For a while my engine light would come on and i would give it some gas and it would go off. The other day i was cruising at 20mph and the tach cut out and engine light came on. Then the engine started to cut out a bit. I pulled over and turned it off. It had a steady idle but no tach and light was still on. I tried to start it but would barely turn over and then click. I tried to jump it but did nothing. Tried a different battery and the same thing happened.

I read that it could have something to do with the trailing ignition. Is this true?

 

tach failure is a direct result of a bad trailing coil. no stat could be a bad leading coil as well.
check fuses and pull codes
there is a engine bay fuse and an inerior engine fuse that have to do with spark.

 

how do you pull the codes?

 

The ECU is going into a fail safe mode when the tach stops but the engine is still running off the Lead coil assy........imho.

The free online Training manual suggests this. I'd be looking for a failed alternator/charging system.

If the engine has just flat died, and the tach did not move when you tried to Start the engine, THEN I'd have thought about a EGI fuse or Engine fuse having gone south. But your engine did not do that.

 

i kow this will make me sound dumb but i found the problem. the negative battery cable wasnt grounded at all? sketchy!! thanks guys.