2001 Dodge Dakota timing chain

Sir-

What you need to do here is put the engine no.1 piston on its compression stroke/TDC while cranking it in burst and feeling for compression-once you feel the compression stop look at the damper if not lined up set it at TDC/0 marking-Now look at the rotor it should be pointing to no.1 cap tower and also both valves on cyl. no.1 should be closed.

It takes 720 degs of crankshaft rotation to complete all the cylinders combustion process.

3.9L Engine

Is the vehicle running now?

Hello -

I am sorry to hear that....... There was some reason things were not lining up right. If it were me, I would take things back apart and reset it all.

I would remove the valve covers and make sure that I got the top of the engine to TDC.

Then I would remove the timing chain and both cam and crank gears and put the bottom of the engine on TDC.

If the distributor was not pointing to number one, I would remove it and inspect it really well, the bottom of the gears etc, replace the O-ring if it has one....... Then drop it back down (may take several times) to get it right on number one.

Hello -

I did really understand if you meant the car runs and then won't run at all or only for that few minutes then not at all.

I would mark things before you take them apart though for a starting point.