Pontiac Repair: No Spark, dodge rampage, electrical diagram

Question
Hi Todd. I know Dodge is not your category but Pete is on vacation and Kevin can't answer any of my questions.  I'm hoping that my problem is generic enough that you can help me.  I have a 1982 Dodge Rampage with a 2.2L engine.  I checked my electric fan (since I noticed it wasn't running even when the motor was hot)by unplugging the wires from the switch and crossing them.  Good news, the fan works, bad news, the truck won't start now. It turns over but doesn't even try to start.  I checked the spark and I'm not getting any from the coil. I do have power to both the + and - terminals of the coil when the key is on. I had an old coil that still worked but I put it on and it didn't help so I don't think it is the problem. It has something called a "pick-up" in the distributor but I have no idea what it does.  Can you help me? Thanks.
Jeff

Answer
Hey Jeff.

Your right I'm not a mopar guy at all in fact I despise them.... That aside You have some sort of an electrical issue here I don't know what the fan and the distributor would have in common... Fist and foremost I would check all of your fuses both under the hood and inside car. If you have an electrical diagram for the engine I would trace any power source that runs into the distributor and the ground if any. It may get it's ground from the engine block... To answer your question there is a pick up coil inside the distributor it's basically a big ball of wire that when a magnet passes buy it it induces a small electrical charge into that wire that wire is attached to an ignition module that takes that electrical charge and deciphers that the engine is turning at "X" rpm and then it in turn triggers the coil to make the spark. I don't know if that module is internal to the distributor or it's a "black box" external of the distributor. You can trace the wires back from the coil either to that box or the distributor. it could be any of those. that module could have a power or ground issue too. Like I said I'm not at all familiar to these systems. Some of those old mopar's had for foreign electrical parts on them and that may have what is called a hall effect distributor in it and that wouldn't have a pick up coil inside it but I doubt it has that type of system it's a bit too old for that. But I would really look long and hard to see what the fan and the ignition system have in common and I think you will find your answer there. If nothing else I told you how an ignition system works...  Sorry I couldn't help you out any more :(