The final drive locked up on the left side , removed the axle cover and found one of the sun gears had come out of place. I guess the shaft is broken that holds it. It setting in the field , I was wondering if it can be repaired there or bring it in. I am hoping to do this myself , I can't see it being overly complicated. My thoughts , remove housing cover, check broken parts etc. The shafts for the sun gears run in the cover as well? I looked it up on sis and the illustration shows it front on not from the side. I guess I'll find out when I remove the cover.
Yes. In theory you can unbolt the outer housing, fix what's broken and then put it back on. When you get it apart though, you need to consider if the failure has generated any metal which could have got into the rest of the system. Unless it's a clean break of a component and you can find all the bits, I would recommend to strip/clean/inspect the final drive. They're really not that hard to do and you don't need any special tools.
I finally got the final disassembled. What I know is bad , the sun gears , the hub or drum they ride in , the axle , the outer hub seems bad as well , the shafts the sun gears ride on have play in the outer hub. I have found another complete final drive that was disassembled and inspected , and has a 30 day warranty. I have it on order. Wonder what's next on this little jewel I have.
I moved the loader after removing the outer carnage which I will post pics of later tomorrow. All the rest is in the back of my truck and its dark now. I can assure you its pretty well roached. After moving the loader this large Timken pushed out , I looked it over and it has a lot of residual metals , the bearing actually looks good as well as the race. But its full of carnage. To bad you can't get dynamite at the local hardware stores these days.
Can this be welded? We have every weld process available.
I believe by the looks of the drum , its had issues before. Those scars are old looking to me. At any rate new final will be in tomorrow morning. I need a vacation from machine issues.
Yair . . . Just a note. Of no help to Dickjr. of course but I would point out that such a failure of a final normally has been brewing for a while. As part of normal two fifty hour oil change and service on dozers I always liked to undo the drain plugs and let a bit of oil out in to a large fry pan with a rush. A rattle of tooth chips in the pan and a teardown at an early stage could save a lot of money. If some metal was found the check could be repeated in (say) another fifty hours and a value judgement made as when to take the unit out of service. Cheers.
Scrub , I agree , here's the thing. I put a drive motor hose on it in the spring , pulled the axle it looked well not good. I knew there was an issue but at that point there was little to no metal on the magnets. I believe what happened , I bought his machine at an auction and was unable to check certain things. I'm not sure but from looking at the final I think it had issues and was pieced together and then sent to auction. At any rate , I have considered buying another loader , but at the same time if I get this one is decent condition I'd rather keep it. I like the size and the fuel consumption is not terrible about half of a 53C. And as long as its running , production is not bad either. I luckily found a complete final for 3250$ , its been disassembled and inspected has a 30 day warranty. We shall see. I am going to give it a once over and check some things out. After all the other problems even seems like my own dog would bite me. At least I have plenty of work as of now.
Yair . . . Gotcha Dickjr. In no way was I being critical, these things happen . . . its just that in this fast paced world I feel some of the old ways have been forgotten. Cheers.
Scrub , your exactly right , I could have possibly avoided a total wipe out. Tell you what I did do , I checked the other final magnet , only found that graphite looking material. No chunks. I dropped it off today at the shop this afternoon to get the finals swapped out. I agree the world is to fast paced seems like taking 5 minutes to pull a plug to check debris and oil level should not take to long.
Yair . . . Dickjr. Yes, that "graphite looking stuff" is pretty normal. As with most things its a value judgement. I recall one D9 that I was told was showing a "bit of metal" in the final drive filters. Had a look and sure enough there was metal in there but it didn't look too bad. The owner was going to let it run until I dropped some oil out and found a couple of half finger sized chips. One of the things I liked about the larger Allis Chalmers crawlers was that you could actually remove the rear housing and look up in there with a flashlight and examine the gears. Cheers.
When I had the axle out in March , the axle gear itself looked bad and was actually flaking. I examined the sun gear set. The gears were all smooth and seemed fine. What I think actually happened was the case where the suns ride , the shafts had worn into the case opening the tolerance somewhat which began to cause a jam of added friction. The axle is in the same condition as it was prior to all this. To me its like an oil pump going out of an engine but it quit because it dropped a valve , not locked up. As you have read about my predicaments , nothing typical happens to me. Look at my backhoe thread, its a signal resolver problem , I put all the resolvers in same problem. I bet CAT would be hesitant to sell me a new piece thinking all kinds of weird **** will happen to it.
Well the 6 million dollar 943 is alive , not sure about well. I bought a take off final drive from Iron Peddlers , picked it up and it was missing the axle. They looked at what stock they had , which was 4 and they said none looked good. They checked with Yancey , they did not have a good one either. So they ordered a new one from Whayne and included it at the price they quoted me for the final, which was 3250 plus tax and shipping. My guy swapped it out for 1150$ included cutting and removed track guard bolts , new seals and oil which was more than fair. No comes the what if part. It is making a grinding noise like a rock in an roller , I looked found nothing. I ran it 3 hours and checked the magnet it was clean. This rubbing noise , I wonder if it could be the brake not releasing all the way of what? If you track it real slow it doesn't make the noise. Other than that I'm glad to have it back. I do have a 30 day warranty on the final drive or as they refer to it , the brake group.
I would like to add , Iron Peddlers did keep me informed on the axle situation and bought a new axle at their expense. That's pretty solid in my book , I think that axle is 2200$.
The plot thickens , saga continues. Growling noise developed in this inspected take off final. Ran it a couple hours removed magnetic plug ,minor amount of material. Giving the benefit of the doubt , cleaned plug installed it ran it about 8 hours. Removed to check and it was loaded with shiny material that resembled a bearing race or rollers. I figure it might last 30 hours at the most like this. We will see how the 30 day warranty plays out. The 6 million dollar 943 is not the 6.? million dollar 943.
Ironpeddlers repaired the final at they're cost. My guy removed the final , they sent a truck to pick it up. It went to Monroe NC. When they tore it down they fond two bad gears in it so they replaced them as well. They put these parts out of a 19Z which is lgp. It arrived back and we found the wrong spindle so tear down and get correct spindle. When IP rebuilt it , they put all new cat bearings and seals in it cost 900$. They had trouble finding the correct gear set which this all took place over 2 months. My guy put the correct spindle in and said they used oem cat parts. I paid 3250 plus tax for the final , they bought a new axle , bearing kit , and gear set plus shipping to and from NC. Other than a terrible amount of down time , I'll say they backed the warranty up and then some. Got the machine back about 2 weeks ago , ran it about 60 hours so far. Yesterday one of the hoses that goes to the left lift cylinder took a ****. The one you have to remove the fuel tank to get to. I'm replacing both hoses and one metal tube while its apart. It is aggravating but I can handle a hose. It did have the original with the metal tag on it. The outer sheath looked like an over loaded condom it was so swelled. I got p o ed and decided I'm gonna buy a newer machine etc. After looking at 125k to 150k , figuring the payment etc , I got out of that notion. I'm praying to get some decent service out of it or at least 3 to 4 hundred hours. For what I do its a good size machine , that's what I like about it. Sorry for the rant.
Man sounds like my machine's, it about makes you want to commit suicide. I have spent 10k in repairs recently. I had to replace that exact hose on my 53 last year or the year before. Did it in the snow and ice was lots of fun. I have come to the conclusion that I need to charge more money, 100 an hour is not enough 150 would be better. I keep wondering to my self what kinds of rates these guys that have large fleets charge and how the heck they keep up with the costs of the machines, sometimes it seems everything goes right back into the tractors. When I am at cat I see lots of newer tractors being worked on. My 20z keeps putting out. What have you been doing for 60 hours? We want some pictures!
I charge 150.00 per hour for my 953c and am going up to 160.00, have not had any complaints as long as work is quality.
Yeah I need to get some pics. In the 60 hrs , I graded a large yard , dug 2 basements , loaded the truck a few times and when the hose blew we were starting to clear some large time. I'm looking at it like this , the months you don't have issues the difference in the payment goes in your pocket. I'm getting 115 for the 43. around here a 53 gets 125 and I've heard as high a 140. A 289 CTL is getting 100 here. 6R going for 150 , I don't see how they are making a penny at that. This hose deal is a major inconvenience but at least I can fix it.
JB from my perspective 150 is reasonable.
Local grading contractor here gets $125/hr from the time the machine leaves the yard then while in use and during return to yard. That is for excavator or dozer work. For me putting in the new road four years ago was $5500, grade, reshape terrace heads, rock overlay 780 feet. Today that would be closer to $7000.
This is where the hose blew that went to the left hand lift cylinder. Had to remove the fuel tank to replace it. I put both of them on while in there. The bottom pic, the large oak on the bottom of the pile is the one we were prizing on when it let loose.
This is a basement job we just finished. The lot was 12 feet lower than the street. We removed the topsoil and dug out the soft spots. I put down non woven geotextile and fill with #57 stone. 446 tons to bring it up where it would have a 10' basement wall.
This is not track loader work , but while I'm at it. This is a Cost share water way. The original had washed so bad cattle could get in the ditch and you couldn't even see the top of the head. We are roughing it in here. Then we will come in and tile about 1000' of it. There will be breaks put in with geotextile and class III channel liner. The other pic of the concrete structure , it is an old spring development. We are going to remove all the old structures and install a new catch basin , it will go to a storage tank made out of 24" ADS smooth wall with a poured concrete bottom and overflow. A supply tube will run from that to a concrete cattle fountain.
This is what happens when you are trying to save the environment. I changed the oil in the dozer , backed dozer up. Was pouring hot oil into bucket with lid when it slipped and went all over me and notice the neck of the shirt. Yes it went all over my face. I still managed to be able to recycle the majority and lost a shirt in the process. Got done , rode to town shirtless.
The 43 was bogging noticeably , which they aren't power houses anyway. After changing the hoses , hydraulic filter and refilling the hydraulic tank , I changed the fuel screen and secondary filter. The screen had what resembled someone having an extreme case of allergy or one hell of a bad cold and blew the nose in it about 40 times. Cleaned screen , new secondary and she's running out much better. I hope to get some hours out of it before anything else happens. I prefer it over a 939 any day and the performance is not to far of par from a 53.
You are seeing algae build up, time to add algaecide to your fuel, that gets on the low down it means flushing the entire system and using the old fuel for fire starter.
The hoses I recently replaced. Had to remove the fuel tank , just had filled it to the neck. I've never seen hoses have the outer sheath swell and stretch like these have. I had to replace the metal tube , the nut had rubbed thru. I believe this was one of my main hydraulic leaks. While at it , I changed the hydraulic filter , it lost 12 gallons of oil , so it was basically a service interval change. I have another thread on the track adjuster. When I figure it out I'll post some pics here.