Challenger timing belt

[fritzelhund]

Hi Guys,
I have bought a dayco timing belt kit for my Challenger and have been reading up about the job. The kit contains two bearings one presumably is an idler the other for the tensioner... here's the mystery.... The 6G72 documents for single camshaft and 2 valves per cylinder show only a spring tensioned tensioner and no idler...the 4 camshaft version uses a hydraulic tensioner and an idler ...... what does a Challenger with 24 valves use ?
Also does the crankshaft pulley have threads to allow attachment of a home made tool or are the holes just holes. How is the crankshaft pulley locked as the 22mm bolt is loosened.. or does the crankshaft have to be locked at the other end ... remover the starter and bolt up the torque converter somehow.

[scooby_74]

Has Hydrolic adjuster.
If i rember they have 2 holes for a puller but shouldn't need it. pully should pull straight off with out puller though they do rust on occasionly.
Be carefull they have a crankshaft sensor attached to the crankshaft t/belt gear, have seen then stick to the harmonic and break the sensor.
To undo the crank bolt use socket and bar brace the bar to the chassie and hit the starter. bolt should undo then pully removed.
This is all from memory have done 20 or so but last one was about 4 years ago.

[date]

I personally don't know the Challenger setup, but I imagine that it would be similar to the 3.5 L Pajero of that vintage eg 2000. The 6G72 engine in my wife's Magna was almost idential to the 3.5 L 6G74 in my Pajero. The only difference was that one timing belt had about 3 teeth more than the other.

If this is the case, the tensioner is not hydraulic, but rather a spring loaded system. It needs a special tool to adjust the tension. The Gregory's Magna manual gives a drawing of one, and the Haymes w'shop manual for the Pajero NL-NP shows what I think is a simpler too to make.

The job to replace the belts takes about 5 to 8 hours. I suggest that you do the water pump and idler pulleys at the same time because it is not a nice job to get in there. Be careful about locating and securing the TDC sensor - I accidentally cut the lead on my Pajero and had to repair it. It is still going nearly 100000 km later. Both cars are due for replacement now.

Best of luck doing the job - it awkward, but worth doing it.

[fritzelhund]

Thanks for the clues. I will proceed with caution. I remember the crankshaft sender on my wife's Ford Laser had me bluffed.. it just wouldn't stsrt after a cambelt change... KNEW I had it all right... all except for the 3mm air gap on the crankshaft sensor.I had moved the sensor to keep it safely out of the way and not noticed the critical gap.

[subarursliberty]

From what I seen when I got the kith the tensioner is Hydraulic on the challenger. Well it was in my box of tricks. I was about to do it myself but then my gearbox said no more and I just handed them the bits and asked if they did it while they rebuilt the box.