I usually try to do my own work on the truck but we're leaving Sept. 8 for a camping trip out to UT & AZ so I brought the truck in to Cummins to have a few things checked out before we leave. The tech. said that the gasket between the gear housing and the engine is leaking and he can see where the gasket is being pushed out of the joint.

It's not leaking very bad at this point but my concern is that the bolts holding the gear housing on the engine may be loosening and I don't want one of them to fall out and bust things up while we are out on our trip (well... I don't want it happen anytime, but especially not while we are on our trip).

I plan on getting a lot of miles out of this truck yet and don't have any plans to sell it, so I figured I might as well bite the bullet and I made an appointment for them to pull the gear housing and replace the gasket. Ten dollars worth of parts and $1300 - $1500 labor - ouch. But, I know what is involved in replacing that gasket and it's not something I am equipped to handle

 

My gear housing had a little leak. I tightened the bolts and the leak stopped.

 

I ran into this recently with my 98 12v, the timing cover was warpped just oh so slightly that it wouldnt seal up. had to spend the 1500 to get a new cover and have it all resealed back up

 

When it's under warranty many dealers don't go the $1300 route, they save that for paying customers. They way they do it under warranty is is to loosen the bolts, pry the case away slightly and squirt in the silicon goop.
My feeling is $1300 method is better.
Make sure they take care of your kdp while they're in there.

 

Thats what they did to mine i found the old service records from previous owner three times he had the oil leak repaired by dave smith dodge. from the amount of silicon smeared between the timing cover and block it was amazing that the thing didnt leave 2 qts of oil everywhere it went

 

So, is it possible to get at all the housing mounting bolts once the front cover is off? Maybe I'll just have them take the front cover off and retighten the mounting bolts. Like I said the leak is not that severe and my main concern is not the leak but that one of the mounting bolts may fall out inside the gear housing.

 

There are two bolts under the timing gear that you can't get at even with the cover off.

 

I'm sorry I misunderstood your problem. My leak was actually from the cover, at the top. Three or four bolts were barely tight, when I wrenched on them the leak stopped.

 

Mine was leaking too but when I did the KDP I removed all the case bolts, thread locked and re-torqued them and now have no leaks. Some were very loose and I got to the one behind the cam sprocket by barring the engine until it was visible and inserting a thin bent and ground up monkey metal 10mm wrench. The kind you find in the tool kit of a japanese moped!