Chrysler Repair: 97 Neon: no start, battery clamps, cable clamp

Question
i have 97 a neon 2.0 sohc it only fires when u turn the key off. i changed the water pump and timeing belt and left the hood open over night and it rained on the motor. it ran be4 i changed every thing. it just wont spark tell u turn the key off and sumtimes periodically  

Answer
Hi Billy,
That is strange. Am I correct then that the engine will 'catch' for just a moment when you turn off the key, or do you mean it runs longer than that with the key in the 'off' position, or do you mean it will catch when you release the key from start but let it stay in run??? If it only when you let off the starter that it will the catch and run I suspect that the battery cable clamp/post interfaces are wet and so you aren't getting sufficient voltage to produce a good spark when you are also running the starter motor. That motor drags down the voltage and so the voltage to operate the spark coil is also dragged down and you get a weak spark. I would remove the battery clamps and clean up those connections and also check the ground wires of the -post clamp wires at their far ends where they connect to the body and to the engine as if those grounds got wet you could have a poor ground return current pathway which will also degrade the quality of your spark. You could also see if it starts better when you have a jumper from another battery, which would also indicate that your problem is with the car's battery supply voltage. Maybe recharging the battery would also help. But clean up the connections of your battery to start with.
Roland