Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) Killer Dowel Pin ALASKA

[MLara]

Can anyone out there please help me? I live in Fairbanks Alaska and recently took my 1997 Dodge Ram 4x4-2500 5. 9 12 Valve to 2 diffrent places to see about getting this preventive service performed but no good luck at all. The first place a NAPA service center was taking my rig appart when they stopped the work because they said there was oil residue in the timing case to block gasket area indicating the timing gasket is starting to blow out. The timing gasket is supposedly blown out where two bolts go through the timming case into the the block. Removal of the bolts may make the leak become worse. The 5 Star Dodge/ Chrysler Dealership didn't want to attempt to perform this and suggested elsewhere. The 3rd place was another NAPA near the Airport and I did not get a good feeling about this place at all. It was a house with a shop and the owner was a bit rude and close to $300. 00 more than the first. I already wasted $285. 00 on the first place for their charges before they stopped. The leak is very minute right now but ultimately my questions are 1). Where in Alaska can I get the KDP service done. 2). Do they have a valid case about the leak?

 

[surfbeetle]

Sadly, if you have a leak where the gear case meets the engine block, your dowel pin could already have fallen loose and cracked/damaged the gear case. Or if you are lucky it is simply has gotten a bit loose. There is a kit from TST performance that includes instructions, seals and a tab to hold the pin in place. If you are a bit mechanically inclined, you could do it yourself.

 

[JMcCoy]

That's what I would do. TST sells a kit for about $70. I just went to auto zone and bought a timing cover and seal kit. I made my own tab out of a fender washer and bought some locktite. I found a few of the gear case to block bolts were a little loose. As far as oil residue, thats probably BS. I have oil residue all over the place. Not a drop on the ground. The first thing I would do is to scrub the engine clean. that way you can see exactly were it is leaking from. If it is leaking from the cover or the crank seal, you are good. The dowel pin kit will fix the problem. It should be noted that after I performed the job, I had a small leak from the crank seal. After a few days the leak went away. As far as a good shop in Alaska, I cannot help you there. If you find one, I would gladly travel from Florida to go to him. HA HA HA. None around here. Good luck.

 

[GAmes]

There are other members in AK. Do like I did soon after joining. I contacted a member in a town about 40 miles from here who also has a 97. We set a day and did both trucks, learning as we went.

 

[JMcCoy]

That's a good idea!

 

[MLara]

Thanks to everyone that responded to my KDP issue up here in AK. Things are very expensive up here and in Fairbanks these crooks have the markets cornered so they have plenty of opportunities to decline work and take advantage of the fresh military money flowing through here. Sales is their best attraction when it comes to trucks. Others like my self former military decided to come back up here to live because we love it but as with everything else in life there are trade offs and availability of good service garages is less than ok. Thanks again and keep up with your membership with the best club going thanks TDR.

 

[DonFitzwater]

I sent you a PM. I'll help ya!!!

 

[GAmes]

There you go. TDR-a source for CTD info and new friends

 

[SDrake]

Thanks to everyone that responded to my KDP issue up here in AK. Things are very expensive up here and in Fairbanks these crooks have the markets cornered so they have plenty of opportunities to decline work and take advantage of the fresh military money flowing through here. Sales is their best attraction when it comes to trucks. Others like my self former military decided to come back up here to live because we love it but as with everything else in life there are trade offs and availability of good service garages is less than ok. Thanks again and keep up with your membership with the best club going thanks TDR.

I bought my truck where I lived in Ky and quickly figured out by observing the mess the shops were making of warranty work that I was on my own. Lots of frustration over things not being right, steering for instance which I finally solved myself, but the first serious problem was when the truck started getting hard to start at about 40K miles. Turned out to be fuel hoses connecting the pump to the tubes on the firewall. I put up with this encreassingly difficult starting for about a year while trying to get help from Dodge dealership, local diesel shops and they were all saying fuel pump, p-pump, timing, kuneter valve etc. I would have allowed them to change the injector pump under warranty except I had already observed how totally calloused and incompetent they were so i was just not willing to allow them to lay a hand on that stuff. When I say incompetent, I am talking about them adjusting the timing which did not fix the hard starting, except that now the truck blew blue smoke for 10 minutes on a cold morning and ran rough as a cob. Didn't fix my problem while messing up other things. How much of that do you want? Everything was working out like that and that goes for things i paid for as well as warranty work. Rear axle seals for instance. I had enough of passing it off as bad luck thinking they fix these thing all the time, he just messed up this time, no body is perfect, so go back for more.



Reading TDR one day i came up on some stories about the hoses, which by the way were not leaking fuel, they looked OK but were allowing the fuel to bleed back into the tank, by allowing air to enter, resulting in hard starts. That and other stories I could tell set me on a DIY mode because otherwise it was going to cost immensly to keep this beast running and at that it was not going to be running right.



I have Done Killer Dowel fix, Timing adjustment, front u-jonts, Ball joints, fuel mods, track bar, tierods, dash removal for airconditioner evaporator replacement, on and on it goes. All at quite low cost. And the truck keeps getting better and better.

And none of the jobs were all that difficult once I made up my mind to do them. I have the service manuel and TDR of course has been the life saver. Otherwise my truck would have been a disaster. Just have to wonder sometimes what the hang up is to just tear into thing and take charge. It is not that big a deal. Sometimes you have to spend money on a one time tool but mostly just common stuff.



The killer dowel fix involved removing a lot of parts, fan shrowd, fan etc but each time you do something you learn more about how to do something else that is bound to come up. Actually you do not have to remove so many parts but that worked for me. I took care of a few other item as I went.



Probably not much encouragement since what we really want is a little help which we are glad to pay for and we resent people preying on our ignorance but sad to say that is what they do except in rare cases. But you can do it. Just have to readjust you hobbies a bit



This has been a fantastic truck BTW once I got on the right path to keeping it going.

 

[JMcCoy]

Well said.