It’s time for another engine rotation. The Haynes manual says that I have to disconnect the accelerator cable and cruise control cable. Do I really have to? They seem to have a generous arc over the engine. And if I do it, I’d rather just remove the 2 bolts on the bracket. Am I missing something? I’m not in a huge hurry. The engine sounds fine, and the 1 plug I removed looks pretty good for 120,000 miles. I haven’t found a suitable place to hook the ratchet cable onto underneath the car. Any suggestions?
Generally, when the cables are removed, the bracket is unbolted, cables unhooked from the throttle body, and they are moved to the side. It’s been years since I’ve done spark plugs on one of these vans. Rolling the engine forward with a ratchet strap may actually hinder you from doing this job. Depending on how tight things are, you may consider going in from the other side. This would require removing the power steering pump and alternator. However, removing those items takes about a half hour and will free you up a ton of space. May be worth considering depending on how tight it is to get to the plugs from the driver’s side.
jt, I only rotated the engine in my '00 once. I used a basic tie down crank strap and IIRC ran it down over the front of the frame in front of the condenser/radiator, behind the bumper and hooked it down on the bottom of the frame underneath the radiator. Being paranoid I also rigged up another as a redundancy. I’d try to get more specific by the van isn’t actually here for me to look at.
Removing the cables is really not that hard. It just takes a minute. Remember to put it in neutral.
I can’t get you far on the plugs. I can’t even remember why I rotated mine, but it wasn’t for the plugs. Mine have about 60K on them and everytime I look under the hood I just think “ugh” and figure I might just pay someone to do it when its due. Of course, my PS pump is whiny and leaks a little so maybe if I ever decide to that I’ll try mark’s route since I’ll have the pump out anyway.
well i tried this on a 2001 pontiac montana about three months ago. i could not access the rear bank plugs even with the engine rotated forward. i did not get the coil pack removed, but even if i did i am not sure the rear bank would have been accessible. i gave up and took it to my mechanic who accessed the plugs from below while on a lift…
I did my old Caravan from below & behind on ramps in the driveway. This was not fun and I think it took about a week for all of the parts of my upper body to get back where they belonged. But I did get it done.
Frankly on the Silo, the front ones don’t even look like much of a picnic being buried the way they are.
Like the Regal, I think that once the torque struts are out of the way, the front plugs will be a can of corn. I got the right, front plug out easily even with the torques strut still installed.