Hello, I have a Komatsu D31P-18 dozer that is a little weak pushing dirt. We purchased this machine a bunch of years ago for farm use. Was using it the other day and it seemed rather weak pushing a pile of dirt. It drives fine once the oil warms up but trying to push anything it pitiful. I have not been the primary user of this machine so dont know the service history, but going by the service aptitude of the guy normally running it I would say some filters have never been changed. I noticed in the manual that there is a filter in the transmission. Would a partially clogged filter cause low pushing strength? Does the oil need to be drained from the tranny case to change/inspect this filter. I don't ever remember anyone changing this filter, or even looking at it so I suspect its ugly. Thank you for any help you can provide.
Not familiar with yours, but all of these type of equipment needs clean filters. If your tracks are not spinning and your engine rpms sound a bit unloaded, I would do filters first
Is it struggling to maintain engine speed, or does if not have any power in the tracks? The engine bogging should be easy to fix; weak tracks, not so much.
The engine has plenty of power/rpm's. Pulled the tranny strainer/filter and it was cleaner than I expected as the drain plug and the bottom of the bucket I drained the oil had some sludge in it. There is a bit of debris in the straier so I will replace it anyways. The machine still has the original hydraulic filter on it so I'm guessing everything oil related is original. It may have had the engine oil, filter and air filter changed but that's it. The guy that runs it all the time is horrible at maintenance... Going to replace ALL filters and oil before I run it again. What's the best way to rinse the bottom of the tranny out? Diesel fuel?
Diesel fuel works well, it's a lot cheaper than pouring hydraulic fluid through and running back out the bottom.