Our D6R AAX1326 year 05' has the grease type equalizer bar ends, my question is, does the center pin get grease also or 80/90w? The operation maintenance manual is vague and doesn't even mention the grease type ends only oil filled. Hope it's supposed to get grease cause that's what we've been doing
Nobody else has this bar? Constructo ? Jerry?
Grease... It is lubed by a remote line on the l/h of the engine bay
That is what I thought, manual says to lube the engine bay zerk with 80/90w, must just be the other bar that requires oil in the center pivot, was wondering if we filled the oil cavity with grease
Track frames hold oil... Could refer to those? I'll check on sis Monday just to be sure! Putting doubt in my mind now!
Hi Depete , the center pin gets grease as simonsrplant indicated . the e-bar end bearings should get 80/90 , use a grease gun filled with gear oil to fill through grease fitting at the ends of bar . what makes you think that yours is grease type?
Dpete I believe you have done the correct thing. The OMM is a little poor on the subject or could just be hinting wrong but the center should just be grease. 1. The ends are oiled and level can be checked. There is no way to check the oil level if you oiled the center pin. It is such as small amount that if it leaked out you may not even know before damage is done 2. The center has different seals than the ends. The center just has single lip dust seals designed to keep dust out not fluid in.
I read where the oil end bar was an option in those days
Try one at a time, to small sorry
At the end of the day whether its grease or oil in the ends it's not going to make a world of difference. Just when greasing you have to be very careful to not overfill and push out the seals. As soon as the seals rip or tear most guys grease and this prolongs the need for an immediate repair
I think there is an update with a pressure relief valve so as to be able to grease the end pins without creating too much pressure inside them. My issue with the oil-filled end pins is that they contain so little oil that if a seal starts leaking and no-one spots it the end pin can lose all the oil and run dry - and that is a recipe for disaster.
I agree 100% Nige.
Dan Just seen this, and I was not sure the answer till I read them below. I have a new to me 2008 D-6T LGP with oil filled ends, and my older D-6R, about a '96 vintage is all grease, and over the years we have had plenty of trouble with it. I am hoping the oil filled ones are a better deal.
Hi Jerry, I had the belly pan down for trans service so I got a look at the center pin, just going to continue with grease assuming if you have grease type ends the center is also.
The E'Bar on near most all D6 high drives can usualy be found to have some issue to the pin mounts (3) or the bearings, this is 1 area that CAT seem to struggle with even after loads of up-dates to the beam and all pin locations, the grease or oil that you stuff into them often fails to repay your efforts, the centre pin location to the main frame is out of sight and often out of mind for most service men and drivers, the bushings in the track frames often rattle loose and add to the pain, the beam end bearings need to slide on the pins to counter the distance change as the frames move through their full range of movement, even this bearing-pin sliding hardly handles the arch range of the frames, near every LGP D6 tractor in the U.K. over about 3 years old will have some need for repair work within this area, the centre pin location has had a few repair update sheets printed on this location, plus the beam has had loads of updates, if I need a job I only have to look at an equalizer beam in a D6H/R, its not 1 of CAT's better days work, I would recomend its greased or oiled 3 times a day then it might last a few years?? tctractors
Yair . . . I find it difficult to get my head around this style of equaliser bar. . . can anyone explain how the end bearings/pins attach or roll across the trackframe? (shakes head) Cheers.
Hi Scrub, nothing rolls across the frame, the self centering bearing in the ends is where movement happens, they are pinned in place on the swing frames so if everything works right and is lubricated there is no wear on the bar ends or the frame like the old bars did on the D8H's for example. If you remember the early H's had rubberized clamps with a V that fit the V on the equalizer bar and clamped to the saddle to hold the bar centered at least for a while when everything was new, the bar ends just sat on a pad in the frame and were always worn.
Simple. A spherical bearing in the end of the equalizer bar with a seal on each side of it. The pin goes right through the whole shooting match plus 2 bores in the track frame and is retained in position by a flag and a bolt.
Yair . . . Gotcha DPete . It's those self centering bearings that's got me beat . . . I'm a bit thick and I need to see something to understand it. These were pretty simple . . . . The springs just sat on the track frames. I think there was a keeper and a sacrificial wear plate. Actually we gave up on the springs they used to break leaves and so I started welding them together and it worked okay and so we never bothered replacing them and just welded the whole thing up into a solid equaliser bar a la Cat. The spring was bushed and greasable and pivoted on about a 4'' pin through the saddle that was known at times to break. Cheers.
Yair . . . Thanks Nige . You posted while I was typing. As I said, I'm thick and still don't get it. That is to say . . . surely the track frames move up and down on a constant plane and the centre lines of the pins holding the end of the bar to the trackframe describe an arc around the pivot point? I don't understand how a spherical bearing (as I know it) can maintain alignment through the range of travel . . . in other words the centre distance when the tractor is sitting level should be different to when the trackframe is at maximum deflection. Cheers.
Hey Scrub, you have a point, maybe that's why there is so much trouble in that area
Yair . . . DPete . Dunno mate but, to me, it seems that if there is no allowance for lateral (crosswise) movement of the equaliser in relation to the trackframe the equaliser must necessarily try to pull the trackframes towards the centreline of the tractor as they deflect up or down from level. I assume the trackframes pivot on some sort of dead-axle arrangement. I have never really crawled under and studied a Hi-track and have no idea how everything is kept in line . . . diagonal braces of some sort maybe or does the equaliser become the brace? If so you would imagine the dead axle/trackframes would need decent limit stops and some style of self aligning bearing. Excuse my ignorance, I am way out of my depth here and don't usually comment on stuff I know bugger all about. Cheers.
Basically the bar can only tilt so far in each direction. I haven't had to pull a Cat bar but did plenty of Komatsu bars. The center bushing on those was a layered rubber bushing. Any give that was needed got taken up in the rubber. The pins had to be pressed into the bushing in the bar. Pressing them out took about 40 tons or more. I don't know if the Cats have the rubber bushing or not in the center. I've seen plenty of Cats with the spherical balls on the ends busted up. The good thing about the pinned bar is that the track frames don't try to spread out at the idler ends. All stays pretty well parallel.
Track frame pivot on the dead axle.The dead axle runs in oil,with heavy bushing that fit over the axle.If everyhthing is in good shape the track frame will stay in line.Just make sure you check the oil in the dead axles.Also keep the outside bearing on the bar greased.If they don't want to take grease.It's time to replace the bearing and pins before they wallow out the bar where the bearing are pressed in. The stop for the bar is the frame of the machine.No diagonal braces of any kind on the track frame it is all held on by the end caps where the dozer push arms connect.The setup has a lot more travel up and down then the old hard bar machine ,which gives you a lot better ride then the old machines.Especially on uneven ground. If you keep oil in the pivot shaft and grease the bar,center and outside pins they will last a long time.It you run the pivot shaft out of oil,and the don't grease the beaing and wallow out the hard bar then it gets real expensive fast.Will have to have the bar holes welded up and lined bored and the center pin is hard to linebore after welded because the oil pan is in the road to get the boring machine lined up.Have to remove the oil pan to bore.If you have to replace the pivot shafts from running out of oil then your talking big bucks.If caught soon enough then only bushing and seals,bearing and pins ,so not to bad.
The center pin of the bar fits through a craddle that is part of the main frame of the machine that is where it has to be welded also if the pin gets the main frame wallowed out also beside the bar.The cradle is part of the main frame so you can't replace it.Has to be welded on the machine then line bored.Why you have to remove the oil pan.Unless you have jig made to hold the line bore shaft at a angle to miss the oil pan. John the main pin bearing is basicly a bushing with rubber coating to hold the grease in.If not wore out you don't have to have a press per say to remove the pins if you need to remove the track frame.If really wore then you might have to torch the pins and drive them out to remove things.
Yair . . . Okay, so how much trackframe oscillation is there on a D6? As I mentioned as I see it at any point other than level a track frame pinned to an equaliser bar that rotates about a pivot would in theory put loads on the spherical bearings and try to "spring" the dead axle and trackframe . . . the movement wouldn't be much but this is precision engineering. What am I missing . . . is there a bit of toe in built into the dead axle? Cheers.
The first High Drive that I swapped out an E-Bar was in a yard with an overhead crane, so after fitting the new (Exchange CAT) beam I did a bit of "Homework" to understand this unusual effort by CAT, on the D8K with the centre pinned bar the outer ends are sat on half round locations with a dowl lump locating in some shimable blocks allowing an amount of movement in a controlled location at both track frames, anyhow with the aid of a Tippex pen after fitting all new pins, bushings and beam to this D6H I moved the frames up and down and looked at stuff happening, the spherical bearing when new moves on the pin backwards and forwards its not much but it does move as the Tippex marker indicated, these beams are known to march out the frame pins although they are bolt located, the pin bore goes through 2 steel bushings pressed into the frame, these also manage to come loose and migrate out of location so this should indicate to anyone that something is up with this set up, on the earlier series tractor D6C/D the hard bar was as already said kept in location by 2 bits of rubber bonded with a steel strip top and bottom for the beam central location, this gave a good bit of "Comfort" for things to move about some,so if you think the H-Drive bar moves only in the spherical bearing ball when the track frames are rotated through their full movement you need a bit of Tippex to find out, the bar is under a good bit of stress from all angles tearing out itself all day long, the spherical bearings are only a cheap item with 1 moving part that soon gets wear effected, the pins have pulling threads in them to aid removal plus their is a massive gap between the beam sides and frame to cut stuff? the centre pin location under the engine is to thin so what do you expect to result? tctractors p.s. The CAT spec repair on the centre location is to plate and bore the hole, making this area thicker.