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Replacing a Univeral diesel timing gear cover (long, with pictures)

debonAir

Member III
This is how I went about replacing the timing gear cover on my 5424. It was the most complex thing I've ever done on an engine and there was a lot of learning involved, so putting this here in case anyone else needs to do this. The general process is the same for any 80's era Kubota based engines.

The story starts when I noticed oil pooling on top of the front motor mount bracket. I couldn't find any source of leaks, so figured it was the cover gasket. I temp fix was to wedge paper towels, etc between the mount and motor and replace every hour or so. Not fun and not very effective. Over two seasons of ownership the leak got worse, to point of leaking about 1/8 cup per hour or so and getting oil into the bilge (which is really unpleasant in many ways it turns out).

I contacted a well know diesel mechanic who came and checked it out when I hauled out. He thought it was probably the gasket too, but walked away muttering some things about governors and springs and epoxy and age and told me I needed a new engine. I had know idea what he meant by all those words, but pricing the new engine + install sent me back to step 1: fix it myself, and if I can't, revisit the new engine route.

A lot of research later (thanks to this group and sailnet) I learned the 5424 is actually a Kubota D1101 engine originally made for the Kubota L245 series of tractors. Finding a workshop manual online, along with parts diagrams at Messicks I ordered a gasket. I also ordered a bunch of the little parts that where shown in the diagram: springs, o-rings, key, etc. that I'd figure would fall into the bilge if I managed to get the cover off. That turned out to be a great idea.

The Spring arrived and I began the process of removing the cover. First off comes the raw water pump, the alternator, the air cleaner (which was nearly clogged with grease!) and then the coolant bypass hose connecting the water pump to the thermostat body. Next comes the pulley off the crank. This is held on tight with a very large nut. Reading online, Kubota uses a special tool for this, as standard sockets, even if you could find one, won't fit over the splined PTO section of crank shaft. Stopped at the local Kubota dealer, and after a few attempts and finally meeting an old-timer mechanic they located the tool and lent it out to me. It turns out its two pieces: a regular large socket with a 1" drive and a 46mm socket with a large nut welded to it and bored out. It looks like this

specialtool.jpg
Using an impact wrench and PB blaster I got the nut off pretty quickly. The pulley came off easily as well with a puller borrowed from Autozone. Then came the shaft key. That was hard. No amount of pulling, tapping, etc. would move it. Finally I got the right tool and tapped it out. Protected the crank with many layers of blue tape and used a parallel cutter to get a good grip on it and a heavy hammer to tap it out.
shaftkey.jpg
Then loosened all the bolts around the cover and used a small sharp screwdriver, looking for an opening anywhere to start wedging off the cover, careful not to mar it (its Aluminum). It took a while but it finally budged a bit letting me get a bigger screwdriver in. At this point, before removing the cover, there are a few springs that need to be disconnected. The throttle linkage comes off the top of the cover and the governor spring disconnects from the throttle lever. I ended up also disconnecting it from the gov. lever opening the fuel pump access plate on the side of the engine. In retrospect I would just put a wire on the spring and leave attached to the governor. With the throttle out you then disconnect the "starter spring" which connects to a little pin on the cover. Only there was no spring! Hmm. The purpose of this spring is to basically gun the throttle when the engine is just starting to make it easier to start, kind of what a choke does for gas engines. Now I know why I had to use 1/4 throttle all the time to start my motor. With the springs off, wedge the cover off with screwdriver all around. But it wouldn't clear the motor-mount bolt. Not even if I cut it to the level of the nut. I had to remove the entire motor mount bracket since the mount was rusted solid to the bracket. To do that, I had to use a cable hoist from a big timber across the companionway to lift the front of the motor a bit. This turned out to be great, getting the mount out of the way as it let me clean under the front and in the bilge, and clean and repaint the bracket off the boat. Then the cover came off. The gasket was a mess, with gobs of grey RTV here and there, and old flat o-rings. Glad I got new ones.

Took the cover home to clean off the gasket remnants and noticed a little crack in one of the bolt holes on the bottom of the cover. I put a small screw driver in to see how bad it was and "pop", off came a chunk of epoxy. Hmmm. Chipped a little harder and a big chunk of epoxy fell off the bottom of the cover revealing a big hole. I think I found my leak
coverhole.jpg
My first reaction, well, lets go with my second reaction: what kind of epoxy was it, and how long did it last?. The metal that mates to the block was very thin, so any repair I made I'd have to build up and be part of the mating surface. The previous owner is no longer living to ask, and the engine bilge was a huge mess when I bought the boat so I just assumed the patch wasn't all that good, even though it was cleverly formed and painted to match the engine. The search was on for a replacement cover.

I found a used cover at a tractor junkyard in Kentucky for $300. They included a clean oil filter housing as well, since mine was a rusted corroded blob like the cover itself. They shipped it up and it arrived with the studs still in in, but painted in and out. They assured me the paint is fine, so I painted the front over with OEM bronze from Westerbeke (33.50 a can from Hansen Engineering). My degreaser removed the paint from the water pump revealing newer Universal blue-silver paint. I swapped that, and the oil filter (still mostly Kubota blue) with new gaskets from Kubota parts online, and bolts and nuts, onto the new cover.
assemcover.jpg
Then back to the boat. I replaced the crank seal by pounding out the old one from the front, and tapping in the new one from the front. Its a little more than 2" around and a 2" PVC pipe was a perfect tool to gently tap it in with a bunch of grease on all of it

Then put on the gasket with a very small amount of black RTV to hold it, and the three little o-rings in place. Note there is a part of gasket that needed shaving to fit the alternator bracket. If I had to do it again, I'd use the "right stuff" RTV that doesn't have a 24 hour wait period. That was a long wait! The cover went back on along with a new o-ring for the water pump pipe. Then the dreaded springs. I had what turned out to be the bright idea to wrap a wire around the springs to give me something to hold on and thread it through the throttle plate hole, and to prevent it from dropping into the cover space if something slipped. Hemostat was the right tool to pull the spring into the holes in the levers, and the hole in the little pin on the cover. Then un-twist and remove the wire, replace the throttle after attaching governor spring and retourque all the bolts.

Put in a new shaft key (glad I had ordered it!) and tapped pulley back on, another trip to the tractor dealer to borrow the tool again. Much quicker this time. Then replaced the alternator and belt after wire-brushing paint/oil off both the bracket and the alternator where they meet. Replace raw water pump, reattached air filter and bypass hose. New oil filter. I rigged up the raw-water pump to run from the garden hose filled bucket and refilled the coolant and bled air out from the tstat bleed valve. I had dropped the coolant level to avoid spilling it out the water pump when the cover came off. A bunch spilled anyway which my $33 harbor freight shop vac saved for proper disposal and even survived for its next adventure: the holding tank.

Then the scary moment. Glow-plugs for 10 seconds. Crank. The motor started right up, quicker than it ever had before. Water sprayed from the exhaust. The battery charged. The oil pressure alarm took some extra seconds to turn off. Refilling the filter I suppose. After about 20 minutes, the temp gauge eventually got to 160, then the tstat opened and the temp dropped to about 90 and wouldn't budge from there after almost an hour of running. Guess I need to swing that prop in the sea and I'm looking forward to it now, especially without having to mop up oil each use.

And I am sure my neighbors in the yard heard me muttering somethings about governors and springs and epoxy.
 

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Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Nice!

If you have read my blog entries about our engine change-out you know that I am a chicken... and took the easy ($$) way out. :rolleyes:
You saved some significant dollars and learned some useful stuff too.

Way To GO !!!

:egrin:
 

Tom Greaves

Member I
Thanks for this post. I'm nearly ready to begin reassembling my timing gear cover on my M-30. You post was very helpful.

Can you confirm that the two dreaded springs are assembled with the governor spring on the outside and the starter spring inside? The concentric arrangement appears to be the case in the not-so-clear parts drawings.

BTW, I defected from Ericson in 2008 when I bought a Bristol 35.5 and sold our E-28+. This site is amazing and I still use it from time to time.


20220808_151456.jpg
 

Tom Greaves

Member I
After further inspection, I realized the governor spring goes on the starboard side and connects to the starboard fork lever on the governor assembly and the lever on the speed control shaft. . The start spring which is much smaller, connects to the port fork lever on the governor assembly and to a small pin on the gear case. My engine runs like a top after this surgery I'm pleased to report.
 

Pete the Cat

Member III
I want to congratulate all you folks who have done projects on your diesels. Diesels are relatively simple machines that can be reliable, but they need attention and understanding. I cruised for a few years in Central America and was surprised at the number of cruisers who seemed to have no idea how to maintain or make simple fixes on their engines. As your story suggests, lots of mechanics are from the "replace stuff" school and we are losing the old guys who have a lot of experience with small marine diesel setups--so finding competent and willing help is a problem. It is a great opportunity with anyone with an ability to follow directions and with some mechanical intuition to make their boat ownership lives much more enjoyable. My personal belief is that many folks give up the joys of sailing after repeated difficulties with auxiliary engines--the frustration and expense of trying to get others to repair them because they lack the experience or will to do it themselves. Marine diesels have not reached the level of our modern cars, yet, where we can mostly just change the oil and it will let us know when there is a problem. And to prevent problems, owners of diesels need familiarity before the crises hit. You get it by doing. Again, Kudos to those of you who have taken on your own repairs, in this case, where a mechanic feared to tread.
 
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