Looking for pointers, basic failure prone areas of a late 70's unit. Track shoes about 30%, rails are SALT, rollers do not appear to be digging on the rail pin ears, lower guides and rock gaurds are all in place. Bucket teeth are so-so, bucket shows signs of large rock use on the spoil lip otherwise reasonably square, scary part is few year old repaint and non-working hour meter; $15,000. Big money expenses on these? Was supposed to be 977L Have a second prospect in Arkansas, 4in1, rails are weak but shoes look new, has obvious pin boss to roller wear, track links(probably just sealed rail) appear to be bridging in a few spots and it is a old US Navy unit, military surplus, $37,900
DMiller, apart from the wear you can see, check the final drives for side movement in the sprockets. Use a crowbar between the sprocket and the frame. Look for sprocket oil leaks. Then if you are going to buy take a couple of pails of 50 oil and change the Final Drive oil, look at what comes out carefully. Any big metal slivers and granuals mean big$$$ in final drive work. Any resistance to this from seller walk away. Then warm up the trans oil and make sure it will steer with a light toe pressure in both directions. If you have to really getdown on the peddal to turn the bevelgear shaft bearings are likely out of it, more$$$. When it comes to Undercarage Go hard or Go home., All the components work together and if you replace some badly worn parts only you will find you threw your money away as the other worn parts destroy your new parts in a few weeks. Later Bob
Thanks Bob, sounds like a voice of experience already had, sorry if you had this already happen. Seems the first one already got away, a neighbor to the man bought it and immediately threw a rail in heavy brush getting it home. The second one I am heading down to take a look today. If rails/rollers are shot and lubes not changed for some time will probably walk away from it. I already have a project crawler with enough projects sitting behind it. Too many think they are sitting on a gold mine when in essence they sit in a dump with dump equipment.
Why would "few year old paint" scare you? I don't get it....... Also I wouldn't worry too much about the hour meter either, the critter is old enough you would have no idea if its been changed or rolled over anyways, that's what a visual and mechanical inspection is for Pj
Always check the radiator core in track loaders - on the inside. They get blasted with dirt and stones falling over the back of the bucket when the bucket is up at maximum height, and the dirt and stones falls straight back onto the hood and is sucked up by the fan. Even a good fan guard doesn't stop the long-term damage.
Re:977L Track Loader
I'm sure after almost 7k hrs the machine doesn't have both origional AND good undercarriage ...... At 7k on a 963 the u/c is about ready to fly off and I thought I was doing great! Pj
Thanks guys, I have looked at a few up close and personal, know the aspects of lower roller/rail wear/eat the rail pin bosses but never enough dealings to know the fine points on a 977. The last one I checked out was a ex-US Navy, came off the south coast area and I suspect was in the water at some point as near to 1/4 of the links are stiff to locked(bridging), lots of surface rust as if cleaning it did not help after used in salt water or on salty sand. Had been well kept for lubricants, just was too iffy on rails, five lower rollers had flat spots and turned hard(had it jacked up using bucket) and I don't need the extra expense with a machine buy. Everything else looked good but something was just a neck hair raiser about it. I am going to stick with a Cat if I can ever locate a non-budget breaker.