Well my friend just picked up a 90 cummins from his brother. Its got about 224,000 miles on it and he said the pump started to leak one day and died so he pulled the pump off to get it resealed and the truck has sat for about two years. He got the pump resealed and we started on tryin to put it back in. I clipped about 1 1/2 coils off the governor spring for him and took the collar off the full power screw and turned it up just a bit. It looked really dirty inside the pump, but i figured it'd be okay once we get fuel in it and get it goin again?

But anyways I've been trying to follow the instructions in the sticky and the motor is at TDC with the timing pin holding it. Well we went to go put it back in and the pump gear slid forward and got out of the gears and he just slid it back in but I think we have the timing off now. I told him it wouldn't hurt if we jumped it a tooth but bad if it was retarded. It was dark last time we were workin on it so we're gonna work on it more this weekend. But how do i get it back to stock timing or mayb jumped one tooth? is there marks that i can see with a light and mirror or can we guess til the stock timing marks line up? Or do we have to pull the whole front cover? I'm sure this has happened to someone before? I didn't know that gear was loose in there and it popped out on him. This is my first time installing a pump. Thanks

 

Need to line up the timing marks. Be careful with the timing pin pushed in, it is made of plastic and will break if you bar engine over with it in.

 

Thanks for that pic.

 

I would say that unless you had the front cover off there would not be a possibility of the pump gear getting enough space to spin. When we're jumping a tooth on timing we've got to pull the front off the front cover to gain enough access to rotate the pump drive gear, so you're probably safe (with a stock front cover).

 

Thats not true you can lift the pump gear and spin it with your tongue in the right place..

 

It's easy enough to take the front cover off that i would take the time and do it, maybe skip a tooth while youre in there..KDP and Bolts too.

The only thing thats not easy is paying for a good crank oil seal and installing it without messing it up. IMO

 

if you are at tdc, the key way on the gear should be a the 5:30 position if you are on the pump side of the timing case. that should get you close but as far as perfect i dunno. good lucky!

 

Well the thing is it slid forward and then it could turn and I think he put it back in wrong cuz the timing marks don't line up right now on the pump side.

I'll ask him about pulling the front cover off cuz your right, we could do the kdp and killer bolts and probably advance it a tooth. I'd feel a lot better pullin the cover and knowing we got it right. Especially since its a non intercooled and theres not much in the way to get to the front cover.

 

Could I just put the pump gear in and slidethe pump on and see if it lines up with the stock timing marks on the pump side of the cover? and if it doesn't line up, then take it off, and move the gear another tooth til the pump lines line up? Do ya think that would get it close enough?

 

If you know the pump is locked at the appropriate plunger lift for #1, and you know the engine is at TDC on #1, then yes you could do it that way.

The above pic is a great visual for what the gear train looks like, but keep in mind the VE pump gear has letters on it for various applications/ timing specs, not just the simple dots.

Somewhere BC847 posted some nice pics of the gears.

 

Just pull as many bolts as you can off the cover that you are able to get too.. Next get a flat head screw driver and pull the cover open just enough to see the gear inside. You can see how it is lined up with a flashlight ..

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is there usually a paint mark on the gears to line them up? I pulled the pump back off this truck and shined a light through the oil filler hole and it looks like I can see a orange mark on the gears, and it looks like they are lined up, and I tried to rotate the gear and it would move but I couldn't get it to go to another tooth so i think it never did move, I just thought it did cuz the timing on the pump side looked way off. My other buddy with a 92 looked at it when i had it on and thought the timing was way off so thats why i started worryin, but I think its right and I'm gonna put it back together. I feel better now that I checked closer. Thanks for the help guys.