Help me out please!

My Dakota is an '03, so I don't know that the troubleshooting I did on mine when it was in an intermittent crank-but-no-start mode (which devolved to a terminal condition) would be applicable to yours.

When it was intermittent I threw some parts at it (relays and both the crank & camshaft position indicators). When it became terminal I got into my Haynes & I will roughly quote the procedure I used, when I determined that I was not getting spark, to determine that my PCM was the fault.

Keep in mind that the Haynes I used to troubleshoot mine lists its applicability '00 to '04 (therefore the wire colors listed may not be the same on yours) & a FSM for your year & model would be much more desireable.

From Haynes:
"test for battery voltage to the coil by disconnecting the connector from the coil & using a MM to check for volts at the dark green/orange wire with the ignition ON.

No voltage=bad ASD relay.
If volts: use the ohm-meter function of your MM & check primary & 2condary resistance of the coil. My Haynes lists 0.95 to 1.20 ohms & 11,300 to 13,300 ohms respectively, but I believe Haynes is giving me inaccurate specs on that.

If coil ohms out good: check the trigger signal from the PCM. Using an LED test light (inexpensive from Advance or the like) back probe the coil driver terminal (black/gray wire) & check for a flashing light as an assistant cranks the engine.

If no flash: then check the operation of the cam position sensor & the crank position sensor.

If those sensors test good: send the PCM out to be diagnosed."

Just had a similar but a little different situations
On my 99 with the same engine. Came down to something I didn't think could possibly be at fault because it would up being something that I had just replaced like 4 months ago.
Had started getting a misfire, and it would occasionally die especially when first starting and taking off. I went ahead and threw a coil and a distributor pickup on beccause they were original from new and I'd just done cap rotor and plugs like 6k miles ago. so I didn't think about those being the issue. But as it turns out I had 2 terminals arc gouged out and ate away with cracks starting to extend towards center of roof of the cap.
This was a "better grade" Napa Echlin cap.

At work, I've seen a 318 in a 2001 full size pickup, that had the whole coil terminal arced out and actually busted out of its distributor cap before. That was an original cap, on a truck with about 115k on it, at the time.
On mine, I re replaced the cap and rotor, and had them warranty out my lifetime wireset, since the plug boot on #2 and the dist cap end of the coil wire were also burnt. That wireset was on its 2nd set of plugs, about 40k on them. So far so good.
A good tune up with the better grade of parts is never a waste of time or money anyway. Just basic maintenance there.

Oh and 1 other thing/ that Haynes manual will serve you better as fire starter for a bonfire than it will serve you to fix your truck. They are almost worthless

Well, sure, & sometiimes cracks (such as in the distributor) expand when they get hot & shut things down but start when they are cold.

But if my coil ohmed out within specs, before I threw another coil at it, I'd probably be inclined to check & see if I was getting volts & a trigger signal to said coil.. And with a '98 you could probably consider the cam & crank pos sensors as almost part of the base ignition.

Nateglo86 said:

. . . I checked to see if it was getting fire and it's not. . . . I might could track down the problem by using process of elimination.

Click to expand...

So OP says he is not getting fire, & assuming that is at the plugs, I would think the next step would be to check & see if the distributor cap is getting fire. If it is, sure, figure the problem is after the coil but before the plugs & check (& replace if need be) cap, rotor, cam pos sensor. Have the distributor, itself, bench checked. But assuming the distributor cap is NOT getting fire, I would think that the next part in the chain would be the coil. I think it would be faster & easier to check for volts & trigger signal to the coil than to check the coil's primary & secondary circuits resistance number, but do it in either order. If the coil's numbers are within specs, then when it's in the crank but no start mode, are there no volts to the coil? That would prevent it from starting. When it's in the crank but no start mode are there volts to the coil but no trigger signal? That would also prevent a start. The PCM MUST receive a valid signal from both the crank & cam position sensors or it will not send a signal to the coil. Both can be tested, & both are relatively easy to change, but assuming those are both good I am thinking that this now kind of points to the PCM.