I was wondering if someone could possible help me. I am looking at a champion 720a grader. I am not sure of the year but it has 14xxx hours and has the 8.3 cummins and gearco 8400 transmission. The circle teeth show some wear on some teeth worse than other ones. One question for everyone is does that seem like to many hours. And when testing driving it the transmission seemed to shift a touch hard. But I was letting off the gas before shifting. But it was also 19 degrees out. So do the gearco 8400 shift kinda hard normally or was it possible the cold had some affect on it. It warmed up for roughly 10-15 mins before testing driving. Any helpful information would be greatly appreciated
14000 Hours is getting up there. You see them with 18-20k hours, just depends on maintenance and what they were doing with them. 1 or 2 municipal owners with a decent maintenance program and there could be some life left in it. If you're the 5-6th owner and its been through a few auctions, all bets are off. Depending on the weight of oil they are running in the transmission it could take a little longer than that for it to warm up at those temps. Can you see the oil level in the site glass? The circle teeth would show some wear at those hours and its probably on its 2nd set of fiber wear plates at that point (If its new enough to have them) Was there excessive play in the joints and circle or had it been kept in adjustment? Do you know what series or vintage of 720 it is? I.E. Series 3, 4, 5?
From talking to the dealer it's a trade in from a municipal that owned it since new. I did not check the site gauge as they just serviced it when it was traded in. It doesn't say series 3,4,5 on the side like most of them that are the series 3-5. The paint seems to be all orginal and the orginal stickers to. What do you mean by fiber wear plates ? The circle seems to be in pretty good adjustment still without a ton of slop in it. I mean there is some but not like blown out. I was able to move some frozen gravel with it without a ton of pressure. Plus the snow on top of it.
Does it look like this or this
It looks like the top photo not the bottom
That would be a series 2 then? Might be old enough not to have the fiber wear plates yet. Somewhere in the mid 90’s they started using (duramide?) some sort of fiber wear plates to protect the high contact areas of the circle from permanent wear. If they’ve managed to keep the circle in pretty serviceable condition over that many hours I would say they had a decent program going and made an attempt to keep it up. The sluggishness of the trans probably isn’t out of the question for the temps, I would say it should come out if it in a half hour of running around though.
Ok while thank you for the information about all this i really appreciate it. I will admit i didn't like push it super hard. The last 10 mins of running i did push it hard and it did seem to kinda shift a touch smoother. The 8.3 cummins in it was running 30-35 psi oil pressure after running for that 45-50 mins and it was warmed up some does that seem ok ??
I have a very similar 730A of the same vintage. If the manual throttle is on the steering pedestal it's a series II (84- early 89). If the manual throttle is on the right side it is an early series III. I think later 89 machines went to the newer style engine enclosures. A serial number could help date it. The manual says to let off the throttle when shifting under no load but I find it works better if I shift at a constant throttle. Maybe lower the throttle a little but have it there a second or 2 before you shift. Your oil pressure is good. Your machine doesn't have Duramide wear plates. If the circle turns reasonably well I wouldn't worry about the teeth. Following advice I got here make sure the small gear for synchronizing the circle gets greased often. You'll see it if you look up under the main frame between the circle turn cylinders.
Thank gou guys very much I appreciate all the information that you have given me
If you Google Sierra Park 730A you will find all the manuals and can download them for free. Series II owners manuals don't seem to exist but series III is pretty close and points out a few differences on earlier machines such as the proper brake and clutch master cylinder fluid. Older machines used Dot 3 and newer used a mineral fluid.
Oh wow thank you for the information that's great to know
any body have brake issues on champion 720
Better to start a new thread. More people will see it
Yes. My master cylinder needs rebuilt