We went to look at a d8h sn 46a266***. It's at the richie bro. auction in Pittsburgh, pa. My question is on the left side there is oil leaking out from behind the sprocket. It leaked enought that the rails have a film of oil all the way around. Is this a common thing? What would be involved to repair this and about how expensive would the parts be? I'm trying to figure out how much we want to bid on this machine so we don't under bid if this is a easy and cheap fix or worse over bid and have a huge repair to deal with.
is it leaking from the friction seals ? I've done them on komatsu's which are fairly easy but never done a cat. how bad is the leak? we had a Doosan excavator that started leaking and the operator never spoke up until it was out of oil and bound up twice. filings got into the final drive and it ended up costing BIG $$$. plus its a Ritchie bros auction. good luck.
If it's just the seal parts will be a couple hundred plus 3000-4000 in labor, if the seal is out because of final drive bearing or gear failure start repair estimate at 10 k and expect it to slow down around 20k........TIO
On a D8H/K its about a days work to strip out a F/Drive, the left hand side being easier than the right due to tilt pipes on the T/Frame, this is using just hand tools and plenty of timber baulks to hand plus a cutting torch to nip off the heads of worn case bolts, to build the final drive back up I allow about 1 1/2 days to do a tidy job, the bad bit is if the top pinion is crunched as this can become a pain depending on the style of cabin fitted or hard frame??? the average cost in the U.K for me to strip and refurb a case is around £1'500 in labour, if the gears are crunched the dead shaft will need pulling to clean out the oil gallery the same as on early D9's, this will throw another day into the deal as its a pain to clean out including sorting the oil pump and filter unit, I love em. tctractors p.s. the Bull gear runs on more than 2 bearings, the outer pre-load taper roller will be scrap also the big inner back bearing most usualy will be mullered. good luck.
It sounds like the inner duo cone seal is either worn out and leaking or there is wire or fishing line in the drive. Being that I dig out vineyards we tend to cut a final seal about once a year. Its so bad for us that we fabricate our own wire seals around the final drives. I think the last one we did was around $5,000 including parts and labor. It can be done in about three days. You will need to pull the rear sprocket off. Don't let the mechanic use a torch to cut off the bearings as the last guy I used gouged into the dead axle. Use a puller and pull the bearings the right way. As far as D8's go I know the H series is a lot easier to do the final seal on than the K. I think they added an extra bearing to the K's. The big thing is how long has the seal been out and how much have they ran the machine with the seal out. If oil can go out then dirt can go in. I would be careful as parts for the D8h's final drives are getting harder and harder to find.
Mccahilldozing, there is no extra bearing in the D8K, the outer hub is different plus there is no bearings directly on the Dead shaft so no need for any cutting near it, the work involved between a D8H and a K is realy all on the track frame with 2 extra bolts on the hub clamp and the E-Bar mounting, all the rest is the same old same. tctractors
Yair . . . Mccahilldozing . I understand what you are saying (and mean) with the comment about using a puller but by who's definition is that the "right" way?. . . I'm afraid I fizzed up a bit at that. Any half way competent professional heavy equipment fitter should be able to wash an inner race off a shaft with no damage and have it done before the part time bloke has the puller set up. I can't say I have ever seen a problem from an inevitable minor gouge that occurs as a bloke works his way up the learning curve. Worst mistake is to try and cover the boo boo by filling the gouge with weld and sanding smooth . . . seen a couple of marine shafts break under those circumstances. Folks on here may have different opinions but that has been my experience anyway. Cheers.
See if the sprocket is loose with a bar, if it is that's bad, if not it's good and maybe only a seal issue.
Not wanting to flog a Dead Horse (To Much) but D8H and K series tractor parts are no trouble to find from main dealer or Non OE parts sales, the engine blocks are getting worth hanging on to, but everything else is still easy to locate, the sprocket leaking oil at the back on D8's is often caused by the Duo-Cone seal being cracked or in parts sometimes due to the wrong method of assembly, this is easy to spot via the imprint of the dead shaft bolt heads on the back of the hub, the oil leaks usualy from the front face of the sprocket as this is getting oil pumped into it through the centre hole drilling in the dead shaft, stuffed F/Drives would not be a massive dont buy it thing in the U.K. the engine/Crank etc would make a few Toes Curl up, plus the Track Groups being skint of % left worth having, so if the engine sounds like a CAT, and its on good boots buckfever dont be put off if its price sits well with the lumps that are good, a D8H with a bit of go in it makes £20'000 + in the U.K. with some D8K's finding homes at £45'000 to £50'000 these are top mounts though with loads of gallop left on board??? tctractors
The motor and hydrolics seemed really good. It was about 50 degrees out and the motor was cold. Turned the plugs on for about 15 seconds and she fired right up. Blade had no problem lifting the machine at idle and the ripper on the back did the same. Is this leak something that I would have to get fixed right away or could I make some money with it and keep the finals topped off for a little bit. If we got this for the right price we would definatly get it fixed but if it's not leaking to bad and the bearings are not shot I would like to make a couple of pennies with it before dumping more money in it. I really appreciate you guys giving me some advice and if we pick it up I will definatly be needing some more help. Depet, can I check this with the machine sitting on the ground or do I need to lift the back of the machine up?
Buckfever with the machine on the ground wedge a bar 5' long or so between the sprocket and swing frame where the sprocket teeth enter the frame. pull back and forth to check for movement, there should only be a little flex , not much. You could also check the appearance of the oil in the fill cap but beware if the pinion seal is leaking it may be overfull and run out on Ritchie Bros site. If the sprocket it tight and you buy it take the filter out and cut apart to check for wear material, if clean and the leak is not to bad you can probably get by with it until it makes it's repair money. If the sprocket is loose I would repair before use or you will just cost yourself $$. Nice looking D8, I checked the photos. Good luck
That sounds like a good bit of script from Dpete, I would love to see a snap of the beast, at the right $$$ it would take more than a F/Drive to put me off a Tractor, its a case of doing your homework inspecting all the other parts of the machine as coins are easy spent, if the F/Drive was not dripping like a busted Fridge they can work for some time, on the other hand if it was not leaking and you bought it only to have the F/Drive go crunch in the first week you would still have to fix it after paying top coin possibly for it, so sometimes its good to start from a bit of a teardown as you know whats inside after its done, I hope this reads like I think it should. tctractors. p.s. Near all D8's will move some on the sprocket after copping the Bar treatment as the outer Pre-Load Bearing soon manages to collect Brinnal marks caused by the limited movement of the Track Frame so some slight movement is possible with the weight eased off the spocket.
That looks like a tidy tractor from the photos on Ritchie's site. Nice to see loads of grease round the lift cyl pivots on one photo, gives you confidence that the rest of the machine might just have been looked after the same way. Photos of undercarriage don't show much other that it will need sprockets soon, can't make any sort of judgement about the rest.
Called Cleveland brothers today and got a price to tear into it if need be. 5000 just to open it up and put it back together but dad and I figure like you folks said, once it's fix up right we will know what we have and be able to run with confidence. Thanks for the tips, I will let you guys know how it works out tomorrow.
Well, did you buy it Buckfever?
Went to high for us. 32,000 and it's going to Nigeria. Cann't understand paying that much at a auction. I found a long list of d8h's for less money on machinery trader. Oh well back to the drawing bord. Gonna start surching the for sale sites and see what I can find. The funny thing is the 8k next to it went for almost 40,000 and is also going to Nigeria. But a 8n in nice shape only went for only 57,000.
Foreign countries like the older machines for their simplicity, I had an 8K that went to Libya.
A lot would say that machine like 8H/8K can survive in countries like Nigeria with little in the way of preventive maintenance and low skill-level mechanics. I prefer to explain it thus - "they can survive with NO maintenance, because NO maintenance is what they'll get" .......... 16 years of experience on & off in Africa tells me that this is true.
I am told that Libya has a large amount of D8H/K's around as they seem to just about cope with the heat levels, a good pal of mine flew back out today to Nigeria to what he calls "Untrue Hell" he is a plant mechanic that gets to put up with some crazy problems and maintenance (lack Of) the tails he tells me are eye wateringly painfull, like important wires stripped out of excavators, to wire up the drivers music speakers at his home, the excavator cannot work but the driver can listen to Radio 2 in the bedroom? etc, the oil change issue that CAT C series engines suffer with ar not realy worth the print, as the engines seem to manage around the 6 to 700 hrs before stopping then parts being robbed off them for who knows what, a local parts Co recently sent a container of parts to Liberia to have its contents stolen on hitting the dock, I am being asked by a Co' at this moment to pop over to this area for a month to stick a few D8's back together, part of me (The Daft Bit) Is sort keen??????? just to look ???
As per whatever movie it was - "Show me the money......"
stay on these shores t.c. dont want little tommy seeing his mate on the tv in orange overalls and a hood on his head with some bearded chap swinging the big blade.