1993 Dodge, Spirit 4 cyl
115,000 miles on it

Six years ago, I was driving 55 mph and the car just lost excelaration. I had all lights, gauges,radio, etc... so when I hit the gas pedal to make it go, it would not get the gas so I pull over and shut off the car. Then start it up again and all was fine. No problem with that untill about close to a year or so. Once in a great while it would do that then I would have to pull over again and do same. All fine again. Now in the past few months, it happened often. A couple of times, this time, the gauages would flip out. (Go back then forth). Blinkers would blink on their own. I'd be driving and I turn my head lights on. The gauages/needles would flip out. They would go up and back down then be normal. So......... awhile later, days, this happens again but the needles stay all the way to the right now instead of going back to normal. It is not doing it now. I was thinking maybe one of the "grounds". The battery ground wire seems fine. When I say gauges I mean all of them. Battery, hot/cold, & gas gauge, etc..


So now last week, it did this but without gauages going amuk at a intersection. Before ,as said, it would start back up. This time I had to wait 5 minutes then it started up. Now, a few days ago, it did it again and will NOT start up anymore. Oh, a couple times also when this happened, I pumped the gas and it kicked back in so I did not have to pull over and restart.

Below is what was done to it to try to fix it before having to tow it to a garage which is my next step.
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Car turns over but wont start. Sprayed starting fluid in the carb, still no fire.
Go to spark.
Replace plug wires, distributor cap, rotor and coil. Still no fire.
Went out today and tested for spark with test light. Got nothing thru the plug wires so I backed up to the coil wire. Nothing thru that so I went to the coil terminal. Nothing. I then pulled plug that feeds the coil power. Nothing thru the wire. Traced the wire bac to a relay. Pull the plug, ran a cntinuity test on the coil wire to see if wire was broke. Coninuity was fine meaning wire was good. Tested the plug on the relay.
4 Terminals.
1- Wire coming from coil
2 - red wire when tested with test light, power always on with key off.
3- Blue wire, tested with key off, no power. Tested with key on and cranking engine, there was power.
4- not sure
Bought a new relay, installed, still no fire. Pulled plug on relay and used a jumper wire to connect from the always on power to the coil wire and still nothing at the coil end so no fire.
Lights, radio, gauges all work.
Before could not smell gas but after, when tried to turn over, we could.
Could not find the fuses to see if that was the problem. Don't have a book.

Well, I guess there is no help here but I will update anyway. Garage put 2 more relay switches in and it did not start. Now they put a used computer in and I drove it for 70 miles over the weekend and sure enough, it did it again.

Some say maybe the crank angle sensor or the pick up coil. I do not know if my garage checked that. Have to bring it back in today.

Were there any codes?

If it cranks good but won't start, with the vehicle cranking, check for spark at the plugs and injector pulse. If you have neither, then I suspect a problem with the rpm signal.

If the computor doesn't see an rpm signal with the engine cranking, it won't ground the ASD relay. The ASD relay supplies primary voltage to the coil and injector, plus whatever else is on that circuit.

The rpm signal comes from a hall-effect sensor in the distributor. I'm not saying that sensor is faulty, you need to do some test, to find out.

The fact that the computor was replaced and fixed the problem for a while, makes me wonder?

Thanks for the reply. Not sure about the codes. I took it back to my friends business and he said again that since it is still starting, not much he can do to check other things out. So I am to continue once again to drive till it happens and when it does, hope it won't start back up so I can get it towed for him to check.
Some mentioned the "Crank Angle Sensor" Is that one thing you are reffering to? Also the "Pick Up Coil"

The garage said the wires are fine. But maybe, the used computer that they put in, may be faulty too. He has seen that happen before. They just need to get it in there when it won't start again. So I limit where I go and what route. :rofl:
Oh, there is spark or at least there was before. When the relays was put in, it ran then later died. When it does start, it starts with big power meaning to me, strong. :rofl:
A few times weeks ago, it would start to fail and I'd pump the gas and it would kick back in. :shakehead

So far as said, it has new:
3 relay switches
Dis. cap/wires/rotor/coil (Not PU coil)
Used computer

Anyway, I just have to wait agin. Thanks :wink:

Usually on a chrysler vehicle, you can check codes by cycling the ignition switch, three times. On-off---on-off---on, you turn the switch till the dash lites come on, you don't start it. Then the check engine lite starts flashing, you count the flashes to get the codes.

Okay. I went out to check the codes.Now mind you, this is from the used computer put in. I did it a few times. I see there is a pause between blinking so I hope I got it right. I look it up here:

http://www.allpar.com/fix/80s-codes.html

Either is:

1 2- 1 1 -5 5
or
1 3 -12 -5 5

*11 No ignition reference signal detected during cranking (bad Hall effect) OR timing belt skipped one or more teeth; OR loss of either camshaft or crankshaft position sensor. Can cause the engine to stop working entirely with no limp-home mode.

*12 Battery or computer recently disconnected.

*13* MAP sensor or vacuum line may not be working.

I believe the codes should flash in numerical order, from the lowest number to the highest. The code 55 is the end code.

Those codes should be your codes, even though the computor is used. When you disconnect battery voltage from the computor for 10 seconds or so, that erases the codes. The used computor shouldn't have had any stored codes from another vehicle.

I'd probably erase the codes. Drive the vehicle a few days, see if any codes come back. Intermittent problems are hard to fool with. That code 11 would get my attention.

Okay, thanks. I will do just that and see.