Hey there, great forum! I've got a question for you guys that have done a 2.4 DOHC timing belt. I had a water pump go bad so I ordered the kit from Rock Auto that gives you the belt, water pump, tensioner pulley, and tensioner. (I don't have the hydraulic tensioner.) I took it all apart a few weeks back and now of course when I get it back together, I have a question. How are you able to set the belt tension on the tensioner when the engine mount gets in the way? It looks as if the right-side bolt that hold the tensioner to the block is also the same bolt that holds the engine mount! It seems as if there's not enough room to get the tension set with the mount in the way. I looked to see if I had lost a bolt or something but that doesn't seem to be the case. Any ideas?

DH

 

Welcome to DF
You raise the engine and with a mirror you can check and you need to get the motor mount out of the way too.

 

yah i took the motor mount and everything off .. remove the overflow bottle and with some gentle persuasion you can move the ac lines out of the way and get most of it out that way ..

 

The mirror trick worked great! I could set the tensioner perfectly that way. As far as holding the tensioner to the block without the mount attached I ran a bolt from the other side of the engine through the right side of the tensioner bracket to hold it in place while I set the tension. Now that the tension is set I'll remove that bolt, install everything, then install the mount and bolts and hopefully the right side of the tensioner hasn't shifted at all. I was going to go to the Mopar dealer to see if I had lost a stud or something that would have held the right side of the tensioner in place and then the mount would use that stud as well with a bolt but who knows. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

DH