[nerf965]

I droped oil pan and was looking at bearing and noticed timming chain looked really loose alot of slack, how much slack/tension should there be

As a note that i pulled my rod caps and found crank looked like a saw blade and bearings are gone

I am trying to figure out if this is causing the loose chain or a worn fiberglass gear.

Thanks for the advice

[lurkeryj]

chain is probably loose cause of worn guides

[veritas4156]

That and when I pulled the cover off my 4.0 there was about 2 inches of slack, they do wear out over time. Just as a side note, the timing cover to oil pan gasket is a major pain to get in place.

[oldwindsurfer]

I just replaced my timing chain about a month ago.I had enough slack in it to which it was hitting the cover and noisy as heck.When I pulled the cover off I saw 1/4 of the teeth were off of the sprocket.I ran great,how I don't know.The factory gear has a plastic like coating on them and most of it was in the bottom of the cover.Pure junk as far as I'm concerned and worn out at 106,000 miles.The job went a whole lot easier than I expected and just knew it had jumped time with that many teeth missing.I checked and double checked to make sure the dots on the gears lined up but still doubted myself.I put it all back together and runs great.Don't let this job scare you it was easy and the cover where it connects to the pan did not leak at all.Beginner's luck I guess.

[nerf965]

thanks for the help unluckly i have the motor pulled, since i have to replace the botom end

thanks again

[goatboy]

ALWAYS replace the timing SET...not just the timing chain...both gears and the chain...use the cast iron set...