Thanks to everyone who makes this forum great, contributes experience, and why we keep coming back. Car forums are where we come when they're broken and we have no good news. Good news! Hey we could all use some... Just did a timing chain change on my 120K+ 4.0 V6. I planned it as preventative mx but as I was taking it to our shop, it shredded a belt and started sounding like a rattle can. Tore it down and the harmonic balancer failed (belt issue and common to 4.0) and the timing chain tensioner was broken (bad sounds, broken plastic). While apart, I did the lower fronts, upper rears, lower steering shaft, and another suspension compressor. The Ford Cologne (V6) looked like a Honda motor with a bad timing chain design but otherwise -- bullet proof with perfect compression. Two day reassemble and she's like a brand new car. We tore a wheel speed sensor cable during a hub change, which put her into full-on retard mode but an easy fix after. It's like a brand new 16 year old car. Thanks to all the contributors who share here. We nut and bolted this car based on info from this forum and appreciate the insight. An ounce of maintenance is worth a pound of cure. Good luck and thanks again. Have taken this car across the Trans-Canada Hwy, every major National Park in the US, the worst roads in The Balkans and Europe, and towed it off a mountain with a backhoe (b/c every truck got stuck just trying to get to it). Good luck and don't give up.

 

One more add, the water pump was total trash and a good catch in the work.

 

Was the rubber rotten in the harmonic balancer or what caused it to go out of alignment?

Body off engine pull... nice!

 

Exactly. Like you can read in any Explorer 4.0 forum, the rubber gave its last full devotion and failed. We just welded the original to see it run and get it off the lift then threw it away and put a new harmonic balancer on when the mail arrived. No joke, I can barely hear it running at idle, it's that smooth and quiet.