I'm pretty excited to share that I just finished changing the timing belt, tensioner, and water pump on my 2001 Neon. It has taken since the first week of July (2014) until today. The alternator seized up literally as the car was being parked to start the job, so that part had to also be replaced. You would think changing an alternator to be a fairly painless job, but not this one. The lower pivot bolt broke when trying to loosen it. You would then expect the remaing half bolt and nut to just fall out the other end, right? NO. Tried pounding it out with a rod from the broken end. No go. Tried torching the nut with my cheap propane torch. Nothing happened, still wouldn't pound out. At that point, the internet came to the rescue for the first of many times. Ever heard of a nut splitter? You have? Well, I hadn't. $20 worth of Amazon points later, a beautiful two piece set showed up at my door. The nut splitter looks like an eyebolt, but the shaft is hollow and has a threaded rod with a cutting wedge at the end. You place the open eye over the nut and tighten the tool's bolt to drive the wedge into the side of the nut to split it open. After about hour of horsing around with the splitter and torch, the nut/ half bolt finally came free. Not from each other, but from the back ear of the alternator which has a steel sleeve that welded itself to the nut.
Other time-consuming things I learned, in case any MMMers will be doing this repair:
- Advance Auto's harmonic balancer puller slips off the Neon. Use Autozone's pulled specifically designed for Chryslers
- Neither Advance or Autozone's tools to install the pulley will work on a Neon. Buy a 200 mm fully threaded M12x1.75 10.9 bolt (Fastenal.com) and a tall (36 mm) nut will do it. Thread the bolt fully into the crankshaft and the tighten the nut to force on the pulley. I used the thrust bearing from the rented install kits but the washer stack slipped elsewhere, so the thrust bearing didn't do anything. Use lots of oil.
- Some years of Neons use hydraulic tensioners (my 2001 did) which are expensive, with belt/tensioner/water pump kits more than $450. You *should* replace all 3 when doing this job or you risk pump failure and/or tensioner failure later on, both of which can destroy the belt and then the valves hit pistons and you need a new motor (this result is why timing belts must be replaced on the manufacturer's timetable). Anyway, internet tells me that a mechanical tensioner can be used in place of a hydraulic as all other parts were unchanged for all Neons. I used a 2004 kit and all is well, saved over $300 on the kit. One caveat - you must cut a hole in the rear timing belt cover to clear the body of the mechanical tensioner if your Neon was built with hydraulic. Use a 1 1/2" wood boring bit for this.
I encourage my fellow MMMers to tacked these "heavy" repairs. If I can do it, anyone can. Just take your time and research extensively. If you don't finish quickly, you still have a bike for transpotation, right? Not to imply that I rode to work for the last 4.5 months.
A good link with instructions:
http://chronoscender.freeservers.com/neontimingbelt/timingbelt.htmlGood luck!
