well I bought a 62k series 920 that is a bit of a fixer upper. engine was weather seized when I bought it and I had full intentions of pulling the motor and inspecting it as soon as I got it home due to not trusting the work done on it in the past. story is they installed a new crank, bearings, seals and rings. on startup the engine knocked! pulled oil pan and found a rod got missed with the torque wrench.... tightened that and all was good. times got busy with that company so poor 920 got drove outside the shop unfinished and sat a year or more. they went to start it to move location and it was stuck, not having tie to play with it they pushed it on the float with a komatsu and hauled it off at the storage yard with another. there it sat for several more years until I came along. Day 1 I show up rock the motor with a bar a little bit and it turned 360 with very little effort, great I thought! Day 2 I grab some new batteries and try firing her up. I would get smoke but no fire, turns out the rack was stuck so I pulled the governor and worked the rack until it was free, by this time its dark out. Day 3 I show up and she fires up! sounds great, has great oil pressure, builds air, hell the brakes even worked! I run it around the yard a bit and everything was great so I say I might as well drive her home. its a 1.5 mile drive from the yard it was in to my house via dirt road so I figured that should be no trouble.... I made it less then half way home and she locked up with very little warning. I get out for a look and see oil dripping, look up under and see no drain plug. I walk about 100 feet back and see the oil splat with the drain plug sitting on the ground. so after forgetting to tighten the rod nuts they forgot the drain plug!!!! so I get the tow of shame home behind a volvo. pulled oil pan and found #3 rod spun and seized. had loader floated to my cabin where it will live and pulled motor this weekend. pulled crank tonight. stuck crank in lathe and cleaned up #3 rod journal, got all the bearing material off with some 320 and was still on the upper end of spec for size.
I thought I was good to continue polishing until I seen this, seems I got some heat checking when the bearing failed. not sure now if this crank can still run as is, or if it should be ground or if its now a boat anchor.
That crank needs to be ground to get rid of that heat checking.
figured I had little to loose and ground into the crank with a die grinder, got in around 20 thou and still can see the crack. smallest bearing I can find was 50 under so unless that crack disappears in the next 5 thou, which I doubt it would, this brand new crank with 30 min run time is now a boat anchor. I have a parts loader, a guy many years ago started to swap a 950 engine ( same 3304 but with a turbo) into it but life happened and he left town. sat long enough the plastic over the turbo rotted away and rain got in. So it is seized as well. hopefully in the next week I will get it hauled out of the alders grown around it, pull the motor and inspect the crank. the "parts" loader actually looks better shape then my "running" loader. If I knew the transmission was still healthy I'd consider making it the running loader. but the starter was robbed off it so thats a 3 inch plus hole opening the transmission to the world and its moisture. hopefully the crank is good, if not it looks like I'll be doing a 3RD cummins swap on a loader. I helped a buddy in 2010 put a 5.9L in a john deere 544, was a straight foward swap not much maching to get the torq bolted to the flywheel. Then in 2019 me and a buddy did a Cat 910 / 4BT swap, I posted that build here luckily the 920 looks to be a much easier swap, I already have a 4BT here in my inventory I can use.
you can get a used crank for not a whole lot of money or even go with a after market one i have never had problems with the aftermarket ones
trouble is where I live, look up Labrador city in canada, rather small area with 1 dirt road between me and the rest of canada. finding something local used isn't going to happen unless I buy the 930 off the same company I bought these 2 920's from, which has crossed my mind honestly. there is no engine shops around here, no scrap yards (there is a company that takes scrap metal but wont sell you anything) and not much for parts suppliers for this type of thing. its a mining town so most of the companies around here make good money and just go to cat or komatsu, pay the bill and don't think twice. I might go to cat and get a price on a crank from them if my other one is junk to. seen some online but shipping to here is usually crazy expensive for something this heavy.
found out today about a 950 headed for scrap, never sized it up but some steering stuff broke off, wheel was pointed to the left at a 30 degree angle. so I figured the motor should be good enough to get the crank from. its a d330 so not many common parts. started pulling apart the motor, #1 rod was loose.... pulled the cap and found this. so I have another crank that is no good! I sure hope that 3rd engine in my parts loader has a good crank. I wasn't fond of cat engines before I bought this loader, now I'm starting to really dislike them....
My goodness, shame on the mess. You got a good collection going now. Love the service truck. Keep us posted.
the d330 is going to a new home tomorrow, I have a friend with a old 944 that surprise surprise has engine trouble haha. its burning a lot of coolant so maybe just a head gasket but maybe more. so I'm gifting him this engine for parts. Thanks! the ole 75 has been a good truck, its a bit of a johnny cash special. started life as a 2wd , 390 gas, C6 auto and it had the "ton of rust" option as well. I deleted the ton of rust on the cab, installed a 5.9L cummins and eaton 6 speed from a 98 F800 I had. converted the eaton to Over drive. dodge divorced NP205 transfer case. Chevy Dana 60 front and 14 bolt rear ( i was going to build a 1980 GMC K2500 before I got the ford but wanted the extended cab, figured I'd use the axles I already had) used the chevy steering box, front shocks , brake lines etc. rear is an air ride setup I built using school bus air bags ( the 5.9 has an air compressor) and ride height valves with a dump option. the deck was supposed to be temporary as i had it laying around but now that the truck is usable its not high on the priority list to build a nice deck. the Hiab 027 knuckle boom went on just a few years ago, the honda runs it for now. I do have a PTO for the eaton but the pump is WAY to big to run the Hiab, when I find a smaller pump I might reinstall it. but honestly I like the honda, its more quit then the cummins.
Holy cow! I had a feeling there was something special about it. What a cool rig.
found some pictures of building the ole truck.
finally got my parts loader dragged out of the tree's and got the engine pulled out today. it was also a 950 engine like the last one but in a 920 after the original motor piled up some parts in the oil pan. I'll grab that motor as well when I can, its pretty buried in they're shop right now, they tossed it down in the service pit in the floor and there is a long term project truck parked over it. plastic over the exhaust rotted away years ago so it was drinking rainwater. one of my buddies said ill soon be like a nascar pit crew but only for cat engines haha. draining the oil and ice from the engine.
crank looks good and bearings are decent. #2 main bearing had a score in it from something passing trough but the crank itself is decent. I'll polish it up and call it good enough at this point. #2 piston wouldnt push all the way up into the cyl so I pulled it out for a look. it was clearly the one doing the drinking!
started putting the motor back together tonight after work. pretty much have it done other then the rear. tomorrow I will back the 75 F250 in and use the hiab to upright the engine again. my engine hoist really does not like when a 3304 over centers until the chains bring up again! put the crank in the lathe to clean up #2 main a little, took very little to get it to a pass in my books for a old cat that will see at best 50 hrs a year. the new mains never got hurt when the oil plug fell out so I reused them. the 950 mains had some wear. 'new' crank installed, I used the 950 rod bearings that were with the crank. I was surprised to see they were actually in very good shape. probably last my lifetime with the amount of use it will see honestly. everything installed that can be installed in this orientation, besides the fan and hub that will wait until engine is upright so I don't bend the fan flipping the engine. with any luck the rear main seal will be in at the cat dealer on friday and engine will be installed this weekend.
It must be nice to have such a well equipped shop.
A suggestion to make sure to time the balancer shafts correctly or you’ll be looking at another low-hour engine failure soon after installation.
Thanks Welder Dave, been Buying tools all my life so its building up nicely, trouble is now I am running out of room to use these tools haha. I actually have a 15 foot lathe I ended up removing from the shop. the use it got wasn't worth the space it took up. I plan to build a 40'x60' shop at the cabin where the 920 lives and the Big lathe will get setup there with a kubota running it is the plan. Thanks Nige, timing should be good I done it as per the CAT manual pinning the shafts with the flats up and #1 at TDC. also lined up all the timing marks on the oil pump gears while I done it. both methods agreed with each other so fingers crossed no more failures with this engine. I've done 2 others (one was a D330 but close enough) in the past that are still running good, But I will admit I am rusty on these, last one I was in before this adventure was 2010.
A very good read. Keep us updated please.
glad you liked it the read. I really wish I had videoed the whole experience for my you tube channel but at the time I was thinking it'd be a non event drive home. boy was I wrong lol no phone call from cat today for the rear seal so it either didn't come in, or more then likely it is here but hasn't made it through receiving and the warehouse yet. I wouldn't be able to do much with it anyways, rolled my ankle pretty good yesterday so not very mobile at the moment.
not much progress on the 920 this weekend but I did get the flywheel housing , starter and fan back on. while I was moving it around I decided to weigh it seeing I couldn't find a weight online that was correct. In another thread on here I seen that Cat says its 3800LBS on SIS, they are not even close... Thats with everything on the motor besides the air cleaner , muffler and oil in the pan.
Yes, but the 3800 pounds is when the engine, torque converter, and transmission are all removed as a unit. Later in the procedure ......... a) remove engine, torque converter and transmission 1. Fasten a hoist to the engine. 2. Install blocks under bottom and front of the transmission. 3. Remove cooler line (2) for the torque converter. 4. Remove bolts (1) that hold engine to the torque converter and transmission. Remove engine. Weight of the engine is 1500 lb. (675 kg).
Thanks Nige that's good info and a very close weight! all I could find was guess's before I pulled my motor trying to figure out how far out I could extend my Hiab crane. The number I settled on after looking at many different weights all over the place was 2200 LB, mind you I was leaning towards a heavier number for the sake of not destroying my truck/crane. I work alone 99% of the time like I'm sure a lot of us here on this site do, so my main Goal is to not end up under a tipped over F250 or a snapped off boom haha. Not a lot of progress Today had to work at my real job and still no rear seal at the cat dealer, so I did some small stuff like put the belts back on, replace bolts that were to long and had stacks of washers with the proper length bolts, and clean stuff up. tube was broke off the original water temp gauge when I got the loader so I dug out a stewart warner gauge out of my inventory, tube is to short to reach the dash but I'll find a place for it temporarily. oil pressure and water temp are 2 things I'm not running without! I'll get the proper 3S4824 gauge ordered. I've also been hunting for the tool to install the rear main seal. almost all the guys around here that would've had it for the old 3300's are retired and/or moved away so I've had no luck. got close and found one for a 3406. I was going to start machining my own tonight but the biggest shafting I have around is 6 inch which isn't big enough. I'm going to hunt for some pipe or tubing in the coming days.
today I tackled the block heater and heater lines which is rather important where I live. when I bought the loader they had a inline coolant heater that was installed by putting a Y fitting into the heater hose that ran to the 3/4" port tapping into the elbow flowing from the trans cooler into the block. the other hose of the heater tied into the 1" port on the elbow between the engine oil cooler and the trans cooler. I generally don't like these inline heaters, they work OK when installed good but usually they are not I've found. for some reason I still keep them as I remove them from stuff I buy lol. My plan is to install a screw in 1500 Watt heater that I will put in that 3/4" port that flows into the block, this will let all the heat flow into the engine block and up to to the head where it needs to be. The heater hose will tie into the 1" port between the 2 oil coolers, I actually think this port is better and here is why: Water flows from the pump into the engine oil cooler, then into half of the transmission cooler, loops back up through the other half and then into the block. water wants to take the easiest path and heater hoses and a heater core are not an easy path compared to the wide open block and head if you used the 3/4" port. using the 1 inch port you have that little bit of restriction the transmission cooler gives, which should flow a little more water through the heater. I would like to tie into the passage between the pump and engine oil cooler but there is no port and I don't think it would make enough difference to justify drilling and taping a hole. you might never notice a difference from the 1" and 3/4" ports but I have to use the 1" anyways. I removed the stack of fittings from the 3/4 port, the had a 1/2 hose barb on that one. the 1 inch port had a 1 to 3/8 bushing, a 3/8 close nipple, a 90 and a 2 inch nipple as a hose barb. I reused the bushing, installed a street 90 elbow and apparently I have no 5/8 hose barbs left in stock so I machined the 2 inch nipple into a simple hose barb. I then searched my parts area for the new 3/4" NPT block heater I knew I had for about 20 min, then I remembered I used it on another machine... so I have to order another heater I guess.
A 1500 watt heater seems like over kill for a 4 cylinder engine. Especially since it's in the block.
Ended up ordering a 1000 watt. I wouldn't call it a little 4cyl it's a 1700 pound chunk of iron, also it won't be plugged in all the time or even overnight. When I show up at my cabin I have to start a generator and warm up that chunk of iron that's sometimes as cold as -40° as fast as possible so I can clear snow. I run two 750 watt heaters in my 5.9L cummins engines, I plug one in while at home. The morning I leave my cabin I'll plug both in and by lunch time she fires right up. Lots of block heat is common practice around here.
engine was supposed to be in this weekend.... got my seal from cat Thursday after work for the low price $270. Friday I went to work at a shop my buddy own's, a 303 came in with swing issues. you can't see nothing without pulling the Cab and the Deck so that's what we did. we also pulled the boom so we could easily rotate the machine to inspect the ring gear. its only about 20 min work to pull the boom so just as well. amazingly the pinion gear looked like that but the ring gear had no issues! I'm also amazed those 2 remaining teeth survived and how well the machine worked with just 2 teeth left, we were thinking it only had 1 or 2 gone the way it was acting. Saturday I went to another buddies shop to see what he had for rear main seal installers and when I left I tweaked my healing ankle again so back to no walking and no engine in the 920 again! maybe next weekend it will go in haha.
engine preheat is a thing of beauty, I agree. The 3406 is MUCH happier even at around freezing with it. That poor excavator is all blowed up, sir. I notice you did not even mention the boom and stick.
That's the joys of compact equipment, 100 things to take off to get to one haha. Boom was mentioned in 2nd paragraph. Rather then mess around with chaining it up to rotate the body to inspect the ring gear we just spent the 20 min to disconnect a few hoses and knock out 2 pins. Figured we had that much pulled apart already might as well pull the boom to!
made some good progress this weekend. thursday I got the rear main seal in. If anyone here is ever stuck like I was and cant get the proper tool but you can get the seal installer for a 3406 you can get the job done. for the plate that bolts to the crank you will need to open up the bolt holes a 32nd of an inch to 11/16", it will then bolt up to the 3304 crank just fine. use as normal at that point until it bottoms out, the 3304 crank is slightly bigger so it wont go all the way. I then used the flywheel to push the sleeve the last little bit, pulled it back off and used a brass punch and hammer to tap the seal the rest of the way in. worked out perfect. Friday I was late leaving town to head to the cabin, I got there around 2PM which only left me 3 hours of daylight to light the fire in the camp, clear some snow and install the engine. I wish I had all day because it was warm Friday, only minus 7. Friday night it dipped to -30, and was still -20 after lunch when I decided it was "warm" enough to go work on the loader. I installed the rad, hooked everthing up, filled the oil (which I kept in the camp over night to stay warm) and filled the coolant. fired her up which went pretty easy, great oil pressure, ran smooth and as quite as a clatterpillar runs..... THEN it sounded like someone dumped a bag of 1/2" nuts and bolts into the oil fill! Fed up with this thing fighting me every step of the way for the last 2 months I drove it across the road into the winter storage lot with my John Deere 350B track loader to deal with next summer, go back into the cabin and eat some chili I had on the woodstove all day which was great! I then lay awake in bed half the night trying to figure out what I did wrong building this engine...
today (sunday) I wake up with ideas in my head of what to check. but first I gotta eat! step one of fixing a cat in the snow, light the wood oven and cook breakfast! while throwing a toy for the dog of course... I then head outside, pull the valve cover and check valve lash and for bent pushrods. all looked good! time to start this thing up.... but its -20 again and I still have no block heater. BUT the cummins will start so bring that over for extra power for the clatterpillar. after I get the 3304 woke up from its nap it once again sounds normal, so now either my suspicion is correct or the cold oil is tricking me. a few min latter there is the god awful sound again! I take my 3/4 wrench and loosen the air line between the compressor and the air tank, sound goes away! last night I remembered last winter my air drier in the F250 froze up and I thought the cummins had a rod knock, which was also the air compressor just dead headed. the 920 wasn't dead headed but it was maxing out the compressor, My guess is when I cleaned the engine after I removed it water got in the governor as its not doing its job at the moment. so next weekends job is address the air system, and try to clean up the wiring in the cab at least a little because its a MESS. all in all, successful weekend.
Love reading your threads. I've got a '74 f250 highboy with a 12v cummins and a 920 loader!
Nice! the old Fords are good trucks, I have a 79 F350 single cab 2wd as well. no plans for it but it was cheap and its completely rust free! which never happens around here. got some more work done on the 920. went down Friday with a few buckets of oil and some parts. Installed a brand new governor on the air compressor and its much happier now, still has a little noise so I might bring an inspection mirror next trip to the camp and pull the bottom plate off the compressor and do some inspecting. not knowing any maintenance history and seeing the transmission was low on oil I decided best to change it. swapped over the filter in by the woodstove with the dog. I also pulled the screen and magnet cage from the transmission, screen was great and magnets only had sludge on them no shiny chunks so thats always nice. PO's were running the machine with no oil filler cap.... another good reason to change oil and filter! so I made up a cap. filled transmission up with some fresh 20W oil and she's good to go again for many years.
Next major thing keeping me from using the loader was the pin in end of the boom at a 30° angle, I suspected it was broke off inside and I was right. it was mushroomed out between the boom and coupler so some grinder work was necessary to remove it. It looks like the machine was being operated like this for a LONG time. old vs new pin in progress. here is the new pin. the bores in both the boom and coupler need serious work so this is a bit of a waste of good material, should've just made a pin from mild steel for the time being. My plan is get the parts machine floated to the cabin in the new year and inspect it. I think its in better condition to begin with, so I might fix up the bad pins and bushings on that one, clean up the wiring and the cab, paint it , and once its all ready pull the engine back out of this machine and install it in the other one. this way I'm not rushed to do the jobs and have minimal down time.
Beautiful picture of your cabin inside. Good job resurrecting the old girl. Just finished a 43 year old Komatsu D155 engine that had everything wrong. Takes perserverance. Simon C
got my parts loader moved last weekend so hopefully this weekend I can get down for the long weekend and do some inspecting. at a quick glance the parts one seems to be in much better shape, especially when it comes to pins and bushings. cab is much cleaner inside and the original front window is still in it, I find the window in my running loader looks goofy. so unless I find something major I think I am going to fix up the parts loader over time and when its ready swap the engine and rad over. boom truck made easy work of loading and unloading a machine with 3 flat tires! crane scale showed a weight of 15,000LBS with the engine and radiator missing.
great posts and pictures. Those pictures are as close as I want to get to that kind of cold, thank you.
I'm sitting here looking at snow and cold from a place, where it's currently 36 degrees C! Our Christmas Day has a forecast of 23C to 35C! I don't know how people can live and work in cold like that, I detest any temperature in single digits in C, particularly when there's a cold Southerly wind blowing. I might see a frost for an hour in the early morning, on the coldest Winter day in July, then it will warm up to a double digit (C) temperature day. I have to admit, I can't handle 42C days like I used to - nowadays I like to find some shade on those hot days.
calling for +1C here Christmas day, which isn't normal for us this time of year. Usually January and February here -50°C is not uncommon. Working in that temp is no fun, hard to do a lot of work with winter gloves on and with no gloves it's a race to remove 1 bolt before things start going numb. In saying that I'd take -30 over +30 in most cases, I can't handle heat very good. +25 is a hot day for us here, +40's I think I would just pass out haha
My Dad was a driller on large diesel/electric oil rigs in northern Alberta/BC during the 1980’s. Typically operations would be suspended below -40c due to metal fatigue possibilities. Beautiful cabin, great work on the loader!
There was some companies around here that did the same. I don't know of anyone that does it now though. At the places I've worked only thing I've really noticed break more in the extreme cold is cutting edge bolts. especially on the couple loaders we had doing cleanup on and around the railway, when that cutting edge hooks into a join in the track its easy to Break off some bolts. But that's much nicer then in the summer when they don't break and your machine comes to an instant stop! Thanks! The cabin is great get away that's for sure. I'm only just getting started on the 920, not sure how much more will be done during the winter but next summer you should start seeing some real progress on it.
block heater finally showed up so I got that installed. Then I tackled the pin, first I had to remove the coupler to clean the junk out of the bore. the bore was ALOT worse then I thought, other side was actually good shape but this side is toast. if I do end up using this machine long term I'll end up machining a new boss to weld into the boom. yesterday was much warmer then usual for us in Dec so I ended up working on my other cat... the snow cat! fuel tank was rusty so a while back I pulled the tank cut an end off and cleaned it out. so with the warm day I stuck it back in, not exactly a fun job! the rad has to be moved to get to the front 2 bolts and the rad bolts are miserable to reach.
finally got a chance to push some snow yesterday, we got a pretty good dump on Wednesday and looks like another coming tomrrow. the 3304 started fine at-10C/14F with no block heater which is no surprise thats pretty warm temp's, I did have some issue with ice in the fuel shutoff valve in bottom of the tank but some fuel conditioner fixed that. and the window in the door shattered when I closed the door so I'll need some glass cut now. one day I'll have to bring over the Hough and the John deere to line em all up. I also really need to get the lights working on the 920, most of the winter here it's dark before 5pm so Lights are necessary! that last picture was taken around 5:30. But wiring is my least favorite activity in the cold...
forgot to take pictures but I did some more upgrades on the 920. to operate the quick coupler they had a closed center valve in the cab to operate the CYL on the coupler, but for a supply the tied into the plug on the transmission filter cover and the return T'ed into the trans filler tube. My good buddy who was around these when they were new said thats how they did a lot of cats around here... why I don't know because it works terrible! mine worked awful and the other 920 I've ran with the same setup also didn't work very well. I thought about tapping into the curl back circuit like komatsu does but my parts loader had a 24V hydaulic power unit to run the coupler so I robbed that and swapped it over, this way if I find a snow plow with hydraulic angle I can use it to run the blade as well. I was also VERY supprised last weekend when I was clearing snow that the return to dig bucket leveler started working!!! of all the old cats around here I've seen ,ran and worked on with the hydrauilc kickout this is the first one I seen work, so when that lever kicked foward as I was backing up from the snowbank I got way more excited then I probably should have haha. I had every intention of trying to fix it this summer and expected a rusted master cylinder, bad lines etc etc all the crap you would find from basically a hydraulic brake system that sat for maybe 30 years. I also got all the lights working with the current wiring. its a god awful mess so the summer I'm ripping it out and starting over. I even cleaned out and 'detailed' the cab with my favorite heavy equipment detailer... good ole WD40. and just because everyone love pictures so heres some related and unrelated to the 920. few weeks ago i put the 920 to work moving my sisters cabin, built a steel skid under it and pulled it with my 920 and my buddies komatsu WA200 last weekend I did see the First otter of the year down in the river in front of my camp. and the snowmobile developed a coolant leak so it gets some shop time, the rooster approves.
Well, since the rooster approves, It's all good.
Yup, he don't approve of much lol his days are numbered actually, ended up with 4 roosters. I have one barred rock rooster, I'm keeping him so I can hatch some more eggs this spring. the other 3 are going in the freezer.
What do you mean by a closed center valve?
when the valve is neutral no fluid passes through from the inlet to the outlet, its dead headed basically. in this case robbing transmission pressure its critical because if it was a 'normal' open center valve that flows freely between inlet and return when the spool is neutral you'd have no transmission pressure. same with tapping into the curl back circuit like I talked about, the hydraulic oil would bypass through the valve taking the path of least resistance rather then move the cylinder. modern Hydraulics use closed center valves quite a lot these days with piston pumps that adjust flow depending of the demand. old stuff like this 920 and simple stuff like a log splitter usually use good ole open center valves and fixed displacement pumps like gear and vane pumps.
I was wondering what happens to the trans. pump/oil if it's dead headed at the valve? Does the trans. act as a closed center system? Not familiar enough with how the trans. works but seems like it would be hard on the pump and/or the trans.. A selector valve off the bucket curl would seem like a much better way to do it.
The plug it was tied into on the filter is a test port I'm thinking so it's normal blocked off, so when your not operating the coupler everything with the transmission works as normal. While using the coupler you are using whatever pressure is in the filter housing. I'm honestly not 100% sure how the trans is setup but assuming it's line pressure at the filter then however many psi the trans uses to operate the clutches that's whats available to run the coupler. Whatever that is is not many psi by hydraulic standards because it was gutless lol. I could be wrong but cycling the coupler while driving could possibly cause a drop in line pressure and maybe cause some clutch slipping to. A friend of mine also made a good point, he said he wonders how many transmissions got burned up from a leak on the coupler causing the trans to run low on oil, we all know checking the transmission oil can get overlooked a lot. Tieing into the curl circuit is definitely a better option in my opinion. Or run a 24v pump like I have now, I've seen that on a few machines around here.
What a great thread.Your work and resourcefullness is very impressive.But your patience on this project is incredible.Good work!
Thank you! I like to actually fix things rather then throw money at stuff and playing parts changer. if I did a full rebuild with all new parts would it last longer? yes for sure! BUT... this loader will probably see 50ish hours a year, I'm confident the parts I reused will last me many years to come. as for patience Ive been working on "junk" my whole life so I know the game haha its when I spend a decent amount of money on stuff thats supposed to be good and it ends up being junk that my patience runs thin.
It also helps if it's relatively easy to get at the things you need to repair. Also if parts are small enough you don't need a crane or helper to pick them up. My 931B and most skid steers can be a pain to work on some things. The starter on the 931B is especially annoying to R&R. The belly pan is too because you have to crawl under to get the 2 bolts at the back. On a wheel loader at least you don't have to work on the ground.
another small win on the 920. I now have front brakes! rears worked but the front master cyl was dry and rusted to hell, checked at CAT for the master and I understand why most cats around here do not have brakes... after some digging and looking it seemed like a dorman M661 would work, looked like the correct bolt pattern and it had the correct bore size of 1.5" so I gambled the $100 and ordered it. sure enough it bolted right up. only difference was it had dual outlets on the sides instead of 1 out the end so I used a fine thread bolt and copper washer to plug one side and factory fittings on the other. of course the rotors were rusty but they have been cleaning up and brakes work pretty decent now! hopefully that part number can be of use to someone else down the road.
Great write up. Your summer might be too cold for me! Never make it through a winter. After bundling up for outside, wouldn’t be able to move. Very capable mechanic being able to accomplish anything in temperature below 0C. And you make it sound so easy.
The Dorman is a lot cheaper than a Mico and looks like a copy. I don't know if Cat ever used components for brakes or clutches from common suppliers like Mico or if Mico made them for Cat?
Wagner was a large supplier to a lot of manufacturers
Even way back in the day (around the 1970s) when "one size fits all" was the mantra as far as oils in Cat machines were concerned there was always a specific requirement for an oil with additives designed to operate with friction materials to be used in transmissions.
Dorman is usually cheaper indeed, I've used them lots in light and medium duty trucks and knock on wood haven't had an issue. I'm pretty sure Wagner was the supplier to cat on these style brakes, the later 920's 30's and 50's went to a different setup and was probably a cat only part. there is also a very good chance wagner made the master for Cat with a part number just for them, I will admit I never tried getting any numbers off my original master to see how they cross referenced so in doing that you might find one EXACTLY the same if you were doing a restoration, if your like me and just want the thing to stop the M661 does that very easy for cheap.
my buddy bought the 930 that was in the same yard as my 920 and it had a few issues as well, one of which he passed on to me to fix. it wouldnt shift gears so he pulled it apart and found the plastic pinion gear was toast. so I made him a new aluminum one turning the gear blank milling the teeth. I milled a long enough piece so that I have one for myself if needed.
pressed the gear on with some green loctite as well. should be good for many years now!
after doing the shifter I decided to head down to the cabin and work on my own machine. I absolutly hate the front windsheild that was on my cab. so I swapped the cab with the one on my parts machine seeing it was also in much better shape. pulled the cab off the parts machine first. then I pulled off my cab and laid it on the parts loader in the background. Looks much better now! and I wont have a blind spot right at the end of my bucket like I had before. Up next is deal with wiring mess seeing I chopped a bunch during the cab swap.
Do you need to worry about galvanic corrosion or does the green Loctite prevent it?
haven't really ever had trouble with it when it wasn't under a truck during the winter getting pounded with water, salt and whatever other crap in on the roads. so I don't even usually think about it. only place I really try to avoid it is marine application, and even here is not much issue with us not having any saltwater.
Galvanic corrosion happens when certain types of metals react with other metals. Some types of aluminum react with steel and corrosion is the result. Aluminum F150 bodies have special mounting's to the frame to prevent galvanic corrosion. The Loctite may be sufficient but I don't know the specific types of aluminum that react with steel. I don't think all types of aluminum do. https://www.grabberpro.com/LiteratureandResources/GalvanicReactionChart
finally got around to de-greasing and pressure washing the whole machine so I could track down one of the hydraulic leaks that was a little worse then I can put up with. after cleaning I could see it was from the inlet of the hydraulic pump which I was surprised because the leak was way worse running. so I drained the oil pulled the oil feed tube did the O-ring cleaned everything well put it all back together and filled it up. soon as I started the loader it leaked.... now with the tube spotless I could see it was actually leaking where cat brazed or silver soldered (hard to tell which exactly) the flange onto the tube. so I drained it all and pulled it apart again, did the same with the parts loader and swapped the tube. been a week now and not a drop of oil. next step was address the stupid handles someone welded to the doors. its great to have something to grab but they could have designed it to not try and cut your fingers off! after getting a good blood blister I decided I better do something before I'm up getting stitches from a door... again lol. here you can see they only left about 1/8" clearance for your fingers. rather then cut them off or rework them I just added expanded metal so now your fingers can't pass through.
My tractor has those kind of door latches. No need for a seperate handle. That handle looks bent out though.
that latch is off the left door of the original cab, so it was the door being used most and I guess over many many years of people slamming the door holding it (original doors never had any add on handles), it worked its way inward. it still works butter smooth so I'm going to leave it. my luck if i bend it back it will bind inside and be worse then the one i took off.
I got lucky and was in the right place at the right time and managed to pick up a 10' bottomless snow bucket for a decent price, I was really wanting one because they are way better for snow then a standard bucket when it comes to clearing large areas. for example the bucket on the 920 is also 10' , while my little yanmar v4 has a 8' bottomless, I can clear my cabin lot close to twice as fast with the yanmar then the 920 last season and it was a cleaner job on top of it. here it is in all its glory, it was setup to tow behind a 3 point. I torched off all the 3 point hardware, straightened out the diagonal brace in my press and gave the whole thing some love with a needle scaler. backside also got the same needle scaler treatment, next up is make and weld on the quick coupler so it fits the 920. as well as add some side plate cutting edges.
everyone remember this mess? well I finally got it if fixed. First I machined a new boss to weld in. then I started cutting away metal.you can see here with the grease gone how bad it really was.
cleaned up the hole with the gauger so the boss fit snug, slid it in with a temporary slip fit bushing I made to align everything, I thin hung the new coupler on and tacked everything well. all welded up. then I gouged off all the stops as they dont work with the new coupler, also drilled the grease hole, Installed the real bushing and seals. all finished up, just need to adjust the top ear for the Hyd cyl, this one is same stroke but a touch shorter overall so it needs a longer top ear to lock all the way. but it got dark so thats it for today
I love it!
Bushings look pretty good. Once you fill the gouges in the loader arms you should smooth everything nice with a flap wheel. It looks pretty rough the way it is. A little preheat before welding wouldn't hurt.
I gave it a quick once over with a flap wheel after that picture. still need to touch up a few gouge marks but I ran out of daylight. the top tube of the coupler also has a crack that needs to be gouged out and welded up. but in the meantime if we get a dump of snow, I can deal with it at least.
Nice work. We have a Komatsu WA180 that's about to get the same treatment this winter. It desperately needs bucket hinge points re-worked from years of moving wet sand.
Great job! Love the updates.