I have a 2003 Dakota 2WD 3.9l v6 with AC. Alldata says you have to remove the alternator and the bracket that mounts to the front of the engine to get to the thermostat...it looks like you can get the housing out without doing all that. Do you really need to remove the alt and compressor out of the way, or can you just get at those two bolts with a long extension and squeeze your hand in there to get at the thermostat ?

 

No you dont need to remove everything, just get a long extension and a socket and take those 2 bolts off - but you need to drain a little coolant or else it'll make a huge mess. The drain bolt is on the driver side corner of the radiator - drain about 2 quarts, unscrew the bolts and pull off the hose, use a pair of pliers to grab the old thermostat and put ur new one in and dont forget a new gasket for the hose.

 

Im just gonna use a gasket maker like right stuff for the gasket since no parts store around here seems to have a gasket. Im gonna be flushing my coolant tomorrow before I install the thermostat so i should be good to go then! Thanks for the helpful info. Do you think permatex right stuff will work ok as a gasket?

 

Not sure man I've never tried - I'm Canadian and Canadian Tire had the right gasket for me - are you sure no Autozones carry it? To me it looks like a pretty standard one.

 

The advance auto I went to, I will check autozone while im out tomorrow. I didnt want to start another thread for this simple question, and you are likely more familiar with the 3.9s then I am. I have a rattle coming from the truck, Im gonna pull the belt off tomorrow to see if it is the water pump, but if I still hear that noise I am guessing its likely the timing chain being sloppy on these engines, correct? How dire of a replacement is that, obviously I am going to do it but Im a little booked for the next few weeks and time will be tight. Is it something that must be done ASAP? Ive also had suspicision that it could be something else. Would a flywheel that had loose bolts make a simiar rattling nouse to a timing chain? My truck is a 5 speed and the bottom of the bellhousing was cut for some odd reason which makes me thing theyve had the trans out of it. Idk if something could have worked its way into that hole they made, or if the bolts could be loose, but would that make a similar rattle? Thanks and sorry for the long post

 

just use a long extensions and you'll get it, oreilly always have had the thermostat gasket and it is only like a dollar

 

yeah idk wht the hell alldata was trying to get me to do removing the bracket and everything bc it was extremely easy without removing anything. Got the housing off and found my problem, no thermostat was in there lol no wonder it never got hot. Anyone have any info on that timing chain rattle I posted about? (read above post)

 

no stat?

Wow your truck must of taken a long time to warm up what clown did that Yikes.

Thats the problem with used autos you never know what you may find latter.

 

Thats the thing it NEVER warmed up....the dash gauge in this truck is kinda like an idiot light, but I had my scanner hooked up and went for a drive to see what the temp was at cause the gauge stayed real low and it NEVER got hotter than 150-160, usually liked to be at 145. Now with the new tstat stays right around 190-195 where it should be!