Before i get slammed with everything obvious let me just say ive had multiple mechanic friens look it over and niether i or they have been able to figure out the problem.
Now the problem. My shelby will turn over but will not start. I'm getting absolutely no spark to the plugs. I just rebuilt the motor, trans, etc.. so just about everything is new or rebuilt. Since the problem arose i have replaced the coil, new distributor, new plugs, wires, relays, new fuel pump etc... still no spark. Ihave managed to purchase three shelby dakota computers and have tried switching all of them hoping for something still no luck.
There are many many net post of these 1st gen dakota's just up and dying like this and everyone talks about the same identical problem i am experiencing, and it doesnt seem to matter what engine combo it has. They all talk about the same problem as I have. Only problem after reading allthe blog posts no one ever states/writes what they ever found to be the problem. So if anybody here has an idea or has experienced this same issue please post what you did to finally get it running again. Thanks members and moparts for any help you can offer.

They did this from new! Quality wasn't a strong suit back then.

The trucks (and the cars that shared it) were known to have bad gauge clusters that caused all kinds of head aches.

Also, have you looked at the ignition switch and neutral safety switch?

That's bull poop. You can pull the cluster and that truck will still run.

Any codes?

Sounds dumb ...It happened to me ..Check the pick up to relucter gap..just a little too much and ...no spark..

crank sensor on back of engine at bell housing.

Distributor 180º out?

The truck was taken down a year ago to do a full on resto. It did run before. I did not pull the existing wiring harness out of either the engine bay or dash area. That would have been above my pay grade for this resto. So I just went through the wiring checked connections, wire condition, and verified resistance to ensure that it was as solid as it could be.
Now to answer some of these responses. The crank shaft sensor is actually in the distributor in these early computer models using an eye system that monitored the cranks position by the rotation of the distributor. So yes I thought to maybe I was a 180 degrees out so we checked that too. Even with it turned around still no spark. The codes that I managed to pull were miscellaneous codes in regards to the catalytic converter, and some other stuff that would not keep it from starting. I could be off though seeing how I was doing the engine light counting technique to figure out what the codes were. Hard to find someone with an OBD 1 reader these days. Even the dealership doesn't want to mess with it. As far as the gauge cluster goes I'm not going to say it's nuts or anything but it was untouched during the disassembly and worked fine before the truck was taken down. So I'm not sure that would be the issue. A lot of what I have read points to some faulty wiring which affects the ASD (auto shutdown) relay. Poor splicing from the factory, and too much tied into the splices going to this relay. Not sure how to tackle that other than to rebuild the harness, which would suck but if it comes to it than so be it. I have gone through every ground and cleaned, greased, and verified ground contacts.
I'm going to tow it down to another buddy's shop today who came up with an OBD 1 scanner and can reflash the computer if it needs it. He can see how frustrated I am that I have a freshly rebuilt truck and can't even get the damn thing started. Oh and yes I verified the ignition and neutral safety switches. Like I said it will turn over in Park and Neutral, but doesn't send spark to the plugs. I almost threw my timing light away thinking it was bad at first till I realized there just wasn't any signal from the distributor to make the light work. Well thanks again for all the input, and keep em coming to maybe give me some direction I haven't looked at yet.

Hmmmm, I bought 2 of these trucks new, kept them for about 20 years each, and if they had a good battery in them, they always started and ran.

One was fairly low mileage when I sold it and it still had all the original ignition components, including the spark plugs.

The other one got new plugs in it once in awhile and a complete tune-up at 100k, basically new plugs, wires, cap, & rotor. At that time I also replaced the original belts, hoses, and front brakes and rotors. It had 180k+ when I sold it and still ran like new, still had the original computer in it too. I did have to replace a relay and a piece on the throttle body on that truck. Also the a/c compressor.

The ONE thing I always did was use genuine Mopar parts, especially electronic components.

I also had a bunch of fwd Shelby cars (bought used) and I found most starting problems were caused by using aftermarket electronic components.

I would start suspecting one of your new parts may be defective. However, I'm a bodyman, not a mechanic so my advice may only be worth what I've charged for it.

Good luck & be sure to post the solution,
Dallas

Early Dakota had a problem with the power wire from the ignition switch breaking off one of the 4 or 5 wires from the splice. That splice is located in the underhood harness where it makes the turn around the brake booster. (I forget which side of the brake booster its on, but I believe its the engine side.) The splice in question is pink wires with a blue tracer (or blue with pink tracer). It comes from the ignition switch and splices the power for the crank sensor, the throttle position sensor, the dist pickup, and the coil (and something else). When you locate the splice in the harness, the splice will have that green battery cable look to it. there are 3 wires on one end and 3 or 4 wires on the other end. You may have to untape the splice. One or more of the wires is probably broken off at the terminal splice.
I've seen this on 3-4 Dakota trucks. It often bites when you try to start it, but I've seen it shut down running trucks. Crank all day long, no spark, no codes, no voltage to one or more of the engine monitoring systems. The computer won't pick anything up because as far as its concerned, your not doing anything to the truck.

Just for your info, often the rest of the wiring harness looks great, except that one splice. Gene

Have you checked/replaced the auto shutdown relay? I haven't had one fail on My Shelby Dak, but I did experience it in a 2.5L '89 Daytona.

I think the relay is the same pin-out as the fan relay. Could try swapping them across to see if it starts.

Yes tried that too. Even bought new relays and still nothing.
So i had it at the shop all day and stopped by before they closed. Even they are dumb founded. Thier mechanic used to work for the dodge dealership and he said even he was going to make a few phone calls to some old chrysler mechanics to see if they can come up with something. I'm just amazed that i may have to gut this entire setup retro fit something else into the truck to make it work. Does anyone know if say a 92 dakota harness and computer might work with the TBI and tranny in a 89 dak? Just trying to come up with something to get this truck running. Any ideas?

I'm not familiar with how the OBD-I systems operate, but on the OBD-II the ASD relay controls the entire fuel/ignition system. shuts it down in the case of a crash to turn off the fuel pump and reduce risk of spark from charged electronics.

On OBD-II as soon as the computer sees the crank is not turning, it turns everything off after about 2 seconds. you can confirm it works by turning key on. you should hear the fuel pump prime for 2 seconds, then shuts off until the computer sees crank rotation.

9 times out of 10, when the ASD stops working, it's because the crank position sensor is no longer working, or there's a short/bad ground in the harness somewhere, so start checking sensors and wires.


Personal story: took the wife out in the truck for a date night. before we left she asked "is it reliable? it won't break down on us?" this is after a new engine had been in for months, driven to New Jersey and back, and never had a hiccup. At midnight on the way home, everything went dead. gauges wouldn't respond, scanner couldn't even read the computer. Turns out on assembly, I pinched a wire on the crank position sensor in the distributor cap. while the insulation was not broke or cut, it eventually grounded out against the distributor body and killed everything. as soon as I un-pinched the wire (after hours of checking sensors, computer, etc.) a buddy of mine told me to check the wires to the crank sensor. truck started right up like normal as soon as the wire was un-pinched. I replaced the sensor for good measure and it's been fine since.

Another time, a small, 12 ga wire from the core support to battery negative had worked itself loose in the crimp. truck would randomly not start. found it while holding the key in 'start' while someone was wiggling wires and when they touched that one, it fired right up.

Also I've seen where every ground was connected but the ONE ground by the power steering pump. it was off to remove the intake and I was trying to do a compression test. hooked that wire back to ground and it worked flawless.

So...moral of the stories...on these fuel injected, computer controlled trucks, check everything on the harness and sensors, and check for all your grounds!

it can be frustrating and take a lot of time, you'll start to feel helpless like you'll never find it. Then it's usually dumb luck, you find it, and you get a rush of relief, followed by "I can't believe something that simple took me so much effort to find and fix"

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for all the input. 70cuda I do believe as you do that there is an elusive short in the harness. I can't believe that the three Shelby computers I have been able to collect could all be bad, and trying to find ANYONE that services an OBD 1 computer is a joke as well. It would be nice just to know if there is someone out there that could just verify if the computer is good or not, but after calling half a dozen ECM suppliers on the net today, I kept getting the same answer...NOT anything before 92.
I have a feeling I'm just going to go pick the truck up and then start the arduous task of unwrapping the harness loom and just go through everyone of them to check to see if they are good or not. I'll start with that five way connector poorboy above talked about. That sounds reasonable and it's not the first time I have heard that as well. I just didn't know where it was tied together so thanks a lot for the info poorboy about it's general location.
I will keep this updated as long as I have hair left to pull out before I figure out what is going on. And if anyone else has experience that might be beneficial to this post than please give your input. I'm sure there are other dak owners who have lived this nightmare. Just as a side note today I went to the junk yard here and looking through the dodge truck section and specifically at the 88-92 dodge full size and Dakota's there is one thing that stuck out that I hadn't really even noticed before when looking for parts. That was just about everyone of those trucks look like the wiring harness in the engine bays had been gone into to resolve something that was going on. One 89 D150 had the complete harness unwrapped and wires everywhere. It appeared as if they too were searching for this elusive gremlin that seems to be haunting me. But I would be willing to be that is why a few of those trucks ended up out there.
Thanks again for the input.

You may of missed a ground connection. It is a very simple system compared to obd-2 and newer systems. I would get a factory service manual and check all the pins to the computer.

Yep, check the grounds!
Also, you can check the power to the coil to make sure it's not on the power side. These use the computer to 'trigger' the spark by controlling the ground side. Pin 12 of the smaller PCM connector in this 88 full size wiring diagram. Hopefully, you have the factory info for the Shelby.

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/ASEMas...ing_diagram.gif

Thanks for that link. Im going to be picking the truck back up tomorrow to start the wiring trouble shooting process. All the sensors, switches, solenoids, and parts have been checked and tested and in working order. Everyone agrees that there is a fault in the wiring somewhere. Thanks for the advice and again the link. Oh, and yes i do have the factory service manual and the shelby service suppliment. Ill keep this post updated when i can, and with something positive to report.

I'm having a similar problem with my '89 Shelby Dakota. I had it running for a while, then replaced plugs, wire, cap, rotor and no start. I had fuel and spark. Replaced the hall effect sensor in the distributor and still no start. I'm in the process of replacing the ignition switch and I've unbundled the engine wiring harness from left fender to right fender looking for broken wire or bad splices. No luck, so far.

Poorboy - I haven't see the splice you're talking about, so far. Is it possibly close to the engine itself where the wire break off to go to the crank sensor, MAP sensor, TPS, etc.?

Its been a few years, but the splice I'm talking about is located right in the brake booster area. I'm just not sure which side of the booster it is on.
It is a splice, factory taped, either pink wires with a blue tracer, or it is blue wires with a pink tracer (I really think mine were pink). There are 3 or 4 wires (all are small wires probably 18G) on one end and 4 or 5 on the other end. The wires all joined at this splice then ran to each sensor individually. these are small wires, and I suppose they could have each broken individually, but I would follow back to the splice.
You need to open up the corrugated plastic, locate the bundle of pink/blue wires, remove the factory black tape and pull on each wire to see which one or how many are broken off. On all 3 trucks I encountered, this issue, every one had bad corrosion (the terminal had a green power tint like battery corrosion to it). Those wires supply ignition voltage to the cam sensor, the crank sensor, the dist hall effect piece, the coil, and the computer (I think), and something else. If any of those sensors do not have voltage to them with the key on, this splice is your problem, but one of the trucks had voltage, but it was lower then normal voltage (probably due to the corrosion).

The only factory service manual I have here is an 87, and those were still carburetor fed motors, so this splice is not shown. I suppose you can open up your harness, start at the coil, or cam sensor, or dist pickup wires and follow the wires to the splice near the brake booster.

I removed the factory splice piece, stripped all the wires and re-spliced them again with one connector, then taped everything up and we were good to go.
Gene

UPDATE: so it took awhile and some help but through this process of trouble shooting i found a guy in Oregon who has a buisness called panic wiring at panicwiring.com. he speacializes in rice burners wiring and computers. Putting in different [censored] engines into all sorts of makes and models then creating harnesses and computers to make it all work. So my nephew suggested I give this guy a call. After a conversation and explaining my problrm i shipped him the entire engine harness and computer. He went through the harness and fixed some loose questionable pins and even ran a hot bypass for me just in case it was steering column related to get the truck fired up. He tested the whole system and computer out after the repairs and shipped it back to me. Got it all wired back up and wouldnt you know it theshelby fired right up like it was new.
I cant tell you how much time and anguish i saved by having him do this, and best of all heonly charged me 125.00 for the repairs, mods, and testing. Of courser dhipping it to him and back was on me but well worth it in my opinion.
Oh and the problem was in the 14 pin connector which plugs into the computer. Over time i guess these connectors get loose and weak and fail. But like with most wiring problems evrry vehicle seems to have its own gremlins. All i can say is that this kid has his s--t together when figuring out these types of problems. He even admitted to me that he had nevrr worked on one so i sent him the service manual too and from that, and only in a week mind you, he figured it out, fixed it and had it on its way back to me.
Well thanks again for the posts trying to help and hopefully this info helps someone else.