I have a D4H, serial number 8PB01747. I have a question about lubrication maintenance on equalizer bar pins on the track frame. I have an owner's manual, and parts manual for this unit. I cannot find anything in the manual about lubrication for these pins. From what I have been reading on this forum, this is a critical area for routine maintenance, and now looking at the pins on my dozer, I think I have a problem. here is the right side pin. I guess those are the seals that are sticking out on both sides of the equalizer bar. Yes, there some play at the pins when I move the dozer up and down using the blade. here is the left side pin. looks better both sides had a bad grease fitting in the 1/8 npt hole. old grease, not maintained. Here is a pic from the CAT SIS system. note that there is a 1/8" plug on the top of the bar( item 10) for lubrication. What kind of lubricant would you put in here? If it was meant to be greased, there should be a grease fitting here. right? thanks for all the help. Carr
Does this help..? An extract from the Operation & Maintenance Manual. I take it you don't have one..? Lubrication frequency is every 250 hours or monthly for these pins. The E-Bar centre is pin every 50 hours or weekly - but it has two remote grease fittings located right next to the engine oil filler tube. IMO the reason a screwed plug is called out for that location is that a grease fitting would be too easily damaged if it was left in there permanently.
Hey Carr, there should definitely be grease fittings in both ends of the hard bar for the end pins and bearings. You should be using a high quality grease that is appropriate for the climate that the machine is working in. If you have excessive play in the bearings they should be replaced before damage to the bearing bores occurs. The spherical end pin bearings are generally not difficult to replace; drive the pins out, lift the tractor with the blade, remove the seals, retaining rings and bearings. If you've caught it early enough then you might be able to reuse the pins. I freeze the bearings and heat up the bearing bores for reassembly. Make sure that there are no burrs in the bearing bores and everything is clean and lubricated for assembly. You also have a hose that is starting to rub through on the LHS, consider replacing it or using some tywraps and hose softeners to prevent a failure. Have to checked the condition of the center pin? You definitely want to make sure that it is getting lubrication... it's not called the easy bar for a reason. Best of luck!
interesting Mr. Nige. I have an operation and Maintenance manual that I ordered from my local Cat dealer. SEBU6013-03 I ordered it last month. I cannot find this page in my manual. This page you posted is exactly what I was looking for with an explanation of how CAT wants you to do maintenance on these pins- i.e. remove the grease fittings during operation of the dozer. Do you have any information on how to lubricate the equalizer bar center pin? thank you
I'm looking at SEBU6734. It was a bit strange, I put your full machine S/N into the system and it wouldn't come up with an O&M Manual. However when I simply put in the prefix 8PB it offered options of 1-3999, or 4000-Up. Obviously I selected the former as your machine is in that group. SEBU6734 is what popped up. The difference between the two documents appears to be that SEBU6013 is for a D4H Series I, SEBU6374 is for a Series II. I believe your machine to be a Series II although I would stand to be corrected on that. I don't know if you were aware but O&M manuals can be downloaded from the Cat web site.
This .............. it might pay you to crawl underneath and just make sure the lines are actually connected.
I am looking at replacing mine on my D5MXL, don't look much different. My books calls for 250 HRS for greasing as the Cat dealer confirmed and use only a hand operated grease gun as you could ruin the seals as mine look like yours from the previous owner. Checked Cat on cost and the seals (4) outside list for $154 ea unless I am wrong ? Don't know if there are after market seals ? Getting the old pin and bearings out should be no problem installing the new ? Please post if you have luck with the bar in place. The book shows removing the bar to replace
There is nothing my owner’s manual with an illustration like you posted. I will investigate this with my cat dealer. Confusing...
Will do.
Because what I posted, like the procedure for lubricating the end pins that I posted earlier, also came from SEBU6734 and NOT from the SEBU6013 that you actually have...........
OK, I did a bit more digging, and here's what I think.........it pertains to the pic that you posted from the Cat SIS system in your OP. The Group Part Number of the Equalizer Bar Assembly is 8G-2446. That Group has gone through various changes over the year. Currently it sits at Change Level 10, so starting from the original design Change Level of 00 (CHG00) the assembly has morphed and we are now CHG10. Tractor S/No 8PB01747 was built on 3rd of July 1987. At that time the 8G-2446 Equalizer Bar Group was CHG06. The 5M-6214 screwed plugs in each end of the E-Bar (item #10 in your OP pic) did not come in until CHG07 in 1988. Apparently originally the bearings were "sealed for life" and packed with grease on assembly. I can see Disassembly & Assembly documents that don't show the plugs and that instruct as follows- "Pack bearing and housing with 5P960 Grease." This leads me to conclude that at some point in time your tractor has had a newer/updated design of E-Bar fitted to it. Maybe a lack of lube from the "old" design took out the end pins on the original.? That appears to be the most likely reason why your O&M Manual does not show what is actually on the tractor today.
I agree Nige since I saw a breakdown of an equalizer bar on SIS that does not have a "screwed plug" to attach a zerk fitting. My tractor must have been updated with a new equalizer bar with screwed plug for zerk fittings as you said. I will take a look to see if my tractor has a way to grease the center pin as in the pictures you sent. I doubt it does since the original equalizer bar did not have a way to grease the end pins. I guess on early models, the equalizer bar center, and end pins were thought to be maintenance free , or permanently sealed. thank you
Just to let you know the 5M as the zerk fittings in the outside pins, and my center pin has a zerk in the engine compartment