hello . I was operating my caterpillar 140G and the circle stopped turning for me . I have ordered a pinion however I may need some advice before I put the new one on . I was reading a earlier post on this forum regarding the circle drive and the shaft / shims etc all play a part . If I put a new pinion on i am nervous I may break the shaft . I will try post a picture of the pinion . Any advice for this subject would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Jett from Manitoba Canada
Did the pinion stop turning they have a sacrificial aluminum drive gear in the box
Does the drive have a slip clutch? That pinion gear doesn't look that bad.
Judging from that photo it doesn't look like the problem is the pinion. It would probably pay you to go into the circle drive box and take a look, most likely you will find something broken in there. I don't know if it's just a trick of the photo but the pinion looks a bit too low to mesh properly with the circle. Broken pinion shaft maybe..?
Hello and thanks for the replies. I did go into the box this morning and found a nice chunk of aluminum gear broke off and wedged into the worm shaft . The shaft looks good yet and so far I have not disassembled the drive until tomorrow morning. I will get a picture for you . I noticed the aluminum gear has other stress cracks as well and now know why they used aluminum- I’m thinking to take impact . The updated version with a slip clutch sounds like a great option . I thank you for your replies, Jett
A machine Serial Number would be a very good idea so that those with access to on-line parts manuals can see what you have right now. Do you have a Parts Manual..? If not they are available in downloadable Adobe pdf format from this link https://www.cat.com/en_US/support/maintenance/service-manuals.html A CD or Adobe would be $89, a paper book $104. There are various options, it depends on your Serial Number.
Hello . I have pulled the circle drive out and now reading the service manual . Thanks for the reply Nige