Hi. Im replacing the timing cover gasket on my ranger because it started to leak and figured I'd check the timing chain while I was in there. It seemed a little loose so I bought a new Cloyes kit and put it on and it seems just as loose. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

Hard to say for sure without a video showing how much slack there is, but I just did this same job and can confirm that a new Cloyes timing set had a little bit of slack still.

There should be less slack on the drivers side and more on the passenger side, because the rotation of the crank pulls downward on the drivers side. As long as you're sure you have the right parts, you can try rotating the crank clockwise with the crank bolt head and make sure the chain doesn't look like it's loose enough to slip or jump teeth, you're probably good to go.

 

Thanks for the reply.
A few other sources I checked had similar answers. I measured how far the slack moved when I pushed it and I got about a 1/4 inch on each side. Some forums that cover other Ford engines said a 1/2 inch of deflection is normal.
There definitely wasn't enough slack to jump teeth.
I've had it back together and running for a few days and everything seems to be running well, but it's only gone about 200 miles so far.