Dodge Repair: 97 3.0L Dodge Caravan: wont start, dodge caravan, spark coil


Question
I have a 97 Caravan 3.0 L that won't start. I have check all the obvious things. Fuel pressure, starter, and battery. I found no spark. Traced it to the lead coming into the coil ( new ). When you turn on the key you get 6 volts when cranking 0 volts. Relays and PCM are new also. What am I missing?

Answer
Hi John,
I think you might mean 12 volts rather than 6, and even when you first to the key to the run position it will only last for a second or so. When you are cranking it over it is supposed to hold steady at 12 volts while cranking and stay there if the engine catches on and runs. But if it doesn't catch then the 12v is cut off after a second. That is the behavior of the automatic shut down relay which is designed to cut off the 12v to both the fuel pump, injectors, and the spark coil in the event that the engine is not running...for safety purposes to prevent a fire if this might occur because of an accident.
So if you don't have spark, and you don't have 12v on the dark green/orange wire at the distributor to power up the primary winding of the coil, that is usually because the engine computer is not getting a signal from both of the engine rotational sensors. So it thinks the engine is shut down even though you are cranking it over. Thus no spark.
It is likely that one of the engine rotational sensors has gone bad. The way to find out is to do a fault code readout of the engine computer memory using 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 light, which remains 'on', to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number flashes before each pause. Then repeat the process to be sure of an accurate set of flash counts. Then tell me them in the order of appearance and we'll go from there. We may get a flash count that points to which sensor has gone bad or to another reason for your no start.
Please 'rate' my answer (see below).
Thanks,
Roland
PS When you said "the lead coming in the coil (new)" do you mean that you have a new distributor or a new wire? What relays are new? and why did you replace the pcm? The history of this problem may be of help for me to know.