How-To: 2.4L Balance Shaft Chain Removal

heydockyle · Post by **heydockyle** » Fri May 13, 2011 11:46 am

It's not going to be very beneficial here, but for any of the swap guys or srt guys I figured I would take some pictures while I was doing it. The srt will look a little different, but will be the same concept.

This was done on a 98 2.4L with stratus oiling setup.

I'm not responsible for anything you screw up. This is very easy to do, but should not be attempted if you are unable to dress yourself in the morning.

Tools Needed:
Oil Pan Gasket
3/8 and 1/4 Ratchet sets
10mm socket in both drives
13mm socket in 3/8
13mm wrench
19mm 3/8 drive socket to fit crank pulley
3/8 extension
Bolt Cutters to cut the chain.
I think that's it lol

First thing you will want to do is to remove the oil pan. Make sure all the oil is drained out of it. If you are not sure how to remove the oil pain I suggest finding out how, or not going on with the chain removal.

After the pan is removed you will see this.

You are going to remove the oil pickup tube. It has one bolt that is a 13mm which can be seen in the picture.

Now you are going to remove the balance shaft chain inspection plate. There are 4 10mm bolts. This is where your 1/4 ratchet will be used.

I forgot to take a picture with the chain on, but this is what you will be looking at besides the chain will still be on the sprocket. You are going to want to take the 13mm bolt out of the sprocket. Take the sprocket off. Pull the chain off of it and then put the sprocket back on. You could probably leave the sprocket off, but I put mine back on. I had to hold the pulley bolt next to the sprocket with a 13mm wrench while tightening the sprocket bolt to keep the balance assembly from spinning over. I would suggest using some lock tight on the sprocket bolt.

Now that you have the chain off and sprocket back on, you want to take your bolt cutters and cut the chain. If you have small bolt cutters you can do one side of the link at a time. The how-to on srtforums says to cut the link with a dremel, but I like knowing there are not shavings being sent up into my motor. Do the cutting at your own discretion.

Now that the chain is cut, you are going to have to gently pull on it, and turn the motor over with a socket on the crank pulley. I think it is an 18? Maybe 19 can't remember. Do Not turn the car over with the starter. Using the crank pulley you will slowly turn the motor over and it will spin the crank sprocket feeding the chain to you.

Reverse the removal process of the inspection plate to install it. Put a new oil pan gasket on. Bolt oil pan back up. Fill oil. Enjoy.

DoubtedNeon · Post by **DoubtedNeon** » Mon May 16, 2011 1:16 pm

little backround on what the balance shaft does? sorry im noob to this engine.

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Mon May 16, 2011 1:33 pm

The balance shafts are two weighted shafts that spin opposite of each other to counteract the vibration found in longer stroke engines. Most engines that are "oversquare" (longer stroke compaired to bore size) have balance shafts to smooth out the idle.

Post by **occasional demons** » Mon May 16, 2011 2:26 pm

That is all.

heydockyle · Post by **heydockyle** » Mon May 16, 2011 6:09 pm

Ehh bolt cutters work fine if you don't have a chain link cutter lol.

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sat May 28, 2011 10:10 pm

Thanks for directing me to this after I had it done haha. Very useful nonetheless. BTW the harmonic balancer is a 19mm bolt for anyone wondering.

Also, I realize I don't even need to cut my chain now that I'm taking the crank out anyway.