Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 10, 2025 ...

Cummins says 4% but that was in 2004. Note that the van in the video had a pin that was part way out. Since it just happened to a forum member, I thought I would post the video. I just read about someone who had it come out twice.

Pierce

The only issue we had with the 5.9 in our '93 U225 was when the harmonic balancer worked it's way out of wherever and sheared the blades off of the radiator fan. Suddenly, we began to overheat! Headscratching, walking around the coach looking for fluid or oil ... nothing but a strange piece of some kind of plastic laying on the toad. Inside, lift up the bed ... more strange plastic!  Took a minute to figure out what had happened!  Of course, we were 14 miles west of South Bumblefart, TX ... no phone signal ... buzzards circling above us.  Many hours later a connection with Good Sam had been established and the proper tow truck arrived. 85 miles to Fort Stockton and the nearest repair facility. That paid the Good Sam Premium for ERS for the next 10 years!! 

Good times .... Good times.....

I just talked to my mechanic yesterday in Kinnewick, WA. ( See my recent posts in Trouble on the road.) When the cover was removed the KDP was still in place; not the problem after all. A rear mount for the air compressor had either broken or come loose leaving the compressor hanging only on the front bolt which bolts through a mounting hole on the cover. Evidently, the bouncing of the compressor cracked the cover. Same result: oil all over the place; multiple CB's in repairs.

No, catastrophic engine failure only occurs on a few. Three possibilities here. Either the pin comes out and falls to the bottom of the crankcase, the pin falls on top of the gear and pops the timing case or it gets wedged between the gears, breaks a gear and the valves hit the pistons. Seems like this is the least likely scenario.

Step by step with photos for the DIYer except for the radiator/intercooler pull: 5.9L 12v Cummins KDP Tab Installation Instructions

Pierce

Here is a Cummins response to the problem. I think I might provide both Cummins and a dowel pin kit supplier supplier with your engine's serial number and see how they respond. Cummins has a phone number at the bottom of their response. Quote:

Thanks very much for your email messages on the Dodge ISB gear cover dowel pin.
The timing pin diameter from the supplier and the hole drilled for the pin, are designed to be 'press fit' dimensions. In some rare cases, the supplied timing pin dimension and the drilled hole dimension, may not provide the correct 'press fit'. During assembly line manufacturing, it is impossible to determine the amount of 'press fit' between the pin and the drilled hole, once the pin is installed into the bore.

A few of the pins have not had the correct 'press fit' in the drilled hole and have worked out of the hole. This does cause extensive damage to the gears and gear cover. The percentage of failure is very, very low and did not justify a major campaign of all engines. If an unexpected failure should occur during the warranty period of the engine, the repair will be handled under normal warranty practices.
I have to say that I like the raised cover that is held in place by the fastener next to the pin. I suppose wicking lock tight will work but with the extended cover, neither one can come loose and for $10, how can you go wrong.
You could see it as a chance to replace the water pump with not much more time involved in pulling the cover off and making the modification.

Pierce