Starting this thread to share some of my experiences around the job sites. Background: independent contractor with 9 years of Cat dealer field experience, contracting to a large highway/infrastructure contractor. We have a large variety of iron in the fleet from old to new technology. Dozers from a D5G to a D10N with most of the grading work being done with the new D5 next gen machines and D6N machines. Excavators from a 308 and (4) 374s and everything in between. Backhoe loaders, brooms, hoe rams, hoe packs, soil compactors, wheel loaders and a fleet of triaxles to top it off. 20+ miles of highway and a few large warehouse building pads in construction currently, starting a new infrastructure job in the city next month. All of this with 3 field technicians, we stay busy year round. I like sharing knowledge with other technicians and believe we build on each other’s experiences. Hopefully this will bring value or at least entertainment factor.
Cat 349F: complaint, high soot load. Machine running a hydraulic breaker busting up asphalt road bed and wouldn’t regen on its own. Hooked ET and immediately noticed engine temp was too low and wouldn’t warm up efficiently. After getting warm enough to do a manual regen, machine would instantly cool off. Installed 2 new thermostats and machine would then regen on its own.
D6N PER prefix. Complaint: engine oil leak. Appeared to be coming out around crankcase filter housing, pulled filter and was full of sludge as were the tubes coming off of the breather housing. Pulled outlet tube off of the NRS cooler as this is a common place to coolant entry on these engines (Perkins C6.6,) dry there. Put 10 psi on the cooling system and let set for several hours while doing some other jobs. Came back to 3.5 psi on the gauge, cracked open engine oil drain valve and there were a few drops of coolant coming out. Drained cooling system and installed new water pump, #2 most common point for coolant entry on a Perkins in my experience. Once old pump was off, both weep holes were packed full of dirt. There is a purge valve on the back side of the crankcase filter housing that was releasing the oil from the filter housing due to extreme restriction. Cleaned crankcase filter system and installed new filter. Changed engine oil and filter.
We talk a lot on this forum about checking transmission clutch pressures. Some may not fully understand what’s going on there. As shown in first photo, the modulation valves are where I have my pressure gauges hooked to. On this particular machine (D8T) there are two directional clutches and 3 speed clutches. One directional clutch is engaged and one speed clutch is engaged in any given gear. The modulation valve receives an current supplied by the powertrain ECM to control which clutch is engaged and how fast it is engaged. The second photo is a digital indicator group that I use when checking pressures. They are expensive but I like them better than dragging out test hoses and physical gauges for this situation. Physical gauges are still utilized when I need to see what the needle is doing, hard to see that on a digital unit. This meter will read between 0 psi and 10k psi depending on which transducer you use and channel 1-2 will read differential pressure
I have never seen 2 thermostats fail like that at the same time. Seems like it may have had an overheat at sometime?
8000 hrs on machine, no guarantee it happened at the same time. It just got bad enough that they got cold. I’ve seen several instances of them being stuck on 349 and 980k machines. Recently had a set stuck open on a W900L kenworth with a C15 belonging to my father in law. Seems like you get a rash of them around here
I used to see stuff like that when the seasons changed. Mid spring or late fall all kinds of odd stuff seemed to happen.
That's why we always change all stats at once never one at a time.
I know a few years back when I was living at the coal mine we replaced these thermostats a lot in the 3516 Engines that were in the 4AR 793C trucks, had 20 of them on site. Thermostats would stick open causing the engine to run cold which would over time cause the rings to stick on the pistons and eventually break. Tell tale symptom of broken rings on a 3500 series is hazing smoke at an idle and/or plugging engine oil filters due to the soot going into the oil.
changing stuff like that one at a time has never made sense to me. you already did all the work to get to one why not go ahead and hit all of them while you are in there?
I guess the difference is here in our cold climate if one thermostat is stuck open even 1/16 of an inch you won’t get the engine to warm up at all so we would never see them get that bad . We change a lot of thermostats in the beginning of winter and we do change both.
I found that the type/condiiton of the coolant used by customers had a major effect on thermostat failures. One particular customer used only a recycled coolant on their 4AR 793C's that they bought from an outside supplier (yes it was the cheapest tender selected by the accountants/logistics kings) and would you credit it they had more overheats and cooling system-related failures than nearly all the rest of the large haul truck operators put together.......... It was amazing. You could walk into the rebuild shop and see a disassembled engine, look at the liners, water pump, etc, and straight away know it was from that particular customer.
When I first started maintaining at the mine, they were using a similar breed of coolant and had exactly the same results. It was so bad it would erode the head surface to the point they were unuseable.
Remind me again. How many iterations of water ferrules went into 3500 engine spacer plates before they settled on the latest version with a stainless steel centre..? The last place I was at used a coolant from Shell meeting Cat ELC specification and TBH cylinder liners and anything else that came into contact with coolant looked like new @ 16k hours when the engines were pulled for PCR. That's all the proof I need. We also changed the temperature regulators every 8k as a preventive measure.
I don’t know, seems like I got a publication update every month for awhile. I left at the end of 2015 which is when I stopped paying much attention to the 3500 updates. I traded those for DEF software updates which seemed to be daily there for awhile.
621E scraper, another field tech on the job diagnosed as blown head gasket causing to pushing coolant out of the radiator cap. Got sent over to help put on the lowboy. Opened radiator cap, started machine and instantly a decent stream of coolant shot out of the radiator. I’ve seen many instances of compression in the radiator and never seen one shoot a geyser of coolant out with cap off so I decided to check it out. Noticed coolant residue at the dryer, removed air compressor and disassembled to find this. Called for a reman compressor and left the machine on-site instead of hauling it out for an engine. Lesson: if something doesn’t seem right, check it out for yourself.
Not coolant related or cat related--But remove a DD15 or 16 cylinder head, lay the injectors out on the bench and the possibility is 50% in a 24 hr time frame those injectors will be locked up.
I suppose that’s pretty handy for the parts commission. What causes such?
Truthfully-don't know. But does happen frequently. Service manager I've known for years hasn't a clue either. One of ours went in for a warranty head and six seized all covered on warranty. It's not the first time on a warranty head replace. I asked if keeping them submerged in fuel would stop it, already been tried. But there only $980.00 ea if not covered under warranty, so I guess it's not too big of a deal.
980 each to the people I fix equipment for they'd have a stroke. Its funny when I worked at the dealership I never heard the complaints about price.
That’s when you point out to them they could be paying $130 an hour for labor plus parts and markup if your price isn’t good enough for them.
That happens from time to time. But on the bright side I do have a few good customers that never question nothing so in the end all is well.
It probably has more to do with crap in the fuel supply channels in the head than it does with the injectors being out on the bench. All it takes is one spec of debris and you have a problem. Cat 3116 had lots of injector failures from people filling the secondary filter before installing it. They went to an upside down filter to end that bad habit.
Nice job good mechanics always have there eyes open and question everything they are told a second set of eyes saved a lot of money on that one
Nope. This is a problem directly related to the 15 and 16. Plus our engines have three filters.
Cat 349F with regen issues, 8000 hrs on machine. Another technician had removed DPF filter, took it to filter shop to have it cleaned and reinstalled. Would not perform a regen and I suspected issues with the filter. Removed DPF and found pieces of the filter media broken off due to mishandling during installation. Since the media was damaged, it gave a nice look at the ash load that was in the filter which made me question what the filter shop was actually doing if they weren’t removing the ash. For those not familiar, any Cat machine with an ARD head, the ash service is time based and set to come up at 5000 hrs at a level 1 event. Level 2/3 events use an algorithm based on how the machine has been ran. I’ve seen them go to a level 3 soon after 5000 hrs and I’ve also seen it take up to 8000 hrs before a level 3 becomes active. The latter is much more common on Tier 4 final (Def) machines as they produce less soot by nature. Also had inconsistent temps at the flame sensor in the ARD head due to a large carbon buildup on the flame temp sensor. Cleaned sensor probe, installed reman filter and sent it on its way. Due to damage to the filter media, core was denied at Cat, $1800 mistake.
I’ve done many of those filter R&I for cleaning on E and F series excavators. It’s a very simple process but I know idiots always find a way. I’m always careful with handling it and I inspect it before reinstall to make sure there are no visible issues. I’m guessing previous guy got hammer happy or dropped it.
Show me something that's "idiot-proof" and in a short while Darwin will be along with an improved class of idiot..........
JD955SC- yes he dropped it when installing it. Not sure we ever got to the point of admitting it though. Although, both filter designs (E & F) can be quite difficult to separate and put back together.
Todays fun was a D8T FCT prefix that wouldn’t regen, Failure to Ignite event. Pulled spark plug and tip was worn down pretty good, assumed grounding prong on ARD head was similarly worn, replaced spark plug to try to get it to regen as it was at 140% soot level, got it to light and decrease soot level to 0% Tried ARD ignition test again after and it wouldn’t light again. Pulled ARD head and nozzle was clean, good way to tell the heater circuit was working properly but the ground prong was worn badly and the swirl plate was plugged. This ARD head had over 6000 hrs on it which is a good life on them so I replaced with a reman. The socket in the picture is a 17mm fuel line socket used to take the flame sensor probe out of the ARD head. You can see the ground prong wear in comparing the old ARD head to the new one.
A little side project today since the construction jobs were all snowed out here. Customer with a 420F SKR prefix been having trouble with the ignition fuse blowing intermittently when turned to the start position. CAT dealer had already been out once to no avail. I was able to narrow down the short to be in the 306 start wire going from the key switch to the engine ECM. Found issue to be harness that was not tied up right behind the transmission filter housing. Rubbed a spot in the harness and would occasionally make continuity to ground. Customer definitely happy to have that one fixed, been going on since the end of November last year.
One of my favorite sayings from my military days when dealing with Soldiers who have the innate capability to break an anvil with only a toothbrush is "You can't outsmart stupid".
In the end it all comes down to experience, attention to the small details, going beyond what the book says, and that thrill of fixing something no one else could.
Todays journey led me to a Mack triaxle with an MP8 Mack/Volvo engine getting coolant in the fuel and fuel in the coolant reservoir. Roughly 150k on the odometer. Pressurized the cooling system with the return line off and was able to push coolant out of the fuel line. Proceeded to disassemble the valve mechanism and remove injectors. Drained cooling system and put 5 psi on cooling system and found air bubbles at the top of #6 injector cup. Pulled all 6 cups and found the oring for #6 to have failed. Replaced cups with new along with a 6 pack of injectors. Will be flushing all fuel lines and draining tank tomorrow.
I've seen something like that before. Komatsu 170 engines in dozers and WA600 loaders with coolant in the basement at around 5,000 hours. Found the injector copper seals eroded bad. Lots of testing and analysis that the dealer paid for. Found the customer was changing coolant charge every oil change. Put too much chemical in the system and it reacted with the type of rubber in the orings on the coppers.
ahart. My Komatsu D57S track loader started pushing a tiny amount of antifreeze around one of the cups. I had just rebuilt the water pump on it and noticed it after I put everything back together. I ordered the four o-rings and washers. Do I have to replace the cups also? The o-ring and washer are part no. 22 and 23 on the drawing. What's it take to pull out cups?
I put in that yellow Oat coolant. Do you think that had anything to do with it? I would think been so small of leak I probably just didn't notice it. Not sure. Your timing on this is fortuitous John.
Don't know on what you were running. The engine we had trouble with had the kind of coppers that were roll pressed in place. I don't know which engine you have.
I’m not sure on that, the MP8 cups have to be replaced with the injectors because they are a conical seal on the bottom of the injectors and also, the cup tip is swedged into the head, you also use a knurled expansion type puller to remove the cups so the inner bore is scored after you get them out.
Ok, thanks for this ahart. I’ll have to see how far away the cups are from SMS ( Komatsu ) John the engine is a S4D 130-1. I guess I might be doing injectors too.
I haven't had the pleasure of working on one of those engines so can't be of much help.
If I’m looking at the photo you added correctly, those are external cups, correct? So you had an external coolant leak? Doesn’t appear to be any way to mix the coolant and fuel in that scenario. The biggest reason for replacing injectors on an MP8 engine aside from the cups and injectors sealing together, is due to the coolant contamination in the fuel will likely cause them to stick and fail soon down the road.
OK, thanks for this.
Sorry ahart. I believe they are external cups and yes the leak is external. . Talked to my mechanic buddy and he said an outfit called Apex tool makes pullers that work without damaging the cups. I'll check them out. I can also call the Komatsu dealer and ask them what they use.
Moved the new 374 next gen for the first time today. Not a lot changed from the D and F machines with the exception of the counterweight removal system. I liked the way it set the counterweight back away from the machine but I don’t like the fact that it would likely take more than one person to get it installed back on the machine (I had an operator on assembly). The old system used chains and sprockets and you could do the whole job by yourself. The new system isn’t like that. Pros and cons I suppose.
Will it set the CW down on the deck of the float, or does it have to go to the ground?
It will. Often our truckers prefer to do a lift for loading instead for positioning purposes.
Got a little play in my boom cylinder they said….Cat 345D. I was honestly impressed that the pin came out.
Back in the day when I was wet behind the ears, I went to work for a company. I was hired to grade haul roads, but when I arrived on site, the old grader was broke down. They put me on an old 992 Deere to fill the time. Ended up staying on it all season. It was hot, no a/c, and no right hand window, so you got the heat off the boom cylinder. My first week, I complained about the main bucket pin not taking grease. RUN IT! By the end of summer, I could almost fit a tube of grease in the gap
Just rotate that sleeve and stuff it back in . . .
Don’t give them any ideas. If they thought they could run a couple hours like that they’d try it
Yep . . I have had customers ask for stuff like that before
Been awhile since I’ve put anything up on here as we’ve had a couple of contract techs move on to other companies, this leaves me as the only field guy across several job sites that are 30-130 miles apart. Needless to say, business is good. So this is the latest challenge, M318D machine purchased out of the rental fleet from the local Cat dealer. This thing is decked out to the gills with aux hydraulics. Said we need to run a 130ES hammer on it so go set the flows and pressures for the hammer circuit. Set up flow meter after dialing in settings on the monitor which are in metric/imperial units with no way to change them to American English. Out comes the iPhone to convert from GPM to L/min and from PSI to kPa. 18 GPM is all its putting out. Changed everything imaginable in the monitor and could not get any more flow. Ran down a few leads in the MCV (multifunction combination valve) and I’ve finally settled on the flow control solenoid for the A port is not functioning because when I command a different flow setting, the solenoid current changes to accommodate the setting but the flow on the hammer valves never changes. Next issue is going to be getting the solenoids out of the control valve as they have a short hex shoulder on them and are pretty tall so it’s going to take an extra deep/extra thin socket to get them out. Appears that these solenoids are only used on the M3XX WHEX machines so probably European in design. Cat says H130ES is a bit much for machine but at 58 GPM required and 66 GPM available, agree it will work. That’s our MO, push it to the limits. Hopefully solenoid will fix flow problem and we can move along.
God how I despise those things.
Had a C9 in a Cat 336D getting fuel in engine oil, found issue pretty quickly and I thought I’d share the info. HEUI injectors, pulled valve cover off and inspected around the injectors and didn’t see anything that stood out. Ran the priming pump on the filter for about 60 seconds and climbed back up for another look. Could visibly see fuel around where the injector meets the cylinder head on #3 cylinder. If you look in photo of the injector removed from machine, there’s a hole above the pink backup ring that is above the surface of the head when injector is installed. Fuel leaks out of this hole and into the crankcase. It’s not this way on all cat injectors by any means but on this particular model, I’ve seen it happen a few times. Easy check by running priming pump to pressurize system and looking for leaks. No dye in the fuel required.
So is that some sort of lube hole or termites?
I would say it’s a weep hole designed to work as a tell-tale to show that the seals inside the injector are leaking.?
Fairly new 349 next gen excavators with hard lines coming off the main control valve, have seen 3 instances of welds cracking. Cat says it’s an issue with the welder being poorly trained in the process and has since been corrected. Of course the only available parts are in Shanghai, but I’ve come to expect that response.
Not surprising I suppose, seeing as that's where the excavator is manufactured.
I’m seeing more and more parts who’s only availability is far outside the US, and I’m talking simple stuff like seals or similar. And often when you order it you find out they don’t actually have it on hand they are waiting on the next batch from the manufacturer and will ship it in two months when that batch finally arrives.
Yes, it is very hard to get used to as when I started out at the coal mine, we had enough parts on hand to build a D11R from scratch and now you can’t spin an oil filter off before checking to see if you can get one to replace it.
A little road side service this morning. I personally have never came across a wheel doing this though I’m sure it’s something that happens from time to time.
Another first, had a manifold off of a C15 in a 374D extracting broken exhaust studs and found this on the inlet of the turbo. Inner housing broke loose from the outer housing.
Looks like questionable steel recipe. Wheels take much fatigue as they rotate, looks like it cracked from poor steel. Either it was brittle in itself, or it affected the welding.
No doubt. Had a rubber hose on the intercooler of our 325FL split. There were two available in the Cat system - one in Germany and one in China... Salesman went to another dealer branch and they took one off a new machine so we could keep working. Did the same thing when the 3rd valve went out on the same machine as well, probably took it off the same new machine.
Ran into a real strange problem on the regen on a 627K a couple weeks back. Had a persistent code for primary transformer current below normal, put my cat certified spark tester on there, starting at the coil and had good spark, checked wire, good spark through the tester, hook a spare spark plug up and it would spark when held close to ground. Seen plenty of ARD heads not spark due to the probe being worn down as mentioned in a previous post, ordered and installed. Checked the old ARD head out and had high resistance between the ground probe and the swirl plate face. These are both cast as one piece. Checked the new one and had .2 ohms as I would have expected. I’m just going to guess something with the metallurgy created high resistance. With the new ARD head, no spark and same primary transformer code. Installed new transformer coil and back in business. I’m going to guess the high resistance loaded the coil to the point that it got weak. Cat says not to use the adjustable spark testers and the light was bright with the tester they offer hooked to ground but when you hooked it in line with the spark plug it was very weak. I guess I unknowingly found the root cause of the issue by replacing the ARD head. Going off of looks alone, I would have never changed it as it did not show Normal wear that I’ve seen on others.
Finally broke down and bought a jump pack, did some research online and decided on the ES1224 truck pac. 3000 peak amps, does 12v and 24v, used it 4 times this week and it’s a hell of a unit. Cranks over a dead machine like it’s got a new set of batteries in it. Comes in real handy on a dead machine that I can’t get the truck to.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1919587674...f15u8tAxpXCuPFe_hKpb8IjVAGpTO0NhoCW2EQAvD_BwE Ebay link for above pac. Very interesting. That could work for many things, out camping for instance. only 40 pounds. This looks like a legit Blow The Dough (BTD) item.
I took it on a recent short trip we went on because for some strange reason I had to jump start the car before leaving, never happened before and hasn’t happened since. But it was nice to have the jump pack just in case.
Can you get power out of the round port with the switch off?
I've been using them for about ten years. Mine even has a USB jack.
The way the operator manual reads, yes the 12v port can be used when the switch is in the off position. You can also use that port to charge the jump pack via a cig lighter in a vehicle or to maintain memory when vehicle battery is removed.
perfect. That would come in handy for a battery swap. Both my rigs have a hot port so that works.
Have they made significant improvements over the last 10 years? Or basically the same?
Mine has the barrel switch for twelve or twenty four. I've seen others that have a cable and set of plugs. One plug is for twenty four, the other for twelve. One of the units I had in a yard had the barrel switch and unknown to us it was stuck in twelve volt. My guy hooked it to a twenty four volt on a D9T and it blew up with a big bang. I don't know of any improvements. I'll get a photo in the morning to compare to what you have.
Never thought about the barrel switch sticking on one voltage or the other but it makes good sense. I’ve seen the type that uses different ports for the 2 voltages.
Any of you guys that work on large heavy equipment in the field, what model of 1” drive pneumatic impact are you using? I run an Ingersoll Rand 3940B2Ti, works great for 90% of what I do at a max output of 2500 ft lb, I have ran into a few places where it’s too long to do the job, one being track frame bolts on a Komatsu PC-1100. I’d like to get the same wrench in a pistol grip for things like that.
no reason to stray from a winning formula (no I can’t vouch for the vendor, never ordered from them). For me, if IR is an answer then it is the answer https://www.nationaltoolwarehouse.c...5lEJOVKh8-tbEr4vjQkTZs_sDRIgpjGBoCkEAQAvD_BwE
Upgraded the HVAC box in the kenworth this morning, long overdue as the factory one was rusted through. Bought the replacement box fully loaded from shoreline truck parts out of Holland, Michigan. It’s all stainless and came with evap, heater core, blower motor, expansion valve, thermostat, and fresh air duct/actuator. Built well, fit right in like it should, and their customer service is excellent. It was expensive, but so is everything else, especially things that last. Glad to support an American company as well.
One of the worst cases of ammonia slip I’ve seen in a while on an SCR catalyst. DEF injector failed to shut off properly for an extended period of time and filled the DEF mixing chamber full of dried DEF fluid. ^^^ mixing chamber as seen from the injector port. ^^^^failed DEF injector, 8800 hrs.
We have been finding a leaking DEF injector is common on the smaller engines and builds a nice crystal cavern in the chamber. Replacing the injector and burning it out using ET with the sulfation recovery procedures and manual regens seems to work well.
im a little late to the party but I’ve had a Chicago pneumatic 1” extended anvil since I went independent. Works pretty good but the extended anvil got in the way a few times. Then I was in my local independent parts store and they had a Milwaukee horn anvil 1” kit. He meant to order an extended anvil but got the short one and offered it to me at cost. It was still like $1400 for the gun, charger, and 2 12.0 ah batteries but holy smokes is that thing an animal! Plus I don’t have to run the truck to run my compressor.
I’ve tossed around the idea of buying a 1” cordless, I’ve also considered buying an air regulated wrench (rad or hytorc or similar) Im thinking the regulated wrench will probably serve my purpose the best. Some tight bolts can’t just be cut off with a torch, like large tractor master bolts or track frame bolts. Would be nice for torquing swing transmission bolts on large excavators also.
Used an 1-1/2 dr pnuematic rad gun. After that I didn't want to bother with torque multipliers anymore.
I like the taking things apart with an impact. I never use then to finish assembly or installation of any component.
Except maybe track shoe bolts. One fellow I did some work for wanted me to heat the track shoe nuts till red then impact the bolts tight.
I've been working on trucks how long? In all my years I have never seen a HVAC box eaten up like that. So much for the midwest.
I assemble ton's of stuff with a impact or air ratchet.
I’ve got a torq-up I found on eBay. Does up to 1000 ft lbs and had a recent calibration when I bought it. Don’t use it often but when you need it…
Believe it or not, even with all that rot, still hands down the best AC in a service truck I’ve ever had. Also sucked a lot of dirt in though
We had 1 KW at the feed mill, guy that drove it kept it super clean even under the hood.He started to complain about no heat, hoses were hot, all the controls worked??Got to looking closer at the air box and noticed a big hole where someone had permatexed a piece of something over the extreme rot, the fan was blowing all the heat into the engine compartment. Fabricated a "better cap" for the bottom of the box and it was still working when I quit.
Update to the failed def injector, spent the better part of a day running hot water through SCR mixer chamber and got all the hard DEF formation dissolved. Did have to soak overnight to get the last stubborn residue completely dissolved. Reinstalled CEM on machine and after replacing a defective coolant temp sensor due to it not reading over 104 degrees, I was able to complete an aftertreatment system functional test and all codes went away. Before and after photos of the mixing chamber through the DEF injector port.
Just a little reminder to anyone who works in a live traffic construction area, stay the hell away from the barrier wall. I’ve seen a lot of guys leaning up against them and standing by them as if they are impenetrable, they are not. This is from one of the interstate jobs that I’m on multiple times a week. I’m standing beside a D8T, for perception.
Yep. It's not like those barriers are fixed to anything so even being hit by a car or SUV is going to displace them by a significant distance.
I thought they were pinned together. At least we did
That depends on the design and the requirements of the job. The ones that precast made here had loops of rebar that on the ends that could be pinned, but most of the early jersey barriers we made did not. Also those loops can get damaged in handling and as a result there could be spots in the run that weren’t as well supported. It would be the responsibility of the contractor’s safety person, the inspector, and the job super to make sure the barrier was as safe as it could be. also you play a part in this: ”If you see something, say something”.
627K transmission clutch failure and differential spider update. Wouldn’t have been a bad job if not for the brake control manifold that has to come off of the front of the diff housing. Cat also decided they wanted the diff out to do the spider update AFTER I pulled the transmission, they’re easier to pull together. It’s all wrapped up and have 3 more machines to do the same to, all low hour failures. Above debris is the clutch material from the transmission sump.
In the photo it looks like metal pieces? Except for plates the material is a fiber of sorts? Are you opening those up outside?
The clutch disks in the 627K is a bronze material. Transmission has been repaired and diff reworked per the updates by Cat.
Looks like bronze material is not a good idea? Was that the work shop out there? Not fun stuff.
From what I understand, cat changed to the bronze clutch disks with the G model scrapers though I won’t swear to that. I pulled components in the field and they were transported to the Cat component rebuild center for repair as there was participation from cat on the repair cost. After repair, components were reinstalled. I’m going to guess roughly 16 hrs for R/I.
Shop had one of those about a week ago. Fun times, one guy tore it down, got sick, so another put it together. I helped the first so I got to help the second figure out where the first had stashed all the parts haha.
Not my normal area of expertise, but I guess they figured since it was bolted to the concrete and I’m the guy with sockets on my truck, it falls under the mechanic umbrella. This morning I was tasked with putting a 75 X 90 structural steel building on the ground. Took about 4 hours but it layed down pretty smoothly.
How did you get it on the ground?
Took all the nuts off all the way around, most were 3/4”, it had an H frame between one of the sets of beams on each side that had 16 2-7/16 (socket size) nuts on them. Those were welded to the studs in the concrete. Cut those off flush and went back and cut all the 3/4” studs off flush. Then used a 345D and a 235C to push on the top of one end.
Anybody ever change the gas springs on a D series excavator 70/30 front windshield? #32 in the picture, if so, how did you accomplish it? I’ve done several and the only way I can get them on there is to drill a hole in each end and collapse, then tie together with a piece of mechanics wire. When the window is down, the gas spring is fully collapsed. When window is up, it’s not quite fully extended. It works out, just figure there’s got to be a better way
They had a 345 and needed help to take that PMB down? Was the slab intended to be saved?
Hell no they busted it all up too. I think they wanted it all down flat and not wadded up and hanging everywhere. There’s an interstate off ram right over the top of it now.
I'm guess that crew doesn't do demo that often? With a 345 I could've had that building on the ground, stacked and sorted by myself.
Guess not, they took over once it was on the ground. They just told me to put it on the ground and don’t kill anyone. I’m still here so I’ll hang that in the win column
Had a couple occurrences of low boost pressure and boost pressure sensor calibration codes on this 349F excavator. Job foreman called me (job is 2 hrs away) and explained codes they had, with just over 10k hrs on machine I told them to go ahead and put a manifold pressure sensor in it and see what happens. They put on in and said all was good. Couple days later the code was back on and they also mention they’re putting in around a gallon of coolant in a day and can’t find a leak. I ordered all the parts to do the NRS cooler and water lines update. I checked out the boost issue and found the pressure sensor was either slow to pick up boost pressure or slow to go back to zero. Removed the sensor from the adapter fitting and found adapter fitting was completely plugged with hard packed soot as was the port in the manifold it threaded into. I’ve seen the NRS Venturi ports get plugged like this plenty of times (checked them afterwards and they were not plugged) but I’ve not seen the soot make it all the way to the manifold pressure sensor fittings. NRS cooler showed signs of leaking, replaced it with updated parts and all was good.
Wrapping up an interstate job, moving the big iron out. Today was tear down on a D9L and a 374D. Like usual there’s no help to be had so it was a solo job.
Probably got more done anyway.
Depends on your help. When I was in the shop I worked with a guy… we are perfectly in sync on delicate team tasks like that.
Better off working by yourself if possible unless your mates are on their game. I’ve spent 30 years removing blades off D8’s that were pulling pans as you chaps call them.Very straight forward job as we used to bury them into the ground and reverse out of them.We almost never removed and stripped them for hauling purposes. However,this year has seen me working on a job removing a fair few L/N/R and T blades.All were good pins with no wear and nearly all were too tight to pull out.We lanced most of them unfortunately. Not through lack of trying
Five 627 push/pull scrapers breaking ground on a new job we are starting. Pretty amazing weather for the middle of November.
Would you like some of our rain.? I'll gladly send you some.
I tell you what, throw it in a bucket and send it next Wednesday evening so we can get thanksgiving off. We’ve got Six 627 scrapers, 6 740/745 haul trucks, a 374F, D8T, D6T, D6N and a 349 hoe on this job right now and only one poor field mechanic.
Anyone who’s ever done these knows, tailgate mount bolts broke off in the bottom of the bed on a 740, 5 out of 8 broke off. Was able to extract 4 of them and had to drill the last one all the way through and torch it to the threads. Couldn’t get it to move for anything. There’s about 2” of threads in the plate. That’s a lot of fight in a stuck bolt.
We would like some of your rain very much. We will tell you when we have enough. We are so dry the Mississippi river is running quite low.
I loathe the man who came up with the idea of putting tailgates on artics
The tailgates look like their main purpose is to overload the truck. I guess they increase production but something else to break that needs fixing.
Seems to be a common issue all over….. More work than people available to do all the work!
IF you have run one on a really steep haul road with any kind of runny gunk, a tailgate will let you work. That is when I have seen them.
For loose slop they make sense. For general dirt work they might be more trouble than they're worth.
It’s been extremely wet here in the UK.The extra wear on this undercarriage caused by the rain,makes me want to go back to bed.
Not that I needed reminding but this summer was especially bad for me. My MX track was flooded for 2 1/2 month's. No sense trying to pump the water with more rain in the forecast. I did some drainage work and ripped the track deeper so hopefully it drains better.
This one admittedly took me a few minutes longer to figure out than it should have. You seasoned Detroit 2 stroke guys would have fixed it over the phone. International 4200 water truck with a 8V71 in it wouldn’t start and of course they ran the battery flat dead trying. Charged and would smoke but wouldn’t fire. I guess whoever parked it last pulled the emergency kill lever and I gather that has to be manually reset before it will start again. Tripped the lever and fired right up. A little more knowledge than yesterday I suppose.
Should be glad it's still there-might need it.
And good to know it works, too often they have not moved in many years. The time you need to kill the engine like when a injector seizes and it starts to run away is not the best time to learn it won't move. I was always told if an engine starts to run away best route to take is in-line with crankshaft. The idea being parts like flywheel will tend to fly out at 90º to the crankshaft.
I figured it was there because they were prone to run away. I’m also fairly certain not many operators today would know to pull it if it were to run away.
Checking drainage?
I know someone who bought an IH 4200 new in 1982 with an 8V-71TA (371 HP). The 4200 was specific to the 8V-71 in that it was a shorter hood than a 4300 that used other engines.
A Detroit, sufficiently worn, will still run with the blower door closed. Smokes badly, but will run.
And you are absolutely correct about that.
Yes, but probably quit fast enough to toss part out the side. Also on a somewhat side note a Detroit can run backwards. I'm not referring to ones set up for that like say some boats that have them run that way to balance out the torque effect from the props. I mean if an operator lets one stall going up hill and then does not push in the clutch and truck rolls backwards. Seen one do that my first year at quarry back in 1968! Lucky someone got the driver to kill engine fast before lack of oil pressure killed it big time. It was an old standard transmission Euclid haul truck.
A Detroit that runs backwards for any more than a few seconds needs a new air filter. I've seen some with filter elements that were mostly burned out and dusted the engine.
That is what he told me and one of the reasons he bought it but he didn't mention other engine options. I found some reference the 4200 was the short hood (10" shorter) and could also come with a 903 Cummins and I think a V800 whatever that is. Have also seen other engines listed but some could be transplants. I've only ever seen them listed with an 8V-71. It sounds like mechanics didn't like working on them because the engine was half under the windshield. Apparently the 903's weren't the best in truck applications but were very popular in 4 articulated wheel drive tractors.
Never had one to try but wouldn't a detroit with Jakes be able to stop a runaway?
Was the 3408 version a 4200 or 4300 I remember seeing a brochure for such a truck somewhere.
4300 for a 3408 from what I could find.
An A model 3406 will as well, or at least mine did when I had my wife pull the truck away from a dock where my doors were toughing the neighboring trailer and I was back there macking sure they didn't catch on each other. It took me a moment or two to figure out what had happened.
At one time (many years ago) I had a 4300 with a 400 cummins and a 4200 8v71. I don't recall the hood being any shorter on the 4200.
Yes,sort of
4200 is shorter-I think it's more like 8", early western stars also offered a short hood version.
By the way, I like your piece of conveyor belting over the tilt cylinder!
Thanks sir
I found a reference to being 10" shorter.
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Well the one I witnessed had an oil bath filter, but do recall a bit of a mess running down the fender!
I stopped and measured the hood on a 4200 a friend owns against a 4300 he has, with cracked fiberglass and as rough as can be roughly 8.5".
Maybe the 10" is a different reference referring to the axle or something?? Must have been lots of demand to make the short hood models. They might be better for applications like dump trucks where the longer hoods are better for highway service. Similar to Ford LTL's.
Intercity.
Ran across a fuel dilution problem on a Cat 323F a couple weeks ago. Not a common issue with the C7.1 engines. Just over 9000 hrs on machine. Pulled the valve cover on the job and checked over the injectors, no issues found. Electric priming pump so no fuel/oil contact there. Figured it had to be the seal on the high pressure pump so I had it hauled back to the shop. Pulled counterweight and pulled the water pump. I could see fuel under the high pressure pump drive gear so I went ahead and removed the high pressure pump. Pulled the gear and found the seal hanging out. Checked the return side for blockage and replaced the fuel line with the low side pressure regulator in it just to be safe. Talked with TC at Cat about it and DSN only showed one other case of this happening and it was internal pump failure. This was only the second high pressure pump I’ve ever changed on a Perkins/Cat engine. Very low failure rate in my experience with them.
I picked up a new to me year 2000 New Holland 2120 tractor with a 7309 loader a couple weeks ago, needed something besides the 4010 Deere to run a tiller on and figured it would be handy with the firewood also. I bought it knowing it had a hydraulic leak, owner said it was coming from between the cases. I cleaned it all off last weekend and verified that’s where it was coming from, has a leak at the steering orbital seal also. Decided I’d tear into it this afternoon. There’s a lot to take off to split one of these units, basically take it all the way to bare case. I got the bell housing off of the center case and when I started pulling the center case to transmission bolts, they were loose. They use a liquid sealer in between the cases so it has to come all the way apart to reseal. I got the center case off, cleaned up, resealed and put back on. Gotta get some new orings and a gasket to finish up, another solid afternoon and it should be done.
2120's are a damn good tractor....I have one, lol Looks like you were lucky and got the oversize ag tires. Ed
It amazes me how small the shafts for the transmissions are on tractors.
Rears are in excellent shape, fronts need changed, I think these tires will make the loader handle pretty well. From the looks of it, I got real lucky and the clutch is fairly new. From what I saw, they’re not cheap. The shafts are definitely small, 40hp on this unit and about 1000 gears in the transmission. I’ve never been into one like this before, done several 4020s over the years, nothing like this though.
I wish we could share videos here like photos, caught good footage on my dash cam today. 2 lane rural highway, lane closure for bridge repair. I was second in line and no traffic coming so I knew light was about to turn green. I saw a mini van on the other end go in and out of line a couple times. Light drops green and off we go. Next thing I know mini van is headed in to the traffic lane heading toward us. Pickup in front of me pulls off on the shoulder, no way I’m doing that, I didn’t run a red light. I got right up to her and she’s angry with me for not doing the same. I ended up going around her because there was room but I was more than willing to set the brakes and wait. No way I was backing out. Hard to believe people can be so entitled to think this behavior is acceptable.
Seems like I have close calls every day. Back in south Texas I used to blame it on oilfield workers but in east Texas I just blame it on idiots. Last week I was on a 2 lane side road and I met a wide load carrying a shed or mini house. I slowed down and made room. Right before we passed I looked in my right side mirror and saw tire smoke and a pickup truck completely sideways with his back tires in the ditch. It wasn’t on a corner and he had to have passed the guide car with all the blinky lights. I could write volumes about this nonsense. Where did you get your dash cam?
Sounds like I need to put dash cams in our tractors with planting season approaching. The number of idiot driver stories I've amassed is staggering. I've only been hit once so far, but there have been too many close calls.
Honestly I used to think that Massachusetts and Connecticut had the worst drivers but I’ve got an updated opinion. Back before Christmas I got sideswiped in my old truck by a brand new car. I know it was new because I saw the temporary tags while I was trying to get them to stop. They left me in the dust so I called the police but they told me if there wasn’t $500 worth of damage they didn’t care. All it did to me was wipe off some dirt but the cars side mirror was hanging by the wires so I’ve got that satisfaction.
All of the above stories add up to a response of {Excuse me for driving on your highway}. * Tail gating { They are in a hurry and expect you to break the law for them} so they push. * Driving laws--people could just give a ****--70% just don't care. * Here if you buy a used car one item is for sure brand new {turn signal switch/stalk} nobody uses signals here.
My dash cam is a Red Tiger brand, model F7NP, it has nice video quality, app for downloading to your phone and the ability to put a larger SD card in for more storage. I just go into the camera through the app and download the 1 min clip that contains the footage I want. Makes for good conversation anyway. Hopefully it stays a conversation piece and not a liability factor.
you can upload the video to : Apple Music Dailymotion Facebook Flickr Giphy Imgur Instagram Pinterest Reddit SoundCloud Spotify TikTok Tumblr Twitch Twitter Vimeo YouTub e
I got all those links by starting to link a video, then copy and pasting that into the message. That was a happy coincidence. I use Youtube because I always had an account, but you can see you have lots of choices. Click the 3 dots to the right of the picture graphic, and the next level of options opens up below that. The video link is second from left next to the smiley.
Made the 8+ hr drive north to St Ignace Michigan in the UP to watch the 16th annual Mighty Mackinac bridge antique tractor crossing. It was well worth the trip, lots of happy and proud ladies and gents driving tractors across the bridge. A lot of them had stories that they brought with their tractors, passed down through generations and such. A total of 1,265 tractors made the journey and some from as far away as Texas, Arkansas, and Maryland, just to name the few I heard in conversation. We took an Allis Chalmers 160 which my wife’s dad restored and drove across the bridge. Here’s some photos from our trip. The AC 160 that we took up. From what I’ve read, this is a very rare Farmall A&C used to mow between Christmas tree rows on a tree farm. Only 7 or 8 were made and this is one of only two left in existence, from Pennsylvania. Nice to have gotten a chance to see it in person. The 160 making the bridge crossing. Five miles from shoreline to shoreline. I believe the total drive was 13 miles. A very nicely done John Deere 4430 open station high crop. There were definitely a number of tractors that you don’t see every day up there. It was nice to see so many people keeping their family’s traditions alive. You could tell some of those tractors really meant a lot to them.
That's really cool Ahart.
Indeed!
Been awhile since anything has been added here, been busy both at home and on the jobs. Been the only field mechanic covering about 100+ pieces of iron stretched out over 150 miles, hard to keep up with that. Was coming home last Saturday, about 10 miles from the house when I started to smell wire burning. Got to the barn and found the inverter cables that were ran into the cab when I bought the truck were just ran through a hole in the cab floor with no isolation, rubbed through and shorted out. No fuse to burn either, straight to the batteries. Needless to say, this could have been catastrophic if it would have happened over night when I wasn’t around. I put strain relief fittings in and ran new cable. The outfit I contract to has another fella that contracts to them as well, he’s a real “LMM” if you know, you know. (credit to Vetech63 for the coined term “LMM”) Said individual resealed an outrigger cylinder on a 420 backhoe, didn’t show up the next day so the shop mechanic took machine outside to get washed. Outrigger wouldn’t go up or down. Pulled back in the shop, I happened to be there working that day as it was cold or muddy or some other reason the field machines weren’t working, tore the cylinder back down to find this.
A little while back I was looking for a solution to the cat jumpstart cable ends that didn’t cost $800 or more. I tried going with the manufacturer for the ends to make my own cable but they were outrageously expensive also. Finally found a company called polar wire and bought this short end and adapted my jump box and jumper cables to hook to it. It was less than $200 this way. Aside from standard jump starts, the driving force behind this was 740B haul trucks with completely dead batteries and no way to raise the hood to get to them. The jump start terminal is out by the master so I can use my jump pack to raise the hood. It has done well so far.
Reminds me of the three different occasions of high oil temp complaints on 3406's right after water pump replacements, with blue shop towels turned to mush plugging oil coolers.
We found ourselves needing to jump a 730 earlier when it was real cold, and I thought about buying a set of the Cat jumpstart cables. I couldn't find them outside of Cat, and if I remember they wanted around $800 for them like you mentioned. I didn't buy any but I think I'll look into these. Despite numerous lessons on how to jump 24 to 24, I worry that the guys won't do it correctly and wind up blowing a battery up their face. I guess $800 is cheap when you look at it that way, but thanks for posting this option!
Thanks for sharing that!
Putting the slide connect on one end the way they do makes it to where you can still keep regular jump cable ends and really use them however you need to. It’s worked out well for me so far.
That unprotected wire is scary as heck. I don't care what they cost, if it hooks to the batteries it gets something that will melt or open before the wire does if I install it.
They always pick the finest places for the engine to hystat pump coupler to lay down and die.
At least it’s near a road? Seriously. That’s gonna suck!
I have it on good authority that if you leave your shop rag in a GM 10 bolt, it won't have enough room to run thru the ring and pinion, but it WILL try...
Who in their right mind thought plastic splines would be a good idea? Cat should know better.
AFAIK it's a fuse, designed to protect more expensive parts.
I don't doubt that you're right, but I think it's a very weak fuse. We had a D4K that had I think around 4k hours. Long story short, I warmed it up one morning and made two short, light pushes and the splines stripped. We replaced the coupling and put it back to work. The fact that it moved at first and nothing on the driven end had a problem tells me the splines were wearing faster than normal wear should be.
Lucky for me, there was a 323F on the job so I was able to use it to take the pressure off the sun shafts to get them removed. It didn’t have any issue pulling it up the hill at that point.
Also a shock absorber.
As it turns out, the 6 spline hub, which was updated from the previous type with the K2 models, slid off the hystat pump shaft towards the flywheel. The shop had this engine out a year ago for rebuild. The book specifies not to reuse the hub if it is removed for any reason and I’m wondering if those wise words were not followed.
Those are just suggestions right nothing in the book is a hard rule it's just a scam to sell parts
Well I’m being told that the guy working on it, I’ll call him LMM junior, if ya know, you know, he’s just going to tighten the retaining screws and put it back together. I don’t know about any of you guys, but when I’m all the way into the bowels of something with nothing but my ankles hanging out, I make sure I don’t have to go back there any time soon, at least not for something I touched.
"Fix it once. fix it right"............
I hate being called 2 time Al, never mind 3 time Al.
Unless it’s a woman doing the calling
Tighten the screws? Hell that’s more than a lot of what our guys will do. “Never time to do it right, but always time to do it twice or thrice” And you can’t tell them different either. They don’t want to hear it with their cowboy mentality.
I hope it falls off the shaft on the first job it goes on. That’s where I’m at with all of it. One field guy covering the whole state while the rest of them ***k it all up has gotten me here
”I’ve got my opinion. Don’t confuse me with the facts.”
I’m not missing that one bit.