A year ago, I bought a new Takeuchi TB370 and have been using it at our family farm in S. Georgia to dredge/clean out 70 years of sand and sludge that has built up in the 20-acre pond. The TB370 works well but we quickly realized we needed a bigger machine to be efficient. My son and I have been looking at 50K to 80K machines for a month or so. We found a 2006 CAT 320C (6900 hours on it) about 20 miles from the farm and drove down (from the Atlanta area) to look at it yesterday. Long story short, I bought it. It is running well and no major leaks that we could find. The SN I have come up with is PAB06638. That is part of this longer SN: CAT0320CHPAB06638 Do I seem to have the right number(s) to use for parts lookups? I hired a local heavy eqpt. mechanic to help us check it out. He knew what to check and how and overall did a good job. But it was my son who found the leaking head gasket and figured out the issue with some of the bucket pins. The first clue to the head gasket was low water level in the radiator...not coolant. Likely the operator started using water for topping up instead of constantly adding coolant. I don't have any specific questions for you guys...yet. I am sure they will come up. I am getting a quote from Yancey/CAT now for fixing the head leak. I do not know how to post pictures on this site yet...there are pictures and the head leak video at: https://garylayton.smugmug.com/Farm-Hahira/2022-Nov-7-buying-CAT-320C-excavator/n-qRG9sj/
That's all you need for obtaining parts & service information. First suggestion would be to obtain an Operation & Maintenance Manual. This covers all the controls & basic maintenance task information plus fluid recommendations, etc. The Cat Publication reference is SEBU7342 - $75 to download from Cat. There is a copy available for download on scribd.com if you sign up to the free 30-day trial. https://www.scribd.com/document/359893153/docmh-com-sebu7342-08-s
Thanks, Nige. The operator we worked with to buy it said he had the Operator's Manual and was leaving it in the cab. If it's OK I'll also the Maintenance as you suggest.
Operation & Maintenance - It's all in the one manual.
Wow....excellent...thanks.
Niles....The Operations and Maintenance manual came with the machine...I have it now. It is publication SEBU7342-06 dated Aug. 2005 (picture of my manual below) I would like to get the Service and Parts manual for the machine. These are the specs for my machine: sn PAB06638 Engine SN MAE05872 AR No. (arrangement) 2870092 The manuals I find on-line are for engine SNs starting with MAA1 or MAB1 -- none start with MAE. The Op and Maint. Manual I now have does not list MAE either. Does it matter? The manual that came with the machine shows the MAA, MAB, FBA, GAA, RAW, BER, etc...but no MAE Do the MAA and MAB manuals also apply to the MAE serial no. engines? When I talked to a CAT parts guy yesterday (I was getting some parts for the machine) he said I must have the MAE referenced on the manual or the part that appears to be correct will not actually be the right PN...that an O-ring for an injection holder/bonnet for an MAA machine could have a different PN than an O-ring for an MAE machine. Am I overthinking this or is the engine SN prefix critical to getting correct part numbers? Thanks.
Parts Manual you need Cat Publication SEBP3593. It covers machines with Serial Number prefixes PAB and MAB with engines of Serial Number MAE or 7JK55000-Up. In paper form it comes as 2 volumes. As a pdf download or on CD it will be a single file. For a Service Manual you need RENR3810. In paper form this manual comprises 2 volumes and retails at a hair over $1,300. You can also get it on CD for $925.
No. O&M Manuals generally do not list engine Serial Number, only machine S/N prefixes. Also be aware that although your Serial Number is PAB06638, the cover of the Parts Manual will show "PAB1-Up" which is Cat shorthand for "from first machine built". Provided you have the correct Parts Manual that shows both your machine and engine Serial Number prefixes on the cover you'll be fine. See attachments. All you have to be careful about when searching for engine parts is to look at the bottom of the page and make sure your engine serial number prefix is shown on the page title. You can download manuals from Caterpillar. Visit the Cat Publications website at https://catpublications.com/ and search by the Publication reference.
Great info! Thanks for the thorough reply.