Chrysler Repair: van has loss of power while operating, spark coil, cylinder number

Question
Hello Roland,Our 1994 Chrysler Town & Country has been cutting out and losing all power during operation.  This will happen while driving on the freeway or in the city at different speeds.  I will have to put it in neutral to restart the engine and it starts again with no problem.  This loss of power happens most often when driving a lot on errands and will occur several times in succession.  No idling problem. Lots of quick and violent jerking of vehicle sometimes lets me know in advance when power will be cutting out. Thanks, K.J.

Answer
Hi K.J.
This is a challenging issue because it is intermittant and so when you try to diagnose the issue it isn't there. The possibilites range widely: a flakey ignition switch, a flakey autoshutdown relay, a flakey spark timing sensor, a flakey spark coil, a flakey engine controller among them, and even a loose battery connection is possible. Before going on, let me ask that when you write again please specify which engine (size and cylinder number) you have in the van.
The one thing you can do at this point, until it progresses to non-intermittant, is to query the engine controller for the presence of any recorded fault codes stored in its memory. The controller notices when something abnormal occurs and makes a note of it as a two-digit code. You can do this yourself.
Begin a readout as follows: Take your ignition key and turn the ignition switch "on-off-on-off-on" and leave it "on". Do this switching quickly so that no more than 5 seconds elapses. Then watch the 'check engine' light to begin to flash, pause, flash, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause and make a note of them in the order that they come. The last two flash groups will be 5 in each. Repeat the readout until you have the numbers accurately (the same result, two times in a row). Then pair the numbers two at a time in the order they came, to form two-digit numbers, for example the last number will be 55 which is the code for "end of readout". Then write back and tell me the other numbers that came out and I'll see if any of them are related to your problem.
Other than that, you either have to come upon some other observation that points toward one of the possibilities I mentioned above, or wait till the engine dies and won't restart. Then you can identify what it is. I can give you some tips on what to do when it happens.
Roland