I rescued a Caterpillar 966C Wheel Loader that was abandoned and deteriorated. I put a lot of work and love to it and the result is shown in the photo. Due to the damage of its original engine, we put a CAT 3306 DITA engine. I have never worked with these type of old wheel loaders, after finishing the repair and painting works will put it to move some dirt. But as with many older Caterpillar models it must be bulletproof. ANybody has experience with these old 966C wheel loaders?
Looks good it was well worth saving
One of the best ever. No electronic crap. Can even run without a charging system if it gives up. Nice job on the resto !
Everyone who has ever spent time on a 966, many of us, have nothing but respect.
Great machines, it looks like you did that one justice. Nice job!
Drive train was for the most part bullet proof. All that tilt linkage on the boom was crap. If it is loose, it will impact load all the joints from the tilt cylinder to the bucket. They will get so bad that they will snap off eyes on the tilt cylinder rods. The boom cylinders were also a concern and I hated to have to prop up the boom in order to do any work on the hydraulic valve. Steering can be a bear if you have any leaks. The steering valve is under the cab and has all kinds of stuff around it. You will get twisted in all kinds of knots if you have to remove it. The brake valves are also in that area and always give problems if you live in a wet climate. Center hitches were another issue. If it is loose, you will have to split the machine and do some machine work before you put it back together with new bearings. They were a decent machine in their day. The problems I talk about above were the common ones on old machines like yours. You have done a nice job cleaning that one up and making it look nice.
The biggest problem I ever saw with a 966 C was the jerk who could not be bothered to use a grease gun! I knew of one 966C that was against several of our opinions sold off because it had what someone in the main office considered too many hours on it. What ticked off a few of us who had worked on it over the years was the fact that it still had all the pins and bushings it left the factory with! And it was not loose and jerky. See this machine had three things going for it. First when new it was fitted with a Trabon lube system. For those not familiar with the old Trabon systems they ran 80W-90 gear oil in them and they were activated by a line hooked to the air brakes. There were what would call sequence valve that shot oil to one bushing at a time and also had valves that were regulated as to how much each fitting got at each cycle. Second thing going for it was the boss at that quarry he was an old guy who liked to see a machine taken care of. So he told the operator to keep an eye on those oil lines and fix them if they break. We always called them spaghetti line `cause they were thin white nylon lines and after they had a bit of age on them they tended to be a little brittle. Third thing was the old coot, Buck is the only name I knew him by, of an operator who liked that machine and the minute he would see a broken line he would finish loading the truck he was at and tell the next guy in line to take a break while he fixed the line. His boss never complained and knew Buck would be back in a few minutes with the line fixed. Maqbol, what is the Serial Number of that 966C? You say you put a 3306 DITA in that C so I'm thinking it has a little more power than when it left the factory.