I have a 97 Dakota, 3.9 v6 2wd with a timing issue. I turned crank so the damper was at TDC and the rotor at the #1 cyl position, but when I pulled the cover the cam sprocket mark was the 12:00 position and crank sprocket mark was also at the 12:00 position. When I turn the crank to line up the marks, the rotor is in the #4 cyl position. whats going on with my timing? please help.

 

Nothing is wrong.

The firing order is: 1-6-5-4-3-2

The crank has to turn twice for the cam to line up. Just rotate it another 180 degrees and it'll be fine.

 

when you line up damper at TDC with rotor at #1 isn't the cam mark supposed to at 6:00 an crank mark supposed to be at 12:00?

 

If you turn the crank once more the rotor will point at #1.

Nope - and that is from the FSM.

"Place both camshaft sprocket and crankshaft sprocket on the bench with timing marks on an exact imaginary center line through both camshaft and
crankshaft bores."

Don't turn that distributor either. You'll mess up the fuel sync if you do.