I am the proud? new owner of a relatively old 963 track loader. It has a sn of 21Z00885. It was made in France, for crying out loud. I bought it at an auction, looked at it ahead of time and missed the plate identifying it as being made in France. Yes, it is clearly visible, but for some reason I didn't see it. It seems the 21Z series was made in France, and doesn't appear to be uncommon to find in the U.S.? Am I understanding this correctly? Anyone know the history of or reason behind this series being made there and then shipped back here???? I'm confused. I am in the process of getting manuals, but don't have them yet. I understand that 10w hydraulic oi is evidently the appropriate oil for the trans and hydraulic. There are three fill spouts/check locations on the machine: two on the right side and one on the front. The rear fill/check location has a twisted dip stick, reads nearly full, but says add only 1 litre when at the add mark.....not much. The next one forward is the trans and I assume the front is hydraulic. What is the rear compartment with the dipstick? All help and info is much appreciated.
That's the pump drive gearbox. Holds about 1 gallon and also takes 10w hyd.
You shouldn't have any trouble getting parts for a 21Z in the US, it appears in the on-line Parts system. 21Z is the European-made cousin of the US-built 20Z machine. Not sure how many differences there were between the 2 models. Maybe there was a shortage of new machines at some point and some French production was shipped over to the US..?
The US built 963 about that time period was also an 11Z, the 21Z was built in Grenobles France. Odd but true story, the company that I worked for when the 21 and 11Z's came out ordered a new 963. There was a material shortage and a labor strike going on at Cat during that time frame. It was bad enough that we have to get parts snuck off of lines and into the system to get machines back together. Any how, the local Cat dealer loaned us a 963 from their rental fleet and promised delivery of a new 963 from France with a 6 week lead time. The promised delivery date from Peoria, was an estimated 9 months. and there were no guarantees at that. The only differences that we found between the 11z and the 21z were where the castings came from. Nearly all of the French machine castings were cast in England.
Thank you Thanks to you gentlemen for the information...much appreciated