How do you put time back into a Dodge Intrepid?

Answer 1

i have replaced the timing belt, water pump, and tensioner as well as timing the engine of a 3.5 Dodge quite a few times. the first time went straight by the book and almost failed to get the job done. looked all over for a puller to remove the crankshaft pulley, but totally unnecessary. the timing belt cover is in two pieces and the small bottom part of the cover is behind the crankshaft pulley, but instead of removing the crankshaft pulley all you do is rotate the crankshaft with a socket and pull handle to get to the bolts through the openings in the crankshaft pulley. as far as timing the engine, the trick i use is a pair of needle nose vise grip pliers to hold the timing belt on the proper timing mark on the camshaft pulley's. with the tensioner back all the way off the timing belt, rotate one camshaft pulley to its proper timing mark and then advance the camshaft pulley two notches forward or clockwise then use the needle nose vise grip pliers to clamp the belt to the camshaft pulley. do the other camshaft pulley the same way being sure to pull all of the slack from the timing belt between the camshaft pulleys. once you have the timing belt clamped down two notches clockwise their timing marks, then pull all the slack from the belt from the right camshaft down to the crankshaft while making sure the crankshaft pulley is aligned dead on with its timing mark. at this point all the slack in the timing belt will be located at the tensioner, use two 3" bolts on the tensioner instead of the instead of the tensioner bolts that you have remover. the longer bolts will allow you to install the tensioner without having to depress the plunger. as you tighten the bolts the tensioner will begin to put pressure on the timing belt and as it tightens it will rotate the camshaft pulleys counterclockwise and into the proper timing position by the time you have the tensioner completely tight and installed. at about half way tightening the two 3" bolts you will no be able to remove one of them and insert the regular tensioner bolt that is supposed to be there. as you tighten the tensioner you will be able to remove the second 3" bolt and insert the other tensioner bolt and complete the tightening process. watch the camshaft pulley timing marks as you tighten the tensioner and if you see the the marks are going to overshoot, back out on the tensioner and advance the camshaft pulley 3 teeth and tighten the tensioner again. this method has worked for me many times.