Questions and Answers

Dodge Dakota Has No Spark Q. 1998 Dodge Dakota 2.5 liter, 130,000 miles, automatic transmission, carburetted. Won't start. Replaced battery after it went dead. Attempted to put fuel into carburetor, then cranked but still would not start. Assume it may be the ignition module. It's my son-in-law's truck, living in California, who doesn't know beans about planes, trains or automobiles, and I'm in Wisconsin trying to help him out.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
Fred

A. There are several possibilities here Fred. It can't be an ignition module since this vehicle doesn't have one. That limits the possibilities to a bad Crankshaft Position Sensor (CPS), ignition coil, PCM or Auto Shut Down (ASD) relay. A scan of the computer will reveal any stored DTCs that will aid in troubleshooting.

The ignition coil can be checked by measuring it's resistance.

Coil Manufacturer	Primary Resistance 70-80° F	Secondary Resistance 70-80° F
Diamond	0.97 - 1.18Ω	11,300 - 15,300Ω
Toyodenso	0.95 - 1.20Ω	11,300 - 13,300Ω

Then I would try popping in a new ASD relay.

With the key ON you should have voltage at the dark green/orange wire and while cranking the black/gray wire should flash. If it checks out, this narrows it down to the CPS, or PCM