ok my friend found one for sale they only want $4k for it says it needs new hydraulic lines other than that its good to go, seen a few pictures motor looks good know leaks looks all factory, tracts look good still alot on the grousers, cant see the sprocket so not sure on it , the gauges are all the there seat is pretty shot but from being 50yrs old it looks pretty good, anyone know anything other than the obiouvs things to look for im mean for 4000 even if you throw 500 for new hoses and 400 for new hydraulic cylinder seals ,,, im pretty sure its a manuel trans so steering would have seperate steering clutches if those work then seem like it wouldnt be a bad deal, theres plenty of dozer work where we live.
Firstly, a 450 built in 1973 will NOT be a 'C' model - it will be just a 450. Secondly, even in 1973 the 450 has a powershift transmission - they can be hugely expensive to repair. Thirdly, $900 will be just the beginning of a very big way to launder thousands more $$ Fourthly, I don't know how good you are at wrenchin', but you will need some fairly decent machinery repair skills to get this thing to work & once you do it will likely be a Pandora's Box. Fifthly, If you're keen, we're here to help.
I'm not quite as pessimistic as they're nice machines (or maybe I just have a soft spot having one myself). But there are things to consider. Firstly, the tracks. One of - if not the biggest - thing to factor in because the cost of new ones is eye watering, and difficult to get (at least it is where I live). If they're worn out they can easily jump off the idler and sprockets and it really spoils your day when they come off. The condition of the grousers isn't anything to go by, you need to look at the condition of the drive sprockets, bushings and ideally take a measurement across 5 pins with the track tight to determine the internal bushing wear. Unless they're good I'd run away. There's other stuff too like roller wear, but if it's more of a hobby machine you can get away with a lot. Are you able to give it a proper test, or is it parked up and unusable due to needing hoses etc? I'd want to give it a proper test and know that the transmission is all doing what it should especially when warmed up. You can pretty well guarantee that there will be more things it'll need, there always is when you buy a machine and nice though these are they're still near 50 years old and people tend to stop maintaining them so you will find things to do to it.
I just bought and dumped one that had torque converter issues. Worked great till it warmed up then it slipped. I sold it as soon as i could find someone who didnt care about that issue.
This is exactly why you need to give a machine a couple of hours work before you can say that it's any good. Anything with a torque converter, powershift or hydrostatic is relying on oil to drive it and when it's up to full temperature and the oil is thin you get more leakage (both internal and external) or loss of pump output if it's worn out. Buying anything that you haven't tried in every gear at full temperature gives some risk.
How come you never answer my texts anymore ? Lol !
If all it needs is $900 in repairs, why isn't the owner fixing it and asking double the money???