Chrysler Repair: no signal to fuel injectors?, eagle vision tsi, illumination lights

Question
Hi Ronald, I have a 1993 eagle vision tsi with a 3.5L V6. The car was running great and my wife came in one day and it seemed to be missing/running rough. I drove it down the road a few miles and it seemed to get worse. It even started to smoke some. I got it home and changed the plugs, but no help. Checked the spark to the plugs OK. Put a test light on the ground of the battery, turned on the key and checked the injector connection and got NO light on either side. I changed it to the pos side and had a constant light on one terminal. What would cause no power to the injectors? I looked for a pcm/ecm fuse, but could'nt locate it. The car also has a problem with the tranny going into limp mode while driving down the road. You can stop or shift to neutral and restart it and most of the time it will go on. Sometimes it take a few tries. The dash lights and other instruments come on sometimes and sometimes they don't. Usually when they don't the trans does not shift.Any help would be greatly appreciated. Glenn.

Answer
Hi Glenn,
The first thing to do is check for fault fault codes stored in the pcm. Use the ignition key:"On-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine, which remains "on", to begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat the process to see that you get an accurate and repeatable set of flash numbers. Write back with the results of the counts in the order of appearance. Let's deal with the transmission after we get the engine in order. When you say there is a coincidence between dash lights and trans behavior do you mean the illumination lights, the warning lights, the gauges or everything?
Is the engine now starting or not is also of interest?
Roland
PS May I ask a favor? I am competing for the honor of being the 'expert of the month'. Note the 'thank/rate' tab below where you can enter a "yes" where you see the question about a nomination for this award. Thank you.
Also, there is a space for comments where you can enter the answers to my question, and not have to wait to ask a follow-up question. I will see the comments and get right back to you.

Hi Roland, none of the gauges or instrument lights work at times, even the tach. That includes the transmission position indicator lights. At this time, the car will not start. I tried spraying a little starting fluid (not a lot) and it turned over for about two or three seconds and backfired. That's when I started checking the electrical/ fuel. Glenn.


Hi Glenn,
The shut down of the dash suggests we have a problem with either the data bus that carries all the intercommunication between the pcm, tcm, bcm, etc., or a connection between the socket for the plug(s) of the cluster and its circuit board has cracked its solder joint, or one of those modules that I listed above has gone bad, or possibly it is simply an issue with a section of the ignition switch not conducting. I would start with the switch as it is the simplest, but before anything else let me know what you get from the flash counts as that may tell us something. You may need to get back by asking it as a new question as you already used the thank/rate, but that is ok. Thanks for the nomination, very kind.
Roland