Cummins 5.9 12 Valve

[Grant TD]

It has unfortunately come to my attention that there is a dowel pin in the gear drive housing that has been noted to fail and fall out into the cam drive gear. Has anyone else had this same experience? Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks. Grant

[dhays]

Originally Posted by Grant TD

It has unfortunately come to my attention that there is a dowel pin in the gear drive housing that has been noted to fail and fall out into the cam drive gear. Has anyone else had this same experience? Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks. Grant

I don't, but others may. I would suggest you post a question on the Seaboard Marine site. Lots of Cummins expertise there.


sbmar.com

[Jeff F]

I have one of these motors. I did some research and couldn't find any incidence of the KDP failure on marine models. Someone asked a similar question on boatdiesel a few years ago and the experts there said they'd never seen the problem.

[Grant TD]

Originally Posted by Jeff F

I have one of these motors. I did some research and couldn't find any incidence of the KDP failure on marine models. Someone asked a similar question on boatdiesel a few years ago and the experts there said they'd never seen the problem.

When I get it apart will try and post pics. When I googled Killer Dowel Pin, quite a few articles came up.

[C lectric]

This question came up on B.D. many times. It is a truck engine phenomenon that happened mostly to the hot rodders. In their attempts to jack up the HP by fooling with the injection pump they removed a bracket that supported the back end of the pump and did not replace it. That allowed a small amount of movement, wiggle, which caused the pin to , in some cases, to wiggle out of place. Keep the bracket in place, DO NOT REMOVE IT except for service and then replace it, and the units give no particular trouble. No more than any other engine.



I am summarizing from memory what Paul Foulston said many times to questions about this. He was one of the B.D. Cummins experts with serious Cummins B and other engine experience. Go to B.D. and use the search function with his name and you should find those posts. He has not been active on B.D. now for several years so go back a ways.

But if that engine has that bracket in place and no one has been trying to jack up the HP then that engine should be good without KDP problems. If the bracket is gone then there may be some questions to be asked and maybe find one, get the pump pulled and checked and replace the bracket.