Well I found out what happened with the Neon. First a little background
info for those who don't know.
I bought this 1996 Plymouth Neon from a guy I knew. He bought the Neon
from a friend of his who blew up the head on the car. In October...he
rebuilt it... new head, timing belt, crank/cam seals, alterlator, belts,
harmonic balancer, new tires... car was in pretty good shape. Less than
80K on it.
I bought it from him the end of January. He had not driven the car very
much when I had bought it - a few hundrid miles... hes got a lot of
other cars and trucks he drives too.
Less than a month later, Tuesday Feb 21st, the thing went to hell on me.
Tonight I finally had a chance to dig into the car and man let me tell
you working on these cars is a pain in the ass compared to working on
the Dakotas.
I got it torn down and got to the timing belt, and saw something I knew
was wrong. On these cars - as many of you may know - there is a spring
loaded camshaft belt tensioner on the SOHC mills. To install it - you
have to compress the shaft and lock it in place with a thin peice of
metal. Still in the hole on the tensioner, was a rusty penny nail.
There had been no tension on that belt at all since it was put back
together. That finally explains the odd noise I couldn't identify that
seemed to be coming from the timing belt cover.
I called the guy I bought it from and told him what happened. That I
don't necessarily blame him - but regardless of who did it, I am not
faced with changing the engine.
I bought it from him as is - no warranty. And I don't expect him to
replace the engine. He told me that friend did that... when they were
working on the car, told me he was going to make a few calls and get
back to me. We'll see what happens.
I looked on Neons.org (the are not accepting new members now) and there
is a procedure lined out for swapping a 2001-2002 (and newer I assume)
engine into an older Neon. But I'm not sure I really want to get
involved in that level right now. Granted I doubt its all that much
harder to put a newer engine in than one thats older one.
Does anyone know if I can get away with NOT having to discharge the AC
system? The Haynes book says you have to discharge the system and
remove the compressor and the radiator. I really - REALLY don't want to
have to do that.
-- ------------------------------------------------------------- Rocks are for skipping... I'm all about the mud 75 Honda CL360, 89 Dakota, 89 Dakota 4x4, 95 Dakota 4x4, 96 Neon, 01 Ram 4x4 http://members.aol.com/silvereightynine/ AIM & Yahoo: SilverEightynine. . .------------------------------------------------------------------. | Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! | | Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net | `------------------------------------------------------------------'
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