FINALLY do my timing chain

From: Dester223@aol.com
Date: Fri Jan 21 2000 - 20:52:17 EST


Okay, for those who don't know. I have a 97 dakota v6 auto tranny. with 70k
miles on it.

I plug it to a scanner and notice my timing jumping faster than monkeys from
13-27 degrees ever 1/2 second. So i go over the possibilities.
1) porting the TB screw it up? Nope, bernd has one too and his timing is 17
degrees at idle
2)IAT relocation? again nope, because bernd also did this lil trick and guess
where his timing is at idle.
3) distributor out of sync? Nope. scan tool has a "fuel syncronization"
program and it was set EXACTLY at 0 degress, but even that jumped from -1 to
+3 degrees.

SO i conclude it to be my timing chain. Whoola. I pulled all the
accessories off. (did you know the accessory bracket is PART of the timing
cover? Yes. to do timing, you have to take off the water pump, A/C, alt,
your belt, crank pully and harmonic balancer.

Well, to the good part where I say I love mopar stuff..
I was checking tension on the belt and my.. there was next to none. I could
push on the left and right side of the chain and get both sides moving about
1/3 or an inch each side... That's sad. On the bottom crankshaft sprocket,
i could pull that thing back and forward on the rod (With the chain on both
sprockets.) So yea, all the guys in my shop class come by and give me the
tradition "mopar sucks, my chevy hasn't needed a timing chain and your truck
only has 70k miles." I know they're right. What freaking gives? I am sick
of mopar crap.

-Dester

PS. the timing chain took me 2 days, because we only get 2 hours to work in
the shop each day, and today we had an assembly so I actually only really got
1.5 hours. from the taking off of the first nut to putting the last one in I
guess it took me 3 and a half hours. and that was with ALL the tools I needed
right there.

PPS. I'll inform the group on how the dakota runs. It seems to have lost a
lot of low end.... or maybe I'm just used to driving my sister's accord.



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