Ok I'm confused.

Can I fix the kdp by JUST putting in the longer bolt and tab and with out pulling the cam?

If so then thats great and I'll do it myself.

If so then whats the point of pulling the cam?

Some here fix the KDP in a few hours and some take all day. What are they doing different?

I may have it now. Do you just pull the cam if you have a cracked housing and need to change it?

A diesel mechanic gave me an estimate of $1700 and 16 hrs to do the job?

Something here ain't right.

What am I not getting?

 

You would only pull the cam if you need to replace your housing.

Tabbing the KDP is simple, should be no more than 4 hours labor even if you did it yourself.

 

There are 2 ways of doing it , one is removing the timing cover , putting in the tab & longer bolt , the other is using a jig , that allows you to drill & tap from the out side , this puts a bolt 90* at the original bolt holding in place .
I've done both .
Doing a good job of looking for leaks & seeing if housing is cracked or not , then its common that the bolts holding the timing case on get lose , if the gasket from block to case is in tacked , then removing the bolts , cleaning the holes & putting back together with blue lock tight , its not hard to save the timing case to cover gasket , then get the crankseal from Cummins & put that in .

 

It costs so much because they remove the cover on the front of the engine to knock it back in place and use a tab to hole it in place. you really have to remove a great deal of stuff to get the gear cover off to fix it. Unless the case is cracked you don't need to pull the cam.

 

You only have to remove the belt, fan, shroud and damper on the crank. Unless you are replacing the case, in which case, much more has to come out.

 

I did mine and it is not a hard thing to do. Taking your time you can have it done in 4 hours very easy. I used the TST kit and followed the instructions, which made the whole thing simple. I also used a new gasket, but many just use a gasket sealer. Anyone could do this, if they want to.

 

dont want to take over, but have a few questions. Im looking at getting my KDP taken care of soon and found just the KDP tab forsale for only $4, ive heard you can save and reuse the front cover seal and crank seal. Also the tab is so thin why should i need a longer bolt.

if i could get the job done with the tab, loctite, and some work that would be great.

 

It's not a good practice to remove a seal and reuse it.
Very often a reused seal will leak.
If your time is worth anything it's cheaper to buy a new seal rather than do it twice and still have to buy a new seal.
No problem reusing the gasket or just tossing it and using silicone.

 

I have a question... I just got the KDP kit from BD and it didnt come with a longer bolt. Am I ok using the shorter one or should I go buy a longer one? Also I plan on pulling out the other bolts and reinstalling with loctite; should I use the blue stuff or the stronger red stuff? Thanks

 

As far as length of bolt , I have seen some tabs as thick as about 3/16ths , but as long as you can get at least 3 complete turns of the thread you should be OK , use the blue like I said earlier , it intended to be taken apart with hand tools , the red requires heat to be applied to remove .

 

Thanks. That's what made sense to me but figured I ought to double check.

 

ya, I know its not the best to reuse the seal but its the most expensive part of the job . Your right though, it better just do it right the first time and just get one of the kits with the new crank seal.

thanks for the advice.

just trying to save money for other goodies.