IP gear cover oil leak at valley pan

tbrumm

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Thanks for all the great responses, Gentlemen! I understand how the gears are marked from the factory and how they line up with the "dots" and the "y
's". When I get the engine to TDC, and then remove the IP, and then remove the cover, will I even be able to see the "y's" as they will be below the top of the block? I am trying top visualize this with the pics provided (and thanks much for those!) and if I can "see" the y's so I can draw a vertical line to the top of the gear. Thanks again for all the great input!
 

icanfixall

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Providing you have the gears timed correctly and you verify your at tdc with the damper timing marks and the drive pin is located where my pics show it. There is no reason why you can't remove the gear and then draw the line from the top of the gear down to the "Y" mark. Also drawing a line from side to side of the gear counting up 17 teeth will show you a level line too. Use that level line to see the gear is in the correct tooth alignment off the top of the timing gear cover plate. You may be able to look down in the front cover with a lite and mirror but thats only telling you where the Y is on both gears before you remove the injection pump gear. No matter. The lines I refer to making will insur you have the gear correctly placed. Just make sure you have the damper line matched up with the center of the first short fat mag porbe location. Thats the number one tdc line.
 

tbrumm

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Thanks, Gary! That additional explanation really helps. I was thinking that I somehow had to make the vertical line while the gear was still in place, and that was what I was not understanding. So, when someone messes up and pulls the IP gear cover AND the IP and IP gear when changing out the IP, the problem occurs because 1.) the engine is not at TDC so the pump gear could be anywhere in its rotation (and you do not know here it was in that rotation) and 2.) No marks are made to know where the gear was located when pulled. If I am thinking of this correctly then, if pump gear has to be reset in its proper alignment with the cam gear (from pulling the cover and gear with the IP) , the first step in fixing this would be to bring the engine to TDC so that the "Y" of the Cam gear was at least at the top and you might have a chance of seeing it with a mirror and light and not have to pull the front cover. And, you can make the lines on the gear and get it reset properly as you describe.
 

icanfixall

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Sounds correct. Another thing to remember is the cam gear turns once for every 2 turns of the crank. So if the damper and tab tdc are lined up you might be at number 1 tdc or number 4 tdc. Looking down in the cover might help you see the Y or feel the Y with a piece of wire bent in to pick up the Y when its rubbed on it. A very small inspection mirror may help with the tight area. Some have use a piece of shiny steel like an older boy scouts metal mirror. Just do not drop it down the housing. Then you will have to remove the plate and maybe the oil pan to retrieve it.
 

tbrumm

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I finally got around to fixing the timing cover oil leak! Using the great advice from you guys, I was able to remove the IP, timing cover and pump gear and get everything "surgically clean". I hope Al doesn't have the copyright on that phrase:D. Gary's instruction about making the vertical line up through the gear works well, and seems to me to be better than counting the 17 teeth up each way from the tooth with the "y". I tried both and the 17 tooth method seemed (at least to me) to be harder to tell when the gear was in the right location. I actually took this one step further to "ease" my mind a bit when reinstalling the gear. I placed a white paint marker dot at the "y" tooth on the pump gear. I then took an inspection mirror and "looked" down inside at the cam gear and sure enough I could see the other "y". So I put a small white paint dot on the tooth on each side of the "gullet" that the pump gear tooth goes in. It was then easy to look down and see the paint dots and make sure the paint dot on the pump gear was between the two paint dots on the cam gear. Of course, success with any of these methods requires that the engine be brought to TDC with the IP drive pin in the 4 o'clock position prior to taking anything apart, and then not allowing the engine to rotate while the pump gear is out. It is nice that the timing gear cover oil leak is gone and the valley pan and water pump are now staying clean and dry! Thanks for the help guys!Just posting a pic to prove it actually happened!
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icanfixall

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Glad we were able to explain how this works. A small note to anyone attempting this job. Look at the picture. See the little notch in the gear cover plate. Thats really important. That acts like an alignment dowel for the gear cover so be sure to clean everything well so the housing fits back into this notch. This housing is an area where too much rtv can't happen nor is too clean a bad thing.
 
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