Question-------------------------
well first off the van is a 1998 chrysler town and country. it has a 3.8 litter engine in it. there is no sercutiy alarm on the van. theres no noise coming from the starter. and also to clarify the remark about jumping the van, i never said that we used anohter vehicle, we have to jump it from the starter realy with 2 screw drivers. the battery is brand new. any info would be great thanks Marcie
AnswerO.K. Marcie, now I get the picture. I assume that you are doing the jumping at the relay located in the power distribution center under the hood, a long narrow box. (If you mean jumping it at the starter solenoid switch (which is part of the starter motor) then that is a slightly different issue which you need to tell me.)
You didn't mention whether the starter relay makes a soft click sound or not when the key is placed in the 'start' position. If so, then the relay's internal switch contacts are burned, because a click means that the ignition switch and park/neutral safety switch are working properly to activate the relay and the only explanation is the relay is bad, if you are indeed (as I assumed) jumping across the relay to get the starter to respond, and that relay is closing the contacts together but they are not conducting electricity.
If there is no click, then the ignition switch is not passing 12v thru fuse #10 (have you checked that fuse, under the dash?) to relay pin 86 on the red/yellow wire (check that with a glow light or voltmeter between the wire and ground), or the park/neutral safety switch is not doing the grounding of relay pin 85 (dark blue/orange, dark blue/tan, or tan wire) when you have the shift lever set in park or neutral (measure that with an ohmmeter between pin 85 and ground, it should be close to 0 ohms). The switch is inside the trans and its ground path is sent thru the powertrain controller to the relay. So see if either of those is the reason that the relay doesn't click, if that is what you observe.
Let me know what you find out. The fact that you can jump start the engine at the starter relay means that fuse #23 in the power distribution center is o.k. because that supplies 12v to both the ignition switch and to pin 30 of the relay which is one of the 2 points that you are using when you jump the relay, I suspect.
I think this will be clear to you when you run these tests.
Please let me know what you find out.
Roland
