Chrysler Repair: van stalled, phillips head screwdriver, screw driver

Question
Hello Roland

I have a 1996 town and country {VAN} 3.8 engine. I was driving and it began to act as if it did not want to take the gas, so I pulled over for about 30 min, then it began to operate as if nothing was ever wrong.What could this be? This happened twice.

Answer
Hi Terri,
Sorry to be a little slow to reply. I suspect that one of the spark timing sensors has begun to breakdown but it makes no sense to just try replacing one or the other. It is better to do some testing. So if you are up for some do it yourself here is response I gave recently to a similar problem with a '96 car:
"While it could be a fuel problem, the typical approach to a 'no start' is to determine if you have a spark. Take a phillips head screwdriver with a plastic handle and insert the metal tip of it into one of the rubber caps that you can remove from a spark plug (don't pull on the wire, just grasp the cap itself, rotate it back and forth while pulling to free it from the spark plug). Once the tip of the screwdriver is put in the cap so as to touch the wire clip at the bottom of the cap which normally touches the tip of the spark plug, hold the 'assembly' via the plastic handle and position the shaft of the screw driver about 1/4" from the cylinder head of other metal part of the engine which is incontact with the head or block of the engine which serves as a ground. Then have a helper crank the engine while you observe whether a spart jumps across the gap from the screwdriver shaft to the metal ground point during a 5 second cranking period. See if you get spark for 5 seconds, 1-2 seconds or not at all. Then we can take the next step in diagnosing the no start.
If you want to try something that doesn't involve tools:
You might also want to check the engine controller for any faults it may have observed and stored as two digit code numbers. Try using the ignition key: turn it "on-off-on-off-on" and leave it "on" (doing this quickly, no longer than 5 seconds). Then watch the 'check engine' light to begin flashing, then pause, flashing, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause and keep track of the numbers. Repeat the readout and verify the counts are correct. Then group them in pairs in the order that they came out, thus forming two digit numbers. You may notice that the pause is shorter between the digits of a given number, and longer between the numbers themselves. Then send me a 'follow-up' question telling me the results of your readout. By the way, 55 will be the last number (two groups of 5 flashes each) and that is the code for "end of readout".
I have the troubleshooting manual for several of the engines and we can look up the possibilities of what is wrong based upon what fault codes you show.
There is also an essay on fault codes at the site:
http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html
which gives the meaning of the code numbers. But then you need to get specific info for what exactly might be the diagnostic tests or parts to replace to complete the repair."
So do the code test and write back. If you don't get any codes then do the spark test and write back.
Roland