I am rebuilding my 2000 Dakota and trying to get the belt tensioner in the right position. With it off I see there is a whole in the casting that appears to go through to where the water or oil will be. Don’t remember that when I took everything off the motor. Should there be a positioning pin in there or something to prevent fluid from coming out of the block?

 

In reviewing the hole in the block further it does not go through but not sure why it is there. I looked on Youtube and never found the tensioner installation for the one I have. Mine has the idler pulley mounting as part of the tensioner base. The ones on Youtube and looking at replacement parts have positioning pins on them and mine does not. I was able to adjust the position so that the belt was tight.

 

May want to post in the Dakota specific forum

 

Thanks. Still learning my way around.

 

Moving this to second gen Dakota section for ya.

 

based on your description, Do you have a 4.7L by chance? The pushrod motors all use 1-pulley tensioners, I believe the 4.7 is a two-pulley tensioner.

 

Please include engine size in all new threads. That year had a 2.4, 3.9, 4.7 and 5.9

 

4.7. I have the rebuilt transmission and re-manufactured engine back in the truck. I have put most of the accessories on the engine from the old one. I put new cam and crank positioning sensors in. The oil pressure sending unit is the same but that one is easy to get to.
As I was going through the parts in the back of the truck I found that I had forgotten to get the transmission cooler lines in place and now I am having trouble getting them weaved between the engine and frame to get them back in without fear of kinking them. Thinking of cutting them in a strategic location and splicing them with a compression coupling. Is that sound acceptable? I believe there is only about 30psi on those line and a brass coupling should be high enough quality or am I missing something?



This part was easy but had to remove the hood to get the lift lose enough.



From this point on it was really tight but managed to get it on the engine mounts in about an hour.