92 Dodge Spirit won't start

[derek birch]

I have a 92 dodge Spirit ES Turbo with a 2.5 litre turbo engine. It has been a great car for the last 13 years ans has always bee extreamly dependable.

5 weeks ago I was pulling out of a parking space and it died. I had to have it towed home and over the last 5 weeks I have not been able to figure out what is wrong with it. It turns over but willnot start.

It is not getting any spark, I discovered that the coil wasn't working, so I replaced it but it didn't help. further looking in the Hayes manual, I discovered some rediculous thing called an Auto shutdown relay which shuts down power to the coil, the fuel pump, and the fuel injectors, for whatever reason. It seems my auto shutdown relay is just fine becuse it shutdown the car very well I thought. I was wrong, even though further checking seemed to indicate that it was not getting any fuel either.

Strangely with the new coil, and the car ignition in the run position, the multi-metre shows that there is power coming from the coil, but if you touch the high tention wire from the coil to the negative terminal of the battery, it does not spark. what gives?

I replaced it and the distributor rotor too as it looked like it was getting a bit worn. but the car still won't start.

The computer is giving me a weird reading 1 2 2 5 5 this means nothing.

Why won't my car start. is it the computer?

Is it something called a Hall effect pickup assembly?

The schematic in the Hayes manual showes a couple of breakers, but it doesn't tell me where they are located, the Hayes manual is really helpful that way, could it be them?

Any ideas? I have been 5 weeks without a car because of this.

[theFREAKnasty82]

well Derek, here's what you can do:
if you have access to a multimeter take out your ASD relay and put it in the terminals w/ the two prongs parallel to each other and measure your voltage w/ the key on. You should have 12 volts, that means your computer is sending voltage to the fuel pump and coil. If that's ok, the next area could be a faulty ASD relay or your pick-up coil assembly inside of your distributor. Try those two areas and see what goes. Look inside your Haynes manual, it should give you a step-by-step procedure for checking your pick-up coil assembly.

[derek birch]

thank you, theFREAKnasty82, I will give that a try.

Derek