My local 5* Chrysler dealer was only going to charge for 3 hours for labor on the timing belt. Get the kit off rockauto.com that comes with the tensioner and buy the water pump from one of Craig's resources to make sure you get a good one. Depending on who you talk to, they'll warranty the work but not the parts because they didnt supply them. We did all my timing stuff at a fix it meet at Tom's back in May. Maybe Cory, myself and a few others could help do yours depending on timing and distance? Save you half a grand. I'm not sure on the steering knuckle and spindles and all that though..

I already sent him a PM about the parts. hopefully I can get rid of these parts because they are taking up space in the garage.

I've been calling around for estimates and putting together a parts list to shop around. Cheapest I've foud so far on labor-only is a little under $300 each for the timing belt and the front end work. Seems reasonable, but if someone where would be willing to lend a hand, along with their skills and doubtless a few more tools that I have, it would be much appreciated.

The challenge i'm facing there is that my tags are expired and i can't get new ones until at least the front end work is completed. A couple of options; either go for it and hope no one notices, or go ahead and re-sign up with AAA (something I've been considering anyway) with enough range to get the car where it needs to go. The money for all of this work should arrive sometime this week, and it would be nice to have the car up and running by March due to a pending road trip.

Sounds like a decent deal on the timing labor. If you replace pretty much everything beside the Hydraulic Tensioner you will be just over $300 in parts.....so all in for $600+ is a great deal IMO

This may sound funny, but you might want to search Craigslist for a Mechanic that works at home or has discount rates. There are many around here and I am sure you could find a deal on that front end work that way.

Edit:
check this list out http://stlouis.craigslist.org/aos/

and this guy sounds great...trailer and all

Good idea, Craig. Thanks for the lead. I called him tonight and he called me back with a labor price of $150 for the front end work. I didn't ask him about the timing belt yet, I might go another route with that once I have it roadworthy.

Don't forget after all that front end work alignment will be again be necessary. Don't know your area but here about $80-90 for 4 wheel alignment (get before and after printouts).

Of course, but even with that it's still cheaper than the shop. And with what my step-kids have done to the car, the alignment is very well justified.

That is great! Keep us posted.

Tax refund showed up and I ordered all parts today from rockauto for both the front end work and the timing belt. While I was at it, I also made a call to ASP for an underdrive pulley. Fortunately, they had one sitting on the shelf and said they'd get it out the door today. I also got email confirmation tonight on the shipments (from multiple warehouses) for everything from rockauto. I already bought a steering knuckle at a junkyard yesterday.

Craig, thanks for the tip on that guy from craigslist. I spoke to a few others, but I'm going with the one you picked out for the front end work. Now I guess I should go down in the basement and see if I can figure out which box my FSM manual landed in when I moved last year.

I haven't quite decided what direction to take with the timing belt job. Clyde, if I can make it to your side of the state does your offer to help still stand? Then again, I guess that has a lot to do with your upcoming baby.

Time for an update. As of the beginning this week i wasn't able to get thru to the mechanic from craigslist, so I scratched that and went with a shop about 40 minutes south of here that gave me a reasonable quote. By the time you consider costs for the alignment, it was about $75 more than the shade tree mechanic. Not bad when you consider this place used to be a small town Chrysler dealer and their mechanics know these cars well. Once he got the outer tie rods, control arm, and steering knuckle installed, he did find that there was slop in the inner tie rod bushings so I had him do that as well. I'm also having him replace a lower O2 sensor that I had tried without success to replace in the past (I just couldn't get to it well enough and the plug on the pigtail had been damaged from the heat), and which has to be replaced before it will pass emissions testing.

Here's a catch-22....since the battery was dead from being parked for a few months and I had to jump-start it, the computer shows it's been reset. It won't pass emissions until it's been driven for awhile, but of course it's not legal to drive it until it has new plates. I guess I won't quite be legal for a day or two. By early next week I hope to officially have it back on the road.

Cool...glad to hear things are gettin' fixed

Good to hear you will be cruising the highways this summer! Glad it all worked out.

Yeah...maybe to Indy or Carlisle!

Got the car back today. Man, it's good to get behind the wheel again! It costs a small fortune, but at least it's done. I planned all along that my tax refund was going toward this.

Indy and Carlisle definitely are not in the budget for this year, I just passed my 1 year anniversary of being laid off. I'm hoping that within a few weeks i'll at least have a little work with the census.

Glad to see a little positive going for you, Dave.

Once question for you. You replaced the inner tie rods at Indy back in 2007 didn't you??