Chrysler Repair: 3.0L starting problem, lebaron convertible, roland roland

Question
Hi my daughter has a 1992 Lebaron convertible(V6 3.0) that just died the other day while driving on the freeway. And now it won't start.  The engine turns over but it won't catch/start. I listened near the gas tank spout while my wife turned the key and I heard the sound of the fuel pump so I believe the car is getting gas.  I checked & there was no spark coming from the coil to the distributer. (This has a differnt looking coil than I'm used to). Anyway, I plugged my meter into the electrical connector going into the coil. I had my turn the key again and ther isn't any voltage going into the coil.  Shouldn't there be 12 volts? I checked all the fuses and they are good.  I swapped out the ignition and starter relays with other components(that use the same relay) and again the car will not start  I have no idea what to check now.  Can you help?

Answer
Hi Jim
What you have done so far is good. The fuel pump will normally run for a second when you turn the key to the run position. The lack of spark could be due to a failure of the photo-optic sensor in the distributor. Try the ignition key to read-out the fault codes from the engine controller:"on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapase time. Then watch the check engine light, which remains "on" to begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat to be sure of a consistent count. The last sets for flash are always 5 in each. Then group the counts in pairs in the order of appearance. The last pair is always 55, which means 'end of readout'. If you also get an 11 or a 54 that means that sensor unit needs to be replaced in the distributor. It is pretty obvious how to do it, but see if it comes with instructions and if not let me know. Let me know any other code as well.
Roland

Roland is FANTASTIC! Roland, I pulled the codes and got the 55. I did it two more times and got the same code 55.(FYI:I looked up the ignition coil on autozone.com and it looks like part #C872, made by Duralast-Wells) Oh, surfing the internet I found an article about the ASD/auto-shutdown on this car. What is that and could it be involved?

Hi Jim,
Now we have the fact that there are no codes, which means that the sensors in the distributor are ok, and therefor you should have 12V delivered to the coil from the autoshutdown relay (that device is activated by the presence of the pulses from the distributor; its purpose is safety: to remove the spark and fuel if the engine stops rotating, such as in a crash).
You can verify that 12V by checking the 2-wire plug at the spark coil where you should find that while the starter is cranking there should be 12v on the upright of "T" plug (the crosspiece is the coil primary "driver" which should be pulsing between 12V and ground but you might not be able to 'see' that with a voltmeter because the pulse rate is too rapid). You may not have seen the 12V to the coil before because your wife wasn't cranking? It will be there for 1 second (like the fuel pump when the key it turned to 'run' but then it disappears until the engine is cranked).   But the upright is definitely the "output voltage" from the autoshutdown relay which is also provided to the injectors and alternator field coils. So verify that at the coil plug. If it is there, and because there are no codes for the distributor sensors, then there should be spark from the coil when you hold the tip of its wire (pulled out of the distributor cap) 1/4" from the block/head. If not, then the coil would be suspect unless the 'driver' wire wasn't pulsing (which also would cause a code). The primary of the coil should read .97 to 1.18 ohms, and the secondary winding "output" to ground should read 11,000 to 15,300 ohms. But then if you do find spark on the output wire when cranking, but you don't see spark at the plugs (or the plug caps with screwdriver inserted and shaft held similarly 1/4" from block/head) then I would suspect the rotor is 'open' or the cap is shorting voltage to ground.
Sorry to be so long-texted, but I know you are the sort of do it yourselfer who would want all this.
Please tell me of any progress. And thank for the kind remarks and nomination.
Roland