Timing Chain Tension Adjustment for Sebring

I have done this a few months ago. I regret I have not taken pictures so I can only tell you what I remember that I have done. I did this with a cold engine.

I took the central nut off, took the smal washer and big washer off. (Left the two nuts on the side untouched as far as I remember)
Then you'll see the telephone dial washer. This washer is connectod to a same dial pattern that is underneath. I took the pin that in in one of the holes and connects the dial washer to the same pattern underneath, out (difficult!) and turned the dial washer to the right untill the chain was tight . then I loosened the chain (turned the dial washer a little back) and put the pin in the next matching hole. The chain had ca 8 mm clearance afterwards on the top. I think that is OK. I did put the big and small washer back and re-tightened the central nut . Job was done!

Hope it works the same for your sebring engine.

If anyone has a better way of doing this please tell!

Marcel
101-442

 

Since it looks like this is the first time you are adjusting the chain my first advice is to err on the side of caution. It is not a difficult job but you can really mess things up if you do not pay attention to what you are doing.

1. Remove the cam covers
2. Bring the car to TDC. It is possible your engine does not have a TDC mark on the crank.
3. Look for the markings on top of the cams and make sure they are aligned. If you do not see the marking, rotate the crank 360 degrees (180 degrees on the cams) and look again. The marks should be there.
4. Before loosening the chain adjuster use a long screw driver to test the amount of flex in the chain. In particular run your fingers in the area in the head where the chain runs between the intake and exhaust cams. You might feel grooves which is an indication of the chain rubbing against the head. A flashlight and mirror might tells you if the rubbing is recent as it will be nice and shinny.
5. Do NOT remove the two smaller nuts on the adjuster, only the large nut comes out
6. Look for the current location of the dowel. I then take some white paint and mark the current location of the dowel. This tells me how much adjustment was needed when I am done, plus I can put things back to how I found them if I was to get distracted.
7. The dowel is threaded. (I think it is 5mm, but I do not recall). Thread a long screw on the dowel and use it put pull the dowel out.
8. With the aid of long nose pliers and a small phillips head screwdriver that fits the holes, rotate the adjuster to tighten the chain. Put the dowel in whichever hole aligns and then remove the screw.
9. Check for chain tightness and that the cam marks are still aligned. Spin the engine a couple of times and check again.

Hopefully your chain has not stretched to the point where it cannot be adjusted. That happened on my Mistral and I had to replace the chain ... that was not fun.

Ivan

 

The dowel is normally flush with the face of the round adjuster with all the holes. In the photo below you can see the dowel at the 7 o'clock position. As I said before, use a 5mm screw to extract the dowel. Do NOT use an allen wrench to try to extract the dowel as you will probably mess up the threads. And please do not replace the dowel with some generic version as the next person (which might be you) will have a heck of time trying to remove it.

Ivan
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Sal, I just saw your post. We just had a three day Maserati event here in sothern Oregon which included a drive to Crater Lake and a jet boat ride down the Rogue River through Hellsgate Canyon.
Anyway, here are some photos of the cam chain adjustment mechanism. Notice the eccentric shaft that the chain sprocket rides on. Once the chain stretches so that the eccentric can't apply the proper pressure, you'll need to replace the chain.
Ivan, described the procedure. You'll need to remove the center nut, then the large washer. You then should see the threaded dowel pin that locks the two adjustment pieces together. I use a 10-32 screw to remove the dowel, but it's probably some metric thread that pretty much matches it. Keep pressure on the outer washer with the holes in it when you remove the dowel. It will want to unwind itself.
I adjust mine without removing the cam covers. I apply pressure to the outer washer until it feels 'right'. One of the 3500 maintenance manuals states 0.75 ft-lbs. Then I reinstall the dowel pin in the two holes that are aligned.
You may want to do as Ivan suggests and mark the holes you started with and then rotate the adjustment washer slightly to the next set of holes that align themselves and insert the dowel pin. Then start the engine and see if the chain slap noise went away. If so, put the large washer and nut back on. If not, try the next set of holes.
Hope this helps.
Larry
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