hi, i purchased a 215 to build a 1/2 mile road into a lake , i think its early 80's and shows every bit of her age, ive been using it for a month without too many problems but the swing is a little " clunky" , one way more so than the other, still works fine, i dont see anything loose, any ideas? also , whats the best way to tell if alternator is charging?,no gauges and no lights or electronics. thanks redfish
Clunky as in it has issues swinging? Or clunky as in the control over the swing is a little goofy? It may be possible the gears have popped a few teeth, if thats the case I would take it easy and try not to swing into things too hard or using it for pushing things sideways with the bucket. Thats about a $1,500 fix if you do all the labor yourself.
you can hear and feel a bang or loud knock when you start to swing and a couple of knocks when you stop the swing unless i go very slow and smooth, it seems to swing great it just sounds like somthing is ready to give. thanks redfish
Have you checked that the bolts holding the swing motor to the swing drive gearbox are tight and the same with the bolts holding the swing drive gearbox to the machine chassis..? Also the long bolts that secure the swing bearing to the machine chassis from below. If nothing shows up there then maybe deeper surgery is called for as in removing the swing motor and drive gearbox to check the condition/security of the drive pinion on the swing drive output shaft and while you're in there the condition of the teeth on the swing rack.
forgive me sir, i operate a commercial fishing boat for a living and thought i learned a lot (the hard way of course) about diesels , hydraulics ,winches and pumps and the like but when i look inside behind the cab of this rig its bewilderment at its finest, i will learn (the hard way of course) but untill then, is the swing motor whats sitting on top of big round thing with what looks like some kind of control cable coming off of it? round thing being the drive gearbox mabey? thanks redfish
Yep, you are describing it. The 215C, 4hg serial number machines had a problem with the hole in the frame that the base of the swing gear fit into going egg shaped. The swing acted like yours, and if you swung into stuff, or pushed with the side of the bucket, the base of the swing gear housing would break off. I don't know if other 215s had this problem or not. Cat had a procedure and tooling to bore this hole back to round, and sold a lower housing with an oversize base. I am sure very few dealers have this tooling anymore. I once found a used swing gear for $5000 that had the oversized base, disassembled it and machined it to fit the hole and installed it. It worked well for about 10 years of careful owner- operation. At the time, (about 15 yrs ago) Cat wanted $18,000 for a new lower housing, drive pinion, bearings, and seals. If you post your serial number prefix we can get you some more info. Oh, BTW, if you remove the belly plate if it has one you can sit up under a 215 and get your face close enough to bite that drive pinion. A lot of them didn't have belly plates, and if it's there, it's not hard to remove, then you can see what's going on with your machine.
As Mitch says, give us a Serial Number to work with and all will become clear pretty rapidly.
its a 57y , i wont be at the machine for a day or 2 but i will be looking over everything you guys mentioned , no belly plate, i was up under there when i bought it and replaced the 2 disinigrated grease lines running from cab, which reminds me that i wondered at the time how long it went without grease, everything i could see looked well lubed though. thanks redfish
OK, here is a diagram of the swing drive box. The horizontal red line is deck level, anything above it you will be able to see from above, anything below it you will have to crawl underneath to find. You should be able to orient yourself by finding the swing brake drum (Ref. 25). The bolts I was talking about are the ones that fasten the swing drive box to the deck and the ones that fasten the swing motor to the swing drive box. Both are circled in red. Also get underneath and check the bolts holding the swing pinion to the shaft (Ref. 26) - also circled, and the condition of the teeth on the pinion especially if as you say it was necesary to make new grease lines. Now to the main swing bearing. The ring of bolts I was talking about checking are marked by the red circle in the illustration below. They are visible from ground level looking in above the tracks. There are 2 rings, each one of 36 bolts (Ref. 16 & 17) one next to the other.