88 Crown Vic - Coil had power, no spark

[humdrum]

88 Crown Victoria 5.0 engine

It just quit on me while driving. We've replaced the coil and distributor, tested the ignition module (good)
It is still not getting and spark, but power to the coil

Looking around seen people mention ground wires, and crankshaft position sensors ( I don't remember which )
I would check those if we knew where they were
Are those possible solutions?
Any others?

I don't know if this is related or not, but it had been misfiring about two weeks before hand. Already checked the plugs and they were fine

Thanks!

[rhandwor]

I would check the pickup in the distributor. If it doesn't have a distributor I would check the crankshaft position sensor. In front of the engine between the lower valve covers.
For the pickup you will need a tool. http://www.tooltopia.com/ THE415

[humdrum]

Well, the distributor is new so we are fairly certain the bits in it are working. It doesn't have a crankshaft position sensor

I found a resistor that's getting power on one side but not the other. Could this be my problem? The side getting power goes to the ignition module and coil. The other side goes to.. uhm.. electronic control assembly?

[rhandwor]

Take a 12 volt test light put it on the coil negative. Does the light blink when cranking the engine. If it doesn't blink check that you have 12 volt to the coil positive. If you have power and the light doesn't blink you have a bad pickup.
Ohm the wire going to the coil tower it should be appx.1/2 scale. Also check the rotor and distributor cap.
My manual shows the IDM 22ohm resister to TFI to coil. The resister will drop voltage.
Advance and Auto Zone will check the module free. I would suggest a motor craft module and pickup if needed.
The ground for the EEC-IV relay used to be located next to the computer in the drivers side kick panel.
Make sure the ground is good and the EEC-IV relay pulses when trying to start. This supplies power to the computer system.

[Selectron]

I was writing a reply while Rhandwor posted but I'll post it anyway and you can refer to it in addition to Rhandwor's excellent advice.

I'm not familiar with your vehicle but I can see the wiring diagram in the Repair Info section at www.autozone.com - this link might take you straight to the diagram.

Looking at the ignition module and coil, you'll notice that neither of them has any apparent ground connection, so it's likely that the ground path is completed via the Engine Control Module (ECM). That being the case, it's very possible that the ECM is responsible for grounding the low end of that resistor, in which case it would be entirely normal for it to have a voltage at the high end, and 0V at the low end. It's a 22K resistor - that's 22 kilohms, or 22,000 ohms, so you could switch your meter to its resistance (ohms) range and check that it does indeed measure that value. Do that with the ignition switched off, and preferably unplug the connectors at the ignition module and coil first, to prevent parallel paths from lowering the reading. Chances are you will find it measures just fine, which would suggest that the problem is elsewhere.

If you haven't already done so, then verify that the EEC Power Relay is feeding 12V to the various engine controls - you'll see that it feeds over a dozen wires, all coloured red, so choose a reasonably accessible one of those and check for 12V with the ignition switched to the Run position. The red wire feeding into any of the fuel injectors might be a handy test point. Actually, I just noticed that the EEC Power Relay feeds the coil of the fuel pump relay, so if you hear the fuel pump operate for a few seconds when you switch the ignition to Run, then the EEC Power Relay must be ok, and also that would confirm that the ECM itself must be receiving 12V, because otherwise it wouldn't be able to switch the low end of the fuel pump relay to ground, so if you hear the fuel pump run then there's no need to check for 12V.

You've already verified that you have power to the ignition coil, so that suggests that fuse link M is ok.

Fuse link N is only hot during Start, so even if it is open-circuit that wouldn't explain why the engine quit while it was running, but it wouldn't harm to check it anyway.

Not being familiar with the vehicle though, I doubt I can help much beyond that, and the above all assumes that the autozone wiring diagram is accurate, which occasionally they aren't.

[humdrum]

It turned out to be the computer.
The pickup coil may have been bad, twice!
We got spark at the coil then found we weren't getting negative pulse at the injectors. After checking everything else the only thing left was the computer
BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.40 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105