Hello folks, I've got a 1982-3 era Cat V300B 30k lb capacity forklift that I use pretty frequently. The other day I noticed there's a bad roller inside the mast that needs to be changed. (Left side, bottom.) What's the procedure to do it...do I have to drop the mast all the way off and deal with it horizontally, or can it be done while still on the machine? Thanks in advance.
I have questions. Is it a carriage roller, or a mast roller. Just to define. How many channels in the mast. Frame, and 1 movable or frame and 2 movable? Can you do a pic of it head on,and another with carriage up out of the way, sort of capturing the area in question. If you will reply to these, I might be able to help. I am an old Clark man, (bleed green) but had my own shop for 14 years so some knowledge.
Hi TD24, Sorry for the delayed reply. The machine is sitting here on my trailer finally, so I will go out there this morning and get as many pictures as I can to figure this out. Freezing rain at the moment, so in a couple of hours once it's easier to walk around out there, I'll get those pictures to you. Appreciate the help. TTYL.
I've changed a bottom roller before, with the mast in the machine. But it really depends on how the machine was built. On that forklift, I was able to drop the inner mast, by disconnecting the lift chains, and having the forklift on blocks. That way there was enough room "below" - to access the bad roller. By dropping the mast until the roller was exposed. But I had another forklift and a crane, i.e. plenty of lifting equipment. It going to depend on what you've got to work with, and how the mast is built. I doubt you will have to dismount the mast, unless you really want to. The mast removal can sometimes be difficult if pins and cylinders don't want to come apart, so I'd avoid it if I could.
Basically what Crane Operator said. You have to get the channel the roller is on dropped the rollers dimension below the others. Some advice... While you have access, replace both bottom/lower rollers. These two have been taking the brunt of your pushing/gouging and if one is gone,the other is going. No need to have to repeat this work. Check for shims behind each roller as removed. Sometimes they stick to the back of the removed roller and get thrown away. No rush on pics. I am only 89 and will be around a while.
A comment... You must be the RJ Corman of VT as he is from Nicholasville, KY. Heavy work under "less than ideal"circumstances...
Last set of pictures...
TD24, Here's what I have for pictures. The roller that's wiped out inside the inner mast that raises and lowers. There's THREE sets of rollers, upper, mid and lower. This one's one of the mid-section rollers. I do not see any bolts or anything behind it to hold it to the frame?
I have a backhoe and a skidsteer that I can use to help with lifting, etc. I think I'm going to have to do like you said and put the machine up on blocks so I have bottom clearance, and get the inner mast beams to drop down low enough to get the roller(s) out. I'm just still kinda flabbergasted as to what holds them in, LOL. I have to study it better though, it is miserable drizzling and 32 degrees here today, so all I really did was unload the machine off the lowbed and took a few pictures this afternoon, and just got wet enough to lose interest. Looks like a few days of steady rain coming here in southern Vermont apparently as well, but I'll sneak between the drops and really study what's going on in there. I really appreciate the help from you guys.
There's probably a stud welded to the rail, and then the roller has a bearing and a snap ring holding it to the stud. So if I'm seeing and reading right, its the middle roller in the fork carriage that is bad? If that's the case, you should be able to raise the mast, chain up or block up the inner mast. Weld it off if you have to. Then support/ hang the fork carriage with skid loader/ backhoe. Remove the lift chains from the fork carriage, and if you blocked up the inner mast high enough, you can slide down the fork carriage, out of the inner mast. If you can remove the forks before you start, it will be easier to handle the carriage. Once you have the carriage out, you should be able to pop the snap ring and see where you are at with the roller. I hope its got part #'s on it, or you have a good bearing shop. Cat "forklift" is its own division within "cat" and can be kind of hard to get parts for.
So is the bad roller where the red arrow is, or where the blue arrow is? If its where the red arrow is, the procedure I wrote about above is the way I would go about it. Have the mast about in the position it is, maybe just a little higher, and lock off the inner mast to the outer, by welding / chaining/ blocking. Then as long as where the blue arrow is, is higher than the height of the mast, you can pull the lift chains, and drop the carriage out.
I would second TD24's advice about changing the bearings, while you have it out, replace them all.
Makes perfect sense to me. That's what I was thinking too, was a stud welded to the inner beam, and a snap ring after giving it some more thought. I'll definitely remove the forks before anything. Hope they have a number on them too. If not, we do have a couple of good bearing supply houses that should be able to match something up. Good info from both of you, crane operator and TD24...much appreciated and I'll keep you in the loop on the progress.
Agreed. They're not all that expensive either.
The RED arrow shows the bad roller...sorry, I just saw this post. I see what has to be done now. I'll call it the "fork frame"...that needs to be dropped down lower than the inner mast so I can access the middle rollers from what I see ...
Based on the pic with arrows. and as I interpret them... The red arrow points to the "carriage" which is raised and lowered by the chains. The blue arrow point to the lower section of the "inner rail" which is directly pushed up by the hyd cylinder. It is fairly common on that size truck for carriages to have three rollers. If the above is what you have it should be "duck soup"... Position the truck on a flat, nearly level surface. Concrete floor in a large shop, or level ground outside. In either, enough room around to reach with a smaller lift... Tilt mast to as near vertical as possible. Set brakes and chock wheels. Raise carriage slightly and place a couple of 4x4's crossways beneath the forks to support them, as if carriage was loose by itself. Place weight on top of the forks to hold them down to the under 4x 4's. Let the carriage down to rest on the 4 x 4's......The lift chains will now be slack. Gain enough slack to LIFT them off the sheaves on the cylinder and let hang. Assuming the above have been accomplished: Crank the truck and gently pull the lift lever. The cylinder will slowly LIFT the inner channel straight up and above the carriage.. Clear it about 6". STOP and decide....All is in a position to just lower the channel back and drive off. YOU WANT TO RETAIN THIS PROXIMITY AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN Logically, you can reach in the sides and remove the bad or any or all rollers. In actuality, they will be kind of stuck, as they are just slip on to pins welded/fixed into carriage frame. Two large screwdrivers work well to pry them off..REMOVE THE DESIRED ROLLER/S AND LOOK FOR SHIMS, EITHER STUCK TO THE INNER SIDE OF THE ROLLER OR STILL ON THE PIN. These space the roller outward to "fit" the channel. New roller is same dimension,shims make it "fit'. Keep these to put back {on the pin they came off of.} May be 1 or 2 and could be up to 5 or 6. Just depends on how serious the man at CAT took his work. Clean/polish the pin, put the shims on, put the roller on. TAP it up snug. When you have changed out the rollers... If you were careful in your hammering and prying, you can now slowly move the lower hyd lever and it will gulp the carriage and stop. Hook the lift chains back over their sheaves, Wa Lah Done. Put a little weight on the forks and lift/lower a few times to assure free fall. In case of slight binding, spray the rubbing side inner channel with whatever you use on sliding tandems on your road trucks. In case it is not the carriage rollers, advise and we will do the inner channel roller book.
As a sort of clarification on the retention of the rollers... There is NO retainer/snap ring etc involved. There is a FIXED pin IN the inner channel and fixed pins on the carriage. Inner dimension (L to R) of the inner channel is equaled by the sum dimension of the carriage frame plus ( ?) shims plus roller, to make it a SNUG/NOT BINDING fit. The truck does not appear to be very old, hence I would not advise trying to add any extra shims going back as trying to "tighten" any dimension.Do these carriage rollers and use. If/when you need to replace the channel rollers, you can add carriage shims while it is out then. To meddle.. (Does not apply to your op but of interest) The machine lifts. It is not a dozer to jam/gouge objects. You can get the forks up against the resistance and apply power and push till it stalls or the cows come home... You can ram a rail car to move it along the track. The bottom rollers are taking the full hit at contact with power. The most clear profit we ever made in our shop; was a regular service call, 25 miles away to replace carriage rollers on a 5K Clark pneumatic truck. They had no car mover, so just leapt on the forklift, rammed the car on down and pushed an empty in. (State owned/poorly managed operation.
So you're saying that there is nothing at all that holds the roller onto the pin then TD24? It just free-floats in the channel?
That is correct. (It will make sense when you dismantle) Print out my instructions. Get the truck inside a roomy building. You read and instruct a hand to perform as listed. This is the procedure we used at Clark for 6 years and in our own Johnson Equipment Co, Inc for 14. It will work... (Get it inside, shut down, on level. Specified cribbing, mechanics toolbox in position. Experienced mechanic (no techs) should do it in 3 hours.) Prove me wrong......
I'll take your word for it, 100% TD24...I got this no worries...
Has weather and time allowed any attempt on the roller repairs work. We have been :"snowbound " pretty much here. Would like to know how it went/goes.
The weather has not been very friendly up this way TD24...been zero at night, single digits and teens for days. I talked to a buddy of mine about 20 minutes from here the other day that has a nice shop to work in, so when we get a little break in the polar weather temperatures, I'm gonna move it down there and we'll attack it in his nice, warm shop. He's familiar with the process too, as he's worked on big Clark lifts, and knew exactly what to do to get at these rollers and knew about the shims and all too. He noted that these rollers have a tapered edge on them to keep them from binding, which he's right on target with that. So as soon as I get a decent day, I'm gonna get it down there and get it apart. I think the hardest part is gonna be finding the rollers around here...We have a good bearing outlet not too far away in Springfield, MA that I'm gonna try first to see if they can match them up. Knowing them they probably have them right on the shelf.
Hope all goes well. Any other way to help, holler...
I surely will TD24. Right now, it looks like we're gonna have us a bit of wintery weather for a few weeks out anyways. Once that eases up, I'm gonna attack that job because I need the machine in the spring.
Hi, Has weather and fee time coincided to attempt the roller replacement? Just like to know how things turn out. TD24
Hey TD24, As things would work out, I haven't had the chance to fix it just yet. As soon as the snow melted around the machine, I had to load it up and haul it down the road 70 miles to move an old 1920's era wooden "combine car", which is a combination of passengers and freight, luggage or even mail trolley car. I had to do a "test pick" with the machine to determine what size crane I was going to hire to do the move. I came up to the center of the car and applied some lift to it, and at an idle she picked it up off the trucks, so that ensured that my friend's 75 ton rotator would do the job, which it ended up doing with the help of the V300B. The car body itself according to the rotators on-board scale weighs approximately 38,000 lbs. The trucks (wheelsets) are about 8,000-9,000 lbs per set. Now it's (the Cat) headed up to Maine to do another job. Not such an intense pick as the combine car; I only have to suspend the front end of this car while I hook a tractor (semi) to the coupling plate that's on that one, which has a trailer suspension dolly in the rear so I can tow this one about 300 miles to its new home over in NY State at another Trolley museum there. Once I get that job done, I do plan on fixing that roller. Luckily it doesn't affect anything I've been using it on, because I NEED it for these projects or I'd be in trouble. Thanks for checking in on it TD...I'll keep it posted when I get to the repair time for sure.