I have a new to me cat 943 loader, I was pushing up some stumps and stuff today and noticed that my right side drive motor is making contact with the cover in from of it. Seems like it only does it while turning left. Looking it over I don't see anything loose or anything and the motor looks right. Is there something I should be looking for suck as bushings or bearings? The matching has a fairly new undercarriage on it.
How about posting some photos (or both sides for comparison) and a Serial Number
Serial number 19Z01785
No leaks from the back side then.?
No leaks
When I turn left it almost looks like the drive is pulling forward into the plate. I have noticed that the plate is pulled out away from the track a little more than on the left side.
Have you removed either of those plugs (I assume that they are magnetic) in the photo to take a look what's on the magnets or the colour of the oil.?
Either the track frame is moving, or the final drive bearings are sloppy. My money is on the former.
I doubt the final drive is moving. If the wear in the bearings were that bad it should have self destructed by now. I'd say you have pivot shaft and/or equaliser bar wear.
Upon further inspection it appears that most of the bolts are broke off in what I'm assuming is the pivot shaft. Looks like someone welded it instead of replacing bolts and now the welds are loose as well. Only 2 bolts at the top are present.
YIKES!!!! That was never a permanent fix in the first place. Now you have to decide how much money you want to spend.
I have a friend that is good at working on about anything and fixes most of my stuff at reasonable prices. I will be taking it to him so that he can take the track loose and try to fix it right. Just blows my mind that people do things like this instead of the right way.
100%. If that's what it needs why not just replace the pivot bar with a new one and all new bolts.? The welding repair that failed is just a Band-Aid, probably done simply to sell the machine....
If I can find the part I most definitely will replace it
See HMC's post #15 above. All the Part Numbers are on it. You may find that the shaft is OK and all you need to do (maybe easier said than done if the broken bits are tight in the holes) is remove the all the broken bolts #12 and replace them with all new ones. I fear that in order to get access into that area to extract the bolts it may mean the track frame is going to have to come off, and to get that off will require the track to be spilt. A big job. You're certainly going to have to support the machine from undeneath somehow. All that is holding up the LH side now the weld has broken are those 2 bolts. CARE NEEDED..............
I need to correct that. For your machine S/N the pivot shaft is a slightly different setup and the parts are different, especially the shaft. See below. The manual procedure starts by - "remove the track farme". Draw your own conclusions.
We have started on it just about to remove the track frame. Does anyone have the torque specs for the bolts on the pivot shaft?
Tighten the 9 bolts that secure the pivot shaft to the machine frame to 340 ± 40 lb ft.
What oil should be in the shaft? Looks like whoever had it before me replaced the oil with a lot of grease
For your climate SAE50 TO-4 oil, the same as what's used in the final drives. The original manual recommended TO-2 oil, but that specification has now been replaced by TO-4. Don't you have an O&M Manual.? They come in pretty handy and aren't expensive, maybe $50 to download one from Cat.
Was thinking on this where Maye need do Both sides and make certain the bolting faces are as flat as possible.
I don't have a manual yet but I will be getting one soon. We ended up getting it put back together. Teardown to completion took us 3 hours so it went surprisingly well and everything looked good. I appreciate all of y'all's help.
That looks like it was welded with a tumble weed. Fix it properly.
It sure looks like the track frame has a crack in it in this picture. Just below the pivot pin.
Everything has been working good on it. Until I noticed a slight coolant leak, then I check it and find oil in the coolant. Not sure exactly where it's coming from, doesn't seem to loose any hydraulic, transmission or engine oil. I guess I'll be trying to figure this one out in the coming days.
Diesel??
That would have a distinctive fuel smell. Leaking engine oil cooler maybe.?
Definitely not diesel. The smell is more oily but still has a strong coolant smell.
Looks like just the bolts are broken remove track frame take pivot off and remove broken bolts you can then check pivot for wear it is just 2 bushings and a seal