor. To find the relay, have someone turn the ignition switch to "on" while you have your head under the hood on the drivers side, you should hear it click on and then click off in about 3 seconds. You can cycle the key several times until you find the relay. If no clicking sound is heard, then you have other problems.

 

hey try pulling codes cycle the key three times in 5 sec ending with it on watch the MIL flash at you