Left final needs seals. I know this is a huge job. I tried to tighten the axle nut, heard everything from tight as you can with 6foot bar, and tight then back off 1/4 round. Any guesses? I've been trying to run cornheader grease in it, grease when you pump it, then turns to 90w when it gets hot. Can't keep oil in it even 90w all day. Need to finish job before we drag it back to shop. Any suggestions or tips? Or just park it and fix it before I tear up more?
by using grease you are running a big risk of destroying some really expensive parts and I am not talking about just the gears.. go rent a tractor to finish and park this one till you can get it fixed or turn it to salvage. the only reason it won't hold oil is because the bearings were gone long ago and the shafts moved around enough to ruin the seals. wear is now increased dramatically until the steel holding the bearings get taken out. this may have already occurred.
I keep 90w in it. The corn header grease isn't like regular grease, it turns into oil so it gets down in the bearings. But I see what your saying. Had all new back end put in years ago. All gears and shafts, new axles. Cat stuff. Hate to screw it up. Any ideas on costs to put those duo cone seals in? I know you need a special press to pull gear off shaft and cat has the only one around. Been hearing around 5000$ a side. Anybody ever done this?
Park and Fix...
Once your mechanical seal starts leaking your screwed. No amount of tightening that axle nut is going to stop the leak. You are correct about needing press equipment not only to disassemble but to install properly. The sprocket has about a 60 ton press fit to the spindle when installed, and can sometimes be well over 60 ton to remove. The axle nut is tightened once your press fit is achieved, as tight as can be possible, DO NOT BACK THE AXLE NUT OFF. The press equipment is quite expensive ( I spent about $5500.00 for mine in the 1990's, Im sure you can double that now) . If you want to save some money, get the machine ready for sprocket removal then call your CAT dealer. They will come out, remove the sprocket, and if you have no bearing issues, they can installed a new seal and press the sprocket back on for you. They should be able to do this part in 4 hours or less.
Its about a 3 hour job to drop the blade, block it up safely, drop the track, unbolt the track frame and remove the frame. Spend the $ and get a book. Will make your life easier. A good hard day and everything should be back together barring no mangled parts inside. Locate a parts machine before tearing yours apart.
he is looking at a lot more serious fix than one days work.. from my experience with same tractor. I hop he doesn't need to look for a new case.
Yep, if the primary pinion gear is damaged that requires removal of the steering clutch.
Like I said find a parts machine before you tear into it. I was going to add that on the worst side it would take 3 or 4 days total to take the top off and go into the gearcase. A situation like this is why you check the condition of all fluids every oil change. Find it before it becomes this point. Maybe he got lucky and ripped the seal out with some ice or twine or something and the dirt didnt grind its way in....
The OP states, 'need to finish the job before dragging it back into the shop'. Okay, means he dose not have time to source a parts machine or used parts IMO. Use Cat Classic parts or Dealer's used parts department. D6Ds per my experiences DO have final drive hub failures, inner bearing mounting surface worn from the bearing spinning!!!! If the machine has too run ASP I would source a complete final assembly, new dead axle, ALL hardware and final drive oil. R&I 6hrs or less. If the machine has a ripper and dozer, jack is built on, you do need a few blocks and small hydraulic jack to lift the diagonal brace back into position @ reassembly. Split track @ rear, run ahead to rear carrier roller and chain off...remove outer final support bearing mounting bolts and 'long' grease zerk. Place 8-10" block under left side ripper tooth and left side of dozer blade @ lift cylinder attachment point...start the machine and using down pressure lift the machine favoring the rear. Drain final oil, remove case bolts, work the final assembly off of the dead axe (requires turning a bit to bring the lower part upward @ tractor's rear)...from that point...cleaning and reassembly IF-IF the primary pinion is not trashed!
if you use aftermarket gears, do not use cat classic. I did and had to replace the large ring gear, and the intermediate along with it. the ring gear was classic and failed in less than 300 hours. there is no warranty on cat classic. I do not know who makes them but there are other manufacurers of same that most likely are ok. I replaced all the gears with genuine cat. nobody should have to do this twice.
I have used Italian gears via Trek and Bull (ring) gear hubs, service life average 6k hrs left side. Dozer with 10ft slope broad finishing housing track pads and streets. Right side lasts 3 times as long on that application because the dead axe is not continuously flexing! Cat has warrantied Classic hydraulic pump cartridge kits, no questions asked! Look at the failed new parts and replace. D6Ds for blow and go construction projects in S. Cali have been obsolete since early-90s...High Drive D6H series2 does 20K on finals, just oil changes.
Just checked with Cat local dealer, Classic gears 6months or 1yr warranty. 'We're not having issues with Classic gears used for low-drives D4-D9s, do not recommend for high-drives or power shift transmissions'.
I personally know a company that uses ricambi Italian gears in transmissions and finals for their fleet of 19 D9G's with good results so far... They have had fitment issues with the off brand yellow box. Dollars are tight in the big dirt market and the iron dose not see the hours it once did. All the work is done in house so the far out pencil doesn't really come into play with the oem cat parts. bash away...
On the D6 F/Drive issue there is more to it than just popping it to bits, although this helps it may not bring about a good repair, the easiest way and the best way to tackle this job is to firstly drop the blade off well away from the area you are going to work on the tractor, draw in the blade hoist cylinders and tie the rods to the cylinders with cord only to stop ram drift, peg up the cylinders high onto the hard nose they will pivot easily with the rod recoiled back, forget all that press the ripper down stuff just lower it with the ripper legs in the work position, the most important thing is to have to hand some good cribbing timber, then I suggest to have a look at some of my stuff in Shop Talk headed Caterpillar sprocket removal, you will see all sorts of CAT F/Drives that I do as my job, I have done a couple of F/Drives using the ripper and tilt blade as jacks, take it from me it's a waste of time and makes things at best uncomfortable, but most of all Danger Looming, on the make of gears good to use CGR will work fine the CAT classic stuff seems to not fit to well, the Sprocket has a Steel Guard riveted to it on both sides, this has to be like new to safeguard the new Duo-Cone seals you will need to fit, on the tooling you will need a 105 ton cylinder, it is possible to tear them to bits with a 75 ton cylinder and a few good clouts from someone that can swing 14 lb hammers, on getting out the bearing ONLY (Big Letters) use a welder, weld a scrap of metal to the bearing first with the Earth Clamp ONLY (Big Letters again) on the scrap of metal, the top pinion bearing and the intermediate bearing locations are pegged locked, the little tin plugs will need drilling out and the pin pulled via a thread, do not let anyone near the bearings with a flame torch to cut them, use your brains and it might be fun, this will do for now so post up a few pictures and please ask if you get in lumber. p.s. forget all that 4 hour crap to do this and that, I do this work as a regular task and would doubt anyone would beat me at it , I always like to blow my own trumpet as it makes me feel better??? just work safe and crib up with good timber. tctractors
Wow. Thanks y'all. It's sitting in a job and hasn't been moved. I'll load it up and bring it home and tear it down and see what's going on in there. I'll get some pics and let ya know what I find.
good luck on the 6 mo cat warranty on classic. neb. machinery told me up front before they put the gears in that if I used classic, no warranty. period.