2000 V70 XC coil #1 not firing, not a bad coil.

[flagracer]

Hello folks,

Dealijng with my neighbor's 2000 XC 70. A few months ago I replaced the head on it when they bought it cheap with a broken timing belt and smashed vales. Everything was great until recently when it started running rough. It had code 300, plus a couple associated for the VVT exhaust, and one other one I don't recall. By unplugging/swapping parts I found the original coil #3 was bad, the fault moved to 1 when I moved the coil. Easy enough. They picked up a string of 5 coils from a salvage yard. Put in one and it ran better, but not quite right yet. Took it on a test drive, got the CEL to flash when I floored it. That's when the code came back just for P301. Tried 2 more coils, tried a brand new plug, I can hear the fuel injector pulsing. When I unplug the harness to #1 no change. When I pull up the COP there is no spark for #1, unlike #2 when I tried it there. I cannot find any short or damage in the wire across the engine until it goes into the casing. The 12+ on the coil has 14v with the engine running. Sooo.. help? I did not test the ground so I will double check that. With a digital meter the yellow/black wire reads .7 to.8 volts. I've searched the web for hours and not had any luck. I know it could be a bad PCM but I don't know if there's anyway to test for that. About 139k, plugs are were replaced when the head was done. Thanks for any help.

[Ozark Lee]

Check the ground wire. The grounds for cylinders 1, 2, and 3 all get crimped together and then go under a bolt on the cam cover. The connector itself can also be problematic.

...Lee