I just purchased a 2006 973c with a c9 engine one reason was the price and it has had a certifield rebuild from Alban Cat and it shows 17000 frame hrs and metal tag shows rebuild was done 2012 at 9045 hrs at time of rebuild everything seems to work & drive nice steeers strait engine sounds strong i ran it around and checked for blow by looked pretty good in the oil fill hole also the engine and trans oils looked very clean had a Donnellson oil filter and the rest were Cat filters this was a Waste Handler application it still has a few garbage bags floating around inside belly pan lol the garbage company probably had enough funds to have the certified rebuild and used it then upgraded to newer model possibly so they sold or sent to auction where excavating contractor purchased it now i have it. My question is on the U/C im wanting to possibly install new rails sprockets and fix the machine up a bit. I only had a tape measure with me and measured the rail height both sides they averaged 4.75" bushings have wear but the sprockets all have square tips, still slowly wearing down, the pitch on both sides were 8.5" and the front Idlers looked to have plenty left on them and the pin bosses were still very much in the safe zone of clearance from the bottom roller flanges, top rollers looked great guessing the lgp pads to be 50% worn. I would like to know what is the correct rail height? and if D7 rails with 8.5 pitch will work on this machine 973c might have different bolt pattern 3/4" to 7/8" the 973c uses the common sprocket as cat D7e f g i think. my serial#0973clbcp00310 im also courious what the weight might be with the WH wide pad application it has the extra guarding over bucket cylinders and hydraulic tank and that large rear cwt and grill with drawbar
That's a big loader. Whatcha plan on using it for?
Everything I can find for it to do dig and clear trees and load trucks
It sounds like the undercarriage and rails have a bunch of life left in them if the rollers aren't hitting the pin bosses.
Regarding all the specs for the undercarriage see if you can find a copy of the Cat Custom Track Service Handbook somewhere. It has all the specs plus wear tables. It will also indicate "what parts fit what". https://www.scribd.com/document/466477982/CUSTOM-TRACK-SERVICE-HANDBOOK-17th-EDITION
Hi Nige been a while since our last meet on here I did find a page on internet that showed measurements on different models but it was not new enough for 973c just the old 973a and different sizes fir d7's and d9's thru the years with the side booms crawlers akso
I’ve been tinkering with a 973 last week. Seems a good machine,but was looking sorry for itself. Looking better this week
Had a nasty leak on the ripper ram,the cab mountings were knackered (absolute pig to change) and it wanted new teeth and edges
We also fitted new batteries and had to eat a fair old plateful of spinach to change those cab bushings. Even the multiplier broke out into a sweat
Nice looking 73 Nicky. The patent on K series teeth has expired here in the US so we have been buying aftermarket teeth from our commie dealer (irony right?) for 1/2 the cost of Cat. Actually kept our K series toothed excavator buckets when we traded our 325FL for a 325 NG. Still running J series on my 953.
CM,I’m not well informed on bucket teeth etc, but a deceant quote was supplied by ITR for teeth and edges yet,Finnings decided to beat it. Things aren’t great in the UK at the moment and Finnings have started cutting costs in many aspects. It makes a change
We had all osrts of problems keeping K-Series teeth on excavator buckets. IIRC we swapped adapters/lips to something more robust in the retaining side as soon as we had the chance
Totally see that in a mining situation. Our 321DL with just over 8K hrs has a shank worn just enough that we'll loose a retainer every now and then. However the lip is worn almost to the point of replacement so it's met it's lifespan. I really like how easy they are to change/swap out. Nicky I might have to check back with Cat to see if they have come to their senses on their GET pricing. IIRC it was close to $400 for teeth and retainers for our 48" bucket from Cat. It was a little less than $200 for aftermarket at the kommie house.
Love that term Knackered Nicky. Started using it Here!!! Always a Handful of Grief on your end, some days Miss the heavier work, others Not so Much.
Knackered can mean more than one thing. You sure don't want to get knackered in the nuts.
Yes Gentlemen,knackered can be interpreted in many ways.It’s a term I use when I’m trying my best not to swear