Driving in to take everyone to work/school Tuesday morning, just 2 miles after I hit the 200k mark, my van quit. Just died. It was about 10 miles from town, but only a mile from a friends house in the country. Finally towed it there after 4 hours of being on the side of a very heavily trafficked 2 lane highway. (18 wheelers don't like to slow down for nothing do they) I have worked on this sucker till I'm blue in the face (partly because it's freezing here) and am making no headway.

What the van does: Cranks, tries to start, won't turn over

What I've done: Whomped on the fuel tank, hoping it was just my fuel pump; pulled alternator to have tested (putting out 15 amps) ran battery down to the ticking point, so pulled the starter too just in case, starter needed rebuilding anyway and had battery recharged; pulled chassis fuel line and had sister try to start van, very good stream of gas; pulled distributer cap and checked the teeth and sanded out a tiny amount of gunnk, checked connections; checked every wire I could see going to and coming from distributer and alternator; checked all fuses and relays.

What I'll do today: Pull #1 plug, put it back in the wire, have son start van and look for spark. If that produces no spark, will try new plug just to be doubly sure. If new plug fails to produce spark, would the distributer coil be the next logical place to look? After that, any ideas in case that's not the problem?

 

Nevermind, turned out to be the timing belt. Crap.

 

Well, don't be so disappointed now. At least you know what it is and are on your way to recovery.

 

Well, yeah, BUT... a week before Christmas and I'm gonna have to lay out 500 bucks to a mechanic? That part really sucks. There's no way I could attempt the repair myself. On the bright side, while I was under the van, I discovered that the water pump is leaking, and since it has to be pulled anyway, I told the mechanic to replace it. Might have saved me a burnt up motor. Silver lining right?

 

Now my husbands step dad (a former mechanic for a Dodge dealership) tells me that when the timing belt breaks in this engine, most often it bends a rod. Interference engine? Is there any way to tell if this happened before the mechanic does all the work? I know he can do a compression test, but the new belt would have to be on first, right?

 

What he meant is a bent valve. He might be able to check for a bent valve by pulling the covers and rotating the camshafts to look for a stuck spring. Of course, he first have to position all pistons half way their stroke.

 

Well, as of 5 pm this evening, the mechanic had only just gotten the tear down done. Have to wait until (hopefully) tomorrow.