Ok, i have a family friend who has a late 60s CAT 955K parked back in the woods. It has sat for 15 years, it was inside of a building but the building has now collapsed so i would say it has been outside in the open for 10 years. The diesel is red in color and it has a full tank, am i able to run it? Cleaned intake out, removed filter it was junk. Added 10 gal of hydraulic fluid but needs 20 more Put 2 gal of oil in it still needs 3 more but i want to make sure it will start and run for a minute The antifreeze is nice and green when i pulled a plug of the side of the head, at the radiator filler cap it is just water Was left in Neutral, ran great when it was parked, exhaust was covered, undercarriage is good. But i dont want to do anything more until i can get it to turn over and start I wired up two 12v 650CCA batteries to make it 24v, starter clicked, clicked, then turned over about 1/4 of a rotation. click, click, then 1/4 rotation. so i stole 2 larger 1250 CCA batteries from mine and my dads truck, same thing. but then something buzzed and it stopped trying to start with the batteries in the battery bay, hooked the batteries up together then with jumper cables ran them straight to the starter ground and solenoid. turned the key, same thing. click click but this time no rotation. Engine is free and turns over by hand, i think i dont have enough juice. all the batteries i tried were hot and ready to go they even started the cars i took them out of when i put them back. *** do i need to do
System will be 24v start/charge, the batteries will have to be in series to make it correct(+ of first battery to + crawler cable, - on first battery to + of second and - of second to ground cable of crawler) a jumper cable set up will cost amperage and will fail to turn it over. Will need a considerable battery set up to pull this engine over, two car rated batteries might make a new engine rattle thru but a old been sitting monster may need a lot more. I have two group 31 HD truck batteries in my old crawler, actually needs four 6v for the cranking amps but works reasonable for now, have seen four group 31's in series/parallel on some machines. Undervoltage can cause the starter to 'hang' as causes rise in amps draw, try tapping(not beating) on the starter with a decent hammer, may here it release the Bendix, the culprit could be arced contacts in the main solenoid.
You could also have a bad connection in the battery cables, or a starter that's a little stiff from sitting and rusting. I don't know Cat starters, but sometimes you can take a starter end off, with the rest of it still attached to the engine. Clean the brushes and make sure they move freely. You could take some voltage readings on the cables while it's trying to start, rig up some long test leads and see if the starter is getting close to 24 V, then it's the starter. If not close to 24V work your way back to the batteries to find out where the voltage drop is.
Agree, you need some larger capacity batteries, and the cables in most cases are also an issue Edit: just noticed this was a bit old. Question: how did you make out?
It is sure fun to wake up a machine from a long slumber!
Have the starter tested for proper function. Replace battery cables & sit the batteries on the track or ground, just to get it to hopefully start up. I've seen a lot of cables draw water down into the cables & cause massive voltage drops. I'd also suggest running jumper cables to the 12volt batteries to try to keep the charge up while trying to start her up. How does your fuel filters looking???
I was just watching some guys start up some very old tanks from WWII. Those tanks have been sitting for a very long time. How lucky are those guys?? My 1987 CAT 931B was bought with (2) of the (4) pistons seized in their bores due to a lack of a rain cap on the exhaust. I felt pretty defeated on that result. No easy starting that machine. It took a massive sledge hammer beating the hell out a trimmed down 4x4 block of wood to free those two pistons. Such a process over a cheap piece of the exhaust system being missing.
Know what you mean there, luckily (or maybe not) my old Allis had set with the stack off and the previous owner set a tin coffee can over the turbo elbow saving it for a time. Just fired the old gal off day before yesterday, had been sitting since December and lit right off(while knocking on my wooden head), gives me great pleasure to get on a machine and work it even as it is over forty years old.(1973/75 time line build date). Takes a lot of TLC to get one of these mobile enough to keep them working much as most of us old codgers!
More Problems OK, Thank you all for your help, I got some 4DLT batteries and it started right up with a little ether, after 15 years of sitting. I did not drain any fluids, but the dipsticks for the Trans and Bevel gears had low fluid but no water on dipstick before starting. After running engine the dips for trans/bevel were covered in milky oil. pulled cap off of bevel filter, full of water oil. filter rotted and junky, removed and replaced. I pulled the drain on the trans and let it all out, refilled and now it is again just as milky as before? I CANNOT get the drain plug off of the bevel gear after making a special tool with a bolt and nuts to grab it. even after pulling on end of wrench with a 4 wheeler. So, how the hell do I get the plug off or drain fluid from bevel and where can the water be coming from? I assumed it has collected in there over the years but it seems like new water is getting into the trans? Thanks! I will be adding pics of the machine , I have driven out of the woods, yes with the watery oil in it to where it will be easier to work on.
reply to alldodge: The machine started right up! removed junk rotted air filter, filled with clean oil, added clean diesel and additives, primed it, proceeded to skin her back and let the black smoke roll. took off after about 3 engine rotations. My problem now is that the trans and bevel gear case are full of water.
Are you losing any coolant and is there any sign of oil in the radiator..?
No sign of oil in the radiator, I don't believe I have lost coolant. I just topped it off yesterday, so after I run it some more I can check. I have only ran the engine for a total of about 20 minutes, I am afraid that the water will hurt the drivetrain. I drove it about 150 yards to get it closer to the road. Drove well, did not seem to have full power in forward gear. Had to grease and work it into gears the linkages were seized. My biggest issue is getting this water out, how do you propose I drain the bevel gear? there is a tank of about 50 gallons of old diesel out there that doesn't have any water, I plan on flushing it out with that once I can drain it. P.S it is a 61H
I think you first need to confirm that you are definitely not losing coolant before proceeding. The thing is that draining the transmission case itself will not drain all the oil out of the system. The case probably only contains maybe around half the total quantity of oil in the power train. The rest will be in lines, cooler, pump, torque converter, etc, etc. If there was water lying in the bottom of the transmission before you cranked it up then running it will have circulated the water right the way through the system and mixed it wiuth the oil. Draining the water before starting the engine would have been the way to go but it's too late for that now. You will probably have to do some disassembly of lines as well as draining the transmission again in order to get everything out. Regarding getting the plug out of the bevel gear case, try posting a photo of the plug location so maybe someone can come up with an idea. When it comes to flushing the bevel case try a mixture of half diesel, half 10W hydraulic oil. For the transmission don't use the diesel.
Is there a way to cut into one of the cooler lines and as it's running allow the old stuff to flow into an old drum while letting the new stuff flow back through the cooler into the trans? Might take a little extra oil to flush things out , but that's how I would approach it.
Here is a pic of the drain plug, and a picture of the tool I made to fit pulled on wrench with utility quad, wrench finally gave out and bent. Heated around plug with acetylene torch. Is there another way to drain the water out of this bevel gear case?
Here are pics of the machine after I drove it out of the woods and better pic of drain plug
It looks like you have a piece of hex that fits it nice. Put a breaker bar and socket on that hex instead of the wrench, use a cheater pipe on the breaker bar with as much force as you're comfortable with. If that fails, weld that hex to the plug as hot and fast as you can, smack it with a hammer as soon as you're done welding. Let it cool completely and it should turn out easily.
What he said^^^^
Welding on a solid lug to hit with a rattle gun may help to break it free. Many times the vibration of a impact wrench can break the most seized fastener loose, especially after adding heat from weld. I have a 120V electric impact I will use in the field off a generator, works as well as any air operated.
Thanks for all help, i ended up just drilling a 3/8 hole and tapping for a new plug. Takes a long time to drain but gets the job done. Now my only problems are a Metal line that has a pinhole in it leaking transmission fluid, which of course is buried under a bunch of stuff but it can be managed, and the Turbocharger. Im not sure if it works because i cannot hear it, not sure what to do about it i think it is seized. Any suggestions?
My first move would be to pull off the flex hose on the intake side of the turbo, stick your fingers in there, and see if you can spin it.......
My first move would be to inspect the air filter, the housing and the feeding tubing/flex lines for rags, mouse nests, bugs nests then look at the exhaust same way, make certain no restrictions.
take that muffler off and 4" dia straight stack it with an exhaust flapper cap..you'll become quickly addicted as the rest of us