I have 1997 Dakota 4x4 5 speed with the 3.9l motor. I am about to replace the timing chain and wanted to know if there is anything in particular that could help make the job easier and lessen the chance of mistakes happening.

Any advice is welcome! Thanks in advance

 

This might help.

http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech-article-37.html

 

Thanks for the link. I actually did the job the day before yesterday. Took about 4 hrs and appears that I basically followed the steps in the link step by step with no hiccups. Wasn't too bad of a job at all.

 

It's really not. The hardest part is getting all the pulleys and harmonic off the snout of the crank. We broke a chain earlier in the year in the camaro, and basically did it in 18 hours (with breaks), the biggest issue being having to pull the oil pan to replace the 1-piece gasket.

We're going to a jesel belt drive over the winter so we don't have to go through that again.

 

Thats true it's really not that bad of a job. The pullies weren't too big of a deal. IMO the worst part was the beginning when we didn't have much room to pull the radiator fan and fan shroud. After that it wasn't all that bad. We didn't even pull the radiator. We had plenty of room with the fan and shroud gone. What helped us with the pullies was having an air tool to take them off. As long as you take it easy with the tool it makes it a breeze. Other than that it was just time consuming... especially scraping all the old gaskets off all the parts and cleaning up any corrosion on bolts and stuff.This was my first time doing it, so I definitely had some help. My father in law helped me and we had it done in no time.

 

How can you tell if the chain is going bad?
I just picked up an 02 3.9 4x4 and when you realy get on the gas is sounds like a chain slipping over sprockets.

 

Usually it sounds like just rattling, almost like something metal inside a pop can when you shake it. I doubt the chain is slipping over the sprockets. That could cause the truck to be out of time. It's probably just worn and stretched a lil and the slack is causing the chain to clank against the sprockets.

 

Thank you for the quick reply. Thats what it sounds like.

 

You're welcome.