Decided I want to clean out my new to me 755C series 2 machine belly pan. I took off two access panels, one about directly below where the operator sits and the other about a foot ahead of that on he machine. Below the engine where most of the dirt,gunk is there is just a small access hole where the oil pan drain is. Otherwise the plate below the engine is about 4' wide by 5' long and at least 4 inches thick. I'm it too excited about taking that thing off. Can I just jack up th cab and power wash around each side of the engine hoping to get the gunk washed out the forward panel or do I need to take down this heavy hunk of iron to clean below the engine? Thanks
If it is really that size and 4"s thick it will weight about 3200 lbs. More than likely will break your fingers / arms screwing with that. My 953 belly plate is only 1/4 " thick and when it gets wet/oily dirt on it you better watch out when it comes loose cause you can't hold it up... Mine is hinged on one side. I normally place a wood block to catch the edge so it can't pin my air wrench to the ground when the last bolt comes out. I use a floor jack to raise it back up. The last time I took it out one of the hinge pins snapped off... I would leave it alone. You will have a better day just watching the sun rise or TV.
I'm not sure if these are hinged like the cats or bolted all the way around. Do like GI said , take a floor jack and put pressure up on the belly pan. Get all the bolts loose but leave plenty of thread in. Take an impact and remove the bolts quick as possible then at the end of the floor jack handle let it down making sure to stay clear. Dirty oily belly pans are good for fueling compartment fires.
Yair . . . Cleaning belly guards ideally should be a routine part of every service to maintain airflow around the engine, lessen the chance of rusting out pipework and as mentioned by Dickjr. lessen the risk of fire. It is perhaps a days work to make a decent hinge assembly so they can be easily lowered and it will be time well spent. Cheers.
somewhere on this site a guy took a chain with 2 hooks hooked both to the track pads on one side ran the chain under the pan and out the other side used a come along to keep it tight took it loose and lowered it to the ground. it made type of triangle under the pan.
That's what we have always done just run a come along or TWO across underneath it to the pads.
Got my 955 off (1/2 plate) using a furniture dolly and two flow jacks. Jack up tight, use impact to remove bolts, lowered to dolly and rolled it out.
It is a heavy pan, maybe 200lbs max empty. I've dropped a couple several ways, have used come along method, ued a transmission jack to lower and raise and used floor jacks to lower and raise too. Def good to have an extra hand but it's difficult to get everything clean without the pan down.
Got the pans down. Coming off wasn't bad but lining everything back up could be interesting. Thanks for the advice and I snapped a couple pictures
That looks like 1.5 to 2 inch plate
Cut the heads off a couple longer bolts and cut a slot in place of the head...then put in opposite corners of underside of machine as alignment pins. Once the pan is lined up and a couple other bolts started, pull the alignment bolts and replace with the standard fasteners. BTW- that does look dang heavy!! DB
whole lot thicker than the one on my komatsu d75s
Must be as much a counterweight as a belly pan. See absolutely no need for anything that heavy UNDER a loader otherwise.
Measured it today 4" thick by 4' long and 38" wide. I'm going to take the tip on cutting off the head and using it as a dowel. Thanks
At approximately 490 #/cu ft, that works out to one ton!
What I usually do is put a floor jack under pan with blocks on corners keep blocks as high as possible and still have clearance . Hold pressure on pan ,take out bolts ,farthest to closest , lower onto blocks . Mark track position ,start up machine ,move machine forward or backward to get room needed
So how did you get the pan off and have you managed to re install it. Did you loose any skin working on that monster. According to my handy dandy online steel weight calculator it weights 2066 lbs. I am glad I did not have to do it! http://www.portlandbolt.com/technical/tools/plate-weight-calculator/
I was thinking this more a weight than a pan. That is a MONSTER!
Maybe it's armour against land mines ... yikes ! 4 inches thick ... Reminds me of battleships.... 13 inches thick (Tirpitz)
Is that a weld around the edge. It looks like it in the one picture but it might be dirt. I don't know why they would box it either unless for strength. Why would there be a counterweight under the engine? An interesting puzzle for sure.
This is surely a fabricated piece. There are a couple are a couple pretty good pics on Machinery Trader and it looks to me that it's only held up there by 6-8 bolts. As OIH said it doesn't make sense for the counter weight to be there anyway. Just my $.02
Got it back up there with a forklift and a floor jack. Not to bad actually. Originally had 4 bolts that held it on but one was twisted off. I think it's original it has the cutout for the engine oil drain plug and splitter box. No welds on it just had a ice storm before I took the pictures.