1996 Dodge Caravan, no start, no spark

When the gray wire from PCM to the Coil Pack that fires cylinders 1 and 5 is plugged in, the Van won’t start, but when disconnected, the Van starts with misfire, BUT cylinders 1 and 5 won’t fire at all. Does anyone have ANY idea why this is happening? thanx in advance=)

I think you may be counting the cylinders the wrong way. The info I looked at shows the gray wire triggers the firing for cylinders 1 and 4. If I am thinking of this correctly cylinder 2 would be on the opposite side of 1.

The coil pack has 3 coils inside it and each coil fires 2 of the cylinders. It sounds to me that the coil for cylinders 1 and 4 may be shorted. You could try checking the resistance of all three coils in the coil pack and compare them to each other. The info shows that pin 3 (drk green/orn wire) is the common return for all three coils.

With the wire connector plug removed from the coil pack see how the resistances readings compare on pins 1,2, and 4 of the coil pack while using pin 3 as the common connection to all of them. Pin 2, where the gray wire goes, may be significantly different than the other two.

Hopefully the trouble isn’t within the PCM but it could be.

Hi…Ok…Coil pack had already been replaced,(still the same problem)…Replaced PCM (rebuilt) and it correccted problem with gray wire…NOW… i have the same problem with the red/yellow wire (3 and 6), could there be a problem with BOTH computers?..thanks in advance=)

Since you have eliminated the coil pack then I would have to say yes, the replacement PCM is defective.

I don’t have your solution, but I have on two occasions changed PCM’s without fixing the original problem. They both had a fluke, odd ball problem. I’m told that 95 percent of the PCM’s received by the rebuild shop don’t have anything wrong with them. That is probably the most-changed item when it is not bad. I would make double sure there isn’t anything else that could be causing your problem (like fuel pressure, cam or crank sensor, etc) unless the parts dealer will let you return the PCM if it doesn’t fix your problem, then by all means, change away!

yeah Cougar…i figured that…thanx for the advice=)

yes bennyandthejets…i’ve changed the cam and crank sensors, the 02 sensor and all…the fuel pressure is ok…thanx for your advice=)

You’re welcome. Hope the next PCM is in better shape. They don’t go bad often but in this case it looks like it is.