First of all, I'll be honest with yall, I am 13 years old, as with my friend who'se parents owned a uncared for 89' Caravan. I have rebuilt mowers, small engines, hopped them up with Tilly's and billet parts, ect, so I am not exactly a newbie at this

So anyways, I have never seen or been inside a Caravan in years. In my friends words, "It just stopped one day". I looked inside, looked all original interior red color. Original radio, ect. He told me I was the first one in there for a few years ()!

So anyways, I proceeded to pop the hood. It looked simple enough inside, nothing like a 88' Camry with wires everywhere. Oil cap didn't have any sludge, the dipstip was below low with black oil, transmission fluid looked a tad bit overfilled, but not burnt... Virtually almost no coolant both in the radiator nor overflow bottle. If you squeezed the topmost hose, you could see a bit of greenish coolant squirt into the bottle.

From there, I proceeded to take a look at the major problem - A belt had come off. Since I'm not familar with Dodges, all I knew at first was that it was a 3.3L V6. So, being me, I proceeded to pull on the belt. It wasn't broken, and the belt also drove the air compressor, alternator, ect., so I was not sure whether this was the timing belt. This was on the left hand side, a VERY long belt.

So I'd appreciate it if yall could respond with some information on what you thought was broken.

Being me, next time I come, I'll most likey ask the parents for the key, bring along some oil (A mixture of 5W-30, 10W-30, 10W-40, and 5W-30 synthetic I've been wanting to get rid of), a battery boost pack, and a can of starting fluid.

So what'cha think? Belt broke, piston came up, and crack went the valves?

I don't exactly feel like turning the key until I make sure some of the valve's still aren't stuck open

 

The high tranny fluid would be because it's not running, the belt you described is the accessory belt. I'm not familiar with the engine, but if it's OHC then the timing belt will be inside a cover, you can remove the top piece of the cover to check the belt. I also think that these are non-interference engines, meaning that the valves and pistons can never hit eachother in the event of a belt break. If the belt is broken it just won't run.

I will tell you though, that "it just stopped one day" is extremely vague, could be any one of a number of problems. In the rare case that it would need another engine, they are extremely easy to find, the motors don't go in these suckers, it's the transmissions you have to worry about.

 

Brilliant. Transmission? *doh*! I forgot to check the mileage, what parts fail on these? Solenoid? Belts?

 

I'd replace the accessory or "serpentine" belt and try to start it. Be careful with starting fluid, you don't need alot to get these motors to go. These motors 3.3 and 3.8 use a timing chain which rarely goes bad. The 3.0 uses a rubber band.
As for the tranny , that era had a lot of problems. Solenoid packs usually went baddue to metal going through the tranny. Differential pins were reknowned for breaking. Speed sensors and the like..... The tranny pan pulls very easily(about 12 10mm bolts around the edge) and what you find there can be helpful. The magnet will have metal on it, but it is the quantity when the magnet is wiped off that is important (when wiped, what often looks impressive reduces down to very little.). The presence of bigger pieces of metal will obviously indicate more serious problems. If youpull the pan, you need to use chrysler ATF+3 fluid. Dex/Merc will damage and should not be used.
good luck.....

 

So I should be fine trying to start her over?

PS - He said he might not have the key, is there any way to use a screwdriver or something to start it?

 

Does "just stopped one day" mean stopped running or stopped moving? Either way you should be fine trying to start it.

As to how to start it, it is not terribly hard to "hot wire" a car. The only problem is that while you will be able to start it, you won't be able to shift it out of park or turn the steering wheel until you get a key or disassemble the steering column.

How to wire it to start will require a few basic electrical skills and tools.

1. Locate the wiring harness that goes up into the steering column.

2. connect your battery or booster pack

3. determine which wire in the harness becomes "live" when the batter is hooked up. use a volt meter to determine this. to actually get to the wire, use a knife to remove a small amount of the wire casing on each wire. unhook the battery before doing this then hook it up and test.

4. Use the meter's ohm function to test all the other wires to make sure that none of them are ground wires. if the wires are gounded they will read 0 ohms to ground.

5. the fun part. but do at your own risk. good thing is the worst you can do is blow the ignition circuit fuse.

use a jumper wire from the identified hot wire in the harness and test connect it to the other wires in the harness. you will need 2 connections. one connection will turn the power on to the car (ex the radio and other things may turn on) the second connection you will need will engage the starter. dont connect the jumper to any wires that may have been identified as grounds

6. once you figure out which wires do what, put some that starting fluid straight down the intake past the throttle body. you dont need alot in there just to see if it fires or not.

7. Now use your jumper wire on the harness to turn the ignition on and leave it on.

8. big moment now, momentarily connect another jumper from the harness to the wire you identified as the starter. the starter should turn and with the ignition on and starting fluid in it, hopefully it will at least fire a few times.

even if it does fire you will have other things to consider on the van like bad fuel, possibly no fuel maybe it died from a bad fuel pump, maybe no spark.

if you dont feel comfortable doing this, see if the dealer can make a key based off of the vin.

i know this doesnt sound like a good thing but it has worked for me in the past.