Sorry for a long post but I'm new to 2.6 land (but not Mitsu world) and have a bunch of questions.

In my life I've owned 3 Mitsu cars, a diesel Pajero and now I own 2 Raiders.

1 is mint body wise, with only 150,000 original KMs, the other is a parts donor.

The problem: the mint one is broken.

After doing some quick diagnostic work (a.k.a. taking off the timing cover) I've learned that the tensioner for the balance shaft chain broke which has taken the BS chain and some gears with it.

At this point I just want to say that compared to a second Gen truck this one is magically simple, one of the reasons I wanted it. We used three wrenches and three sockets to get this thing apart (and my beloved pry bar). Anyway...

This is my first 2.6 and I don't know much about the gassers. I'm obviously going to be pulling the cam to check the bearings. From there I need to get it running so I can check compression and for rod knock. Yes, I know the proper way would to start by pulling the motor but this is a budget project (actually it is budgetless) and I don't have the time or space to yank the motor out. To get it running the easiest way seems to be the BS removal kit.

I've checked the faq and run a few searches (I like the wire but man the search function is useless). I haven't found out much about these kits. Where do you get them? Does anyone have one for sale? The cheapest one I've seen was $50 but I don't know if I trust this site or if it's even a complete kit.

I have a few other questions too.

(1) The gear that sits on the crank has allot of play in it (forward and backward) should I replace the gear too?

(2) Should I still run the oil pump balance shaft? It appears to be in-tacked so why mess with it? Being that the oil pump is also tensioning the main chain pulling the oil pump seems like it may create a potential of me screwing something else up. Is one shaft better than none?

(3) Lets assume that the engine was run for a limited amount of time with the chain broken, meaning no oil pressure. What would go first? The top or bottom end of the motor? When I hooped my 2.0L the cam seized first, is this the order that 4G54B(s) die too? If I check the top end (because it's easy) and it is OK is it relatively safe to assume the bottom end is OK? I'm not asking for a guarantee, but a best guess would be good.

Thanks for any help (and remember, at least my first Gen I questions wasn't about tires or wheel offset).


Not that it matters but it is an 88 with the offraod package (headlight washers). It has the 4.62 difs with the LSD. 5 spd and obviously the 2.6. It's budget so it's getting shackles, a T-bar crank, 33 x 12.50s and a Don bumper with winch (all of which I already have in my friends shed, left over from Gen II world).

Thanks for any help

Maurie