Hey all...

I purchased my Green 98 Ply Neon Espresso 4 door that has ATX in it 2-3 years ago when it had about 70k miles on it.

It currently has 133k miles on it as I bought a 2004 Durango that I have only put about 24K miles on because I only drive it when I pick my kids up from the xwife ect..

Friday on my way to lunch I was in the drive through at KFC and notice a echo of a grinding noise... got my food pulled over and I could hear it from the bottom portion of the timing belt system and or A/C / Starter area...

Decided I should limp it home as to not cause any further damage than what currently had been done.

I get home and Saturday morning I go out and notice there are huge broken pieces of the timing belt cover ( front portion ) , shrugged that off and proceeded to remove the right tire jacked the car so forth. I then get the starter unbolted so I can remove the belt to the damper , rent damper puller remove damper ... All is going okay up until this point and it takes a turn for the worst....

My next step was to set the timing TDS and I go up and look at my cam sprockets and notice they are backwards?!?!?!?!? The part that's usually forward is backwards ect so I cannot see the timing marks

I then decide that this neon had a failed head gasket and the previous owners likely took it into a Dodge Dealership on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, Utah.....

At that point the only thing I could really do is attempt to set the damper portion TDS since the timing marks on it and the casting are obvious.....

I notice large chunks in my timing belt missing , metal shavings everywhere..... My next step was to remove the cam gears but since I couldn't figure out if it has skipped a tooth or 5 because I have no point of reference for the timing I just remove the cam gears and what do you know the marks are on the back of the sprockets....

I don't know what if any damage could have been caused by driving it around like that as I have no idea how the previous person(s) could have correctly set the timing on the car by putting the gears backwards?.....

I was already going to replace the head gasket while I had it torn apart because it been leaking oil from the back and seems to burn coolant....

So my question is ... removing the head anyways I have to reset up the timing anyways regardless of what the timing marks were set to before pulling it apart...

My Manual doesn't go into enough detail that I can figure out how to fix the situation if the timing is incorrect ect....

Anyone have any online stores that seem to have great prices on all of the parts that I need.. including the damper which I broke pulling it yesterday !?

Thanks for reading my temper tantrum ....

Ronnie[/align]

 

Never had an issue with reseting the timing.

When you say your CAM spockets are backwards?? are the timing marks opposite of each other?
Those CAM sprockets are mult-engine - on one side it has stamped 2.0l and the other side has 2.4l stamped on them - your neon use the 2.0L side - so that side should face away from the cylinder head.

Yes - when you remove the Head you must re-setup the timing!

Good Luck on finding the parts - I have an order in to Howell for almost 4 weeks for some timing parts!
You might have better luck going to a junkyard to get the dampner. Although it has been a while since I had to replace mine - I recall having to drive over 2 hours to a dodge dealership that had the part in stock.

once you set the crank to its timing mark - then set your CAMs and install timing belt as described in your manual. Then put a rachet on the crank and turn it slowly and check for compression in all 4 cyclinders!

If the timing is off - you will not get good compression.

I am not sure of any other way of checking!

 

Well that explains a whole lot... only poblem is I could see no marks on the gears to know if the timing was set correctly from the start.

 

You do have to look closely for the timing gears - you might need to take Parts Cleaner or Brake Cleaner to the CAM gears to see the marks as they are mear notches near the outside edges

 

the ones on the other side are very obvious.... any other camgear i worked with before was the sameway....

I suppose it doesnt much matter. I will clean them up post pictures is it possible for them not to have their marks?

 

I have never seen a set a Dodge Neon Cam gears with out the mark.

I was speaking from personal experience on cleaning the Gears to see the little notches as when my timing belt started frey, the dirt filled in the notches to were they were not noticable.

 

Ahh, so im not alone in the world.