Chrysler Repair: no spark on 98 2,5L V-6, primary winding, secondary winding

Question
QUESTION: Hi Roland, it's Bill again.  I followed your instructions and measured the resistance on the distributor.  The primary winding was around 2.7 ohms, which is high (should be 0.6 to 0.8).

But the resistance on the secondary winding was very unusual.  I couldn't get the ohmmeter to stay still.  It started around 12 million ohms, and slowly and steadily increased as I held the leads in place.  I gave up when it got to around 28 million ohms.  Now I can't get anything out of it at all.  Like the circuit is open.  (The battery is still disconnected, if it matters.)

Have you ever seen anything like this?  A high resistance can cause a no spark condition, but why does it continually change, and then show as open?  Something seems really wrong here.  Thank you,

Bill

ANSWER: Hi Bill,
I wonder if the coil is shot, both because of primary being high (I assume that you zeroed the leads before applying to the primary winding pins, correct) and the secondary behaving like it is open after rising above spec. The latter reminds me of a capacitor charging up in an r/c circuit. I am concerned to conclude that you need a new distributor because of the cost but with the caveat that I don't have a similar unit to test myself I would give serious consideration to getting a rebuilt one. You could try to test the unit at the store where you buy it to see how it behaves when tested with an ohmmeter. If it behaves similarly, then I wouldn't buy it.
Roland

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Roland, turned out it was the crank position sensor.  The distributor was fine.  I was actually testing the distributor resistance incorrectly.  I was testing from the coil tower to ground, when it should have been coil tower to pin 1 of the 2-pin connector.  It was in the range 12,500-18,000 ohms.  Thanks for your help with this.

Bill

Answer
Hi Bill,
Thanks for the update. Interesting that there was no 11 code, but that probably means it was marginal but not failed totally. I appreciate your clarifying the secondary wining measurement. I had assumed that one or the other end of the primary winding (while the distributor was installed) would have been grounded so I suggested measuring to ground. I will modify my advice to reflect this. I am glad to learn that you have the engine running once again.
Roland