Chrysler Repair: 96 Chrysler T & C Dies when in gear, crank sensor, position sensors


Question
I have a 3.8 auto w/ 147K miles.  It will start fine and run for ever, but only as long as it is in Park or Neutral.  As soon as I place it in any gear including reverse it will run for about 5 seconds and then start to spudder, cut in and out, increasingly worse until it finally dies.  I have recently replaced the Crank and Cam position sensors and the EGR valve.  I replaced those parts due to a problem I was having about 4 months ago, it wouldn't start at all and was giving me error codes for those parts.  after replacing them all and pulling almost all of my hair out in frustration I stripped back the wrap on the wire harness by the crank sensor and the three wires were corroded together.  Taping them up fixed it then.  Now all I get is a pretty good rodeo ride when in gear.  Please help with any ideas.

Answer
Hi Jerry,
Despite this being a '96, it still can get some important fault codes by means of the ignition key. The best thing to do is try the ignition key to see if there might be something specific stored in the engine controller memory. Turn it "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 of flashes before each pause. Then repeat to be sure you have an accurate set of counts. Then tell me the numbers you got in the order of appearance. That is the place to start on all problems like this.
Roland