wondering the difference in a 85j American made 955L and a 71j gray market 955L if any. Hopefully some of you guys with knowledge of these older machines can inlighten me.
71J series aren't grey market, they are a direct equivalent to the 85J in all respects, made by Mitsubishi in Japan.
You have to be careful with US-built 85J prefix. 85J1-4671 are 955K, 85J4672-Up are 955L 3304 engine came in from 85J6247-Up. As above. 71J is a Japanese-built machine with a 3304 engine. I suppose you could say that broadly it's the equivalent of 85J-6427-Up. If you're considering buying one you do need to be aware that the Parts Manual for the 71J (XMBP9568) is a different book to the one for the 85J (UEG0700S).
Nige, the 71J's started out as K's as well, they paralleled the production run of the 85J's as far as updates etc went.
Honest Question: Have you ever seen a 71J machine with a D330-engine..? If the 71J paralleled the 85J then there ought to have been a change to the 3304 engine at some point in the production run.
Yes, unfortunately for me I'm old enough to have been around when they first came out. They started in about 1968 with the D330c, and became the L when the 3304 came out in about 1972 same as the 85J's.
And the unfortunate part for the OP is that there is nothing that is readily available to determine exactly when the switch from the D330C to the 3304 took place in the 71J-prefix like there is for the 85J.
The sometimes right book I have says it happened at 71J 4558...but who knows.
That's more than I've got, so let's go with that...……...
Nige I believe you answered my question. Both are L series with the 3304. The 85j is being bought as a parts machine or visa versa. The 71j isnt the best of shape. I just wanted to make sure with it being made in Japan it wasn’t going to be one curve ball after the another
Based on that I believe they are going to be broadly similar, but the only way to tell for sure would be to compare the Parts Manuals for the two Serial Numbers (71J vs 85J) that you are actually working with.
That’s what I was thinking but the 71j is not pulling up on sis. It’s it paper copy only
It's something with your SIS. It comes up on mine ………. sometimes when Cat dealers set up a customer SIS account they limit it to the actual models/prefixes that the customer has in his fleet. Having said that it also appears as though SIS does not include any information for machines earlier than 71J4558 - the ones with the D330C engine in other words. Comes up as "no equipment configurations matching that Serial Number"
Ok. I’ll double check before I do anything else