I have the opportunity to get this Komatsu D65S for whatever it costs me to get it running, moving and delivered to my place about 20 miles. Can anyone tell me what year this machine is? I know nothing about Komatsu's. The UC looks to be very tired. The straight exhaust pipe was not covered for who knows how many years. (supposedly this thing ran 4 years ago). The trans dipstick had no oil on it. The shift lever would not move into any gear, not sure if it needs to be running for that, torque converter?
Looks like they made them between 1979 - 1984. Transmission should be checked with machine running in neutral for accurate reading. The shift leaver linkage is probably seized up. There are a bunch of grease fittings that don't get greased because its a pain to take off the floor plates and do it. Might want to pull injectors or glow plugs and try and turn motor over by hand to make sure things are moving freely. If you have a 3/4" drive breaker bar check the final drive oil levels. They are on the back of the machine next to tracks.
I'd bet the rails still have a little life, those sprockets don't look too terrible. But, then again, they may have put new segments on to keep it going a bit longer. Linkage sounds stuck, might be fun to get that loose. I'd put a couple batteries in it and see if it rolls, after putting a wrench on the crank and backing it up a bit.
I checked the bushings, quite a lot of wear from both forward and backward travel, and the idlers seem to be all the way forward so look like pins are quite worn. But for me, it would last many years like that. I tried to flip up the seat as there were batteries under it but the could not budge the seat. Not sure if the hinge is rusted solid or there is a latch. There was a lever sticking out the front of the seat that it felt like the other end was attached to a cable but it was just flopping all around. Really hard to work on with that loader arm, will try to turn the crank next time I go look at it.
I thought my 931B was kind of difficult to work on with the loader arms down but that Komatsu looks like it would be a real PIA if you had to get at the engine to get it going.
I can't even reach in with one arm to try to manually turn the engine. I tried turing the fan but the belts just slipped on the crank pulley. Next time I am there I'm going to tighten the crap out of the belts and try again. The machine is sunk far enough into the ground I can't crawl under it let alone have enough space to remove a belly pan to access the crank bolt.
That looks like way too much work and expense to me.
If the engine is not stuck and I can get the thing up on a lowbow, I'll only have into it what it costs to deliver. Worth a try I think.
Start a thread on it!
Would be nice if you could get another loader or even a picker truck to lift the loader arms up. Just put the lift control in float and then chain it up or use some supports like angle iron on the cylinders.
that's what I was thinking. Float the valve and lift it up out of the way, and strap an angle iron to one of the cylinders. Crawler loaders are a PITA if they are not running.
At the same lot I am also looking to get this Hitachi UH122 Maybe I try to get that running first and use it to aid in the D65S-6 recovery.
Might be a good plan. A UH122 was a very good machine in its day. One of the machines that helped establish Hitachi as the cream of the crop in excavators at the time. I remember an ad from back then that said 1 out of every 4 excavators sold was an Hitachi.
OK, since I got the UH122 running, I wanted to see if I could get t he Komatsu to turn over. The giant key ring I bought failed me again. This key went in the cylinder without a fight, but would not turn: There is a Komatsu dealer not to far from where the machine. Is Komatsu like CAT where all the machines used the same key?
I found a key on that keychain I bought, and the got the D65S-6 fired up: D65S-6 Start A giant nest of some kind came flying out the exhaust stack. I could smell burning, like leaves etc while I was running the engine, still might be a nest down inside the exhaust manifold. I operated the loading and bucket, but did not put it in gear as I don't see any trans oil on the dipstick. However, after it ran I checked the dipstick again and there was oil quite a ways up on the stick. Is the trans supposed to be checked with the machine running?
Not sure on that machine but it is common to check with the machine running and the oil warmed up.
What I don't like is the dipstick is totally dry when not running. iirc my D6C has marks for both cold not running and warmed up idling. I assume this trans takes TO-4 oil, I don't have any of that lying around. I'll find a longer dipstick to try and find out how low the trans oil is before I go any further on this machine.
I'd use the fluid Komatsu recommends which may or may not be TO-4 spec. You really need a manual. Some trans. the oil shows over full with engine off but others may not show on the dipstick. A longer dipstick isn't a bad idea.
It's tough to spend money on manuals for machines I don't own (yet) lol. I'll do some Googling first.
Have you talked to a Komatsu dealer? You're going into to these old left for dead machines like a blind man trying to drive. Try to find out at least a little bit about them and how they operate before just jumping in guessing and hoping for the best
In my experience dealers never want to talk about these old machines, they want to sell you new stuff. I should be able to find a pdf operators manual somewhere online. So far I am seeing TO10 or TO30 can be used in the trans. Komatsu TO30 = CAT TO-4 from what I can tell...
I think the 30 is the viscosity but an oil meeting Cat TO-4 would be good choice and a quality oil based on your findings. See if you can find a temperature range for the different viscosities and pick the one for your climate.
I can't seem to find an online pdf operators manual for this machine. Anyone have a manual, can you tell me the recommended oil for the trans, and also the final drives?
I put in 2 gallons of TO-4 into the trans and that was enough to get the oil level up on the dipstick. The oil is very dark, not a great sign. Put in 2.5 gallons of gear oil in each final drive and that is still not enough to reach the level plug. I think I'm going to try to put it into gear tomorrow and see if it moves. Though, the shift lever is very stiff. Need to look into how to free that up.
I think if you can pull some floor plates there will be lot’s of grease fittings linking everything together.
Try TRADEBIT for PDF manuals. I think there was a guy on FB recently talking about D66S Loaders.
I greased everything I could, but it did not help the shifting linkage. Turns out the bell crank on the top of the trans for the shift speed selection was really tight. Initially I could only move it back and forth what seemed like a few thousandths of an inch. So it wasn't the shaft tight in the trans cover, it was the mechanism inside. It took a LOT of prying back and forth to free it up. But first I had to scrap away soem of the hardest packed grease/dirt mixture I've ever faced. Here's a vid: D65S-6 Shift Linkage Here's a vid after I freed up the linkage: D65S-6 Freed up trans linkage Of course the machine decided to blow a hyd hose for the bucket curl: Luckily I can just not sure the curl for now and can still lift the loader. Hopefully tomorrow I can get it moving.
I got the machine moving today, both brakes/clutches seem to work: I have to make one hose for it, think it uses SAE code 61 flange fittings, but I have to measure to make sure it's not some metric variant...
I'm having a hose made up for this machine for the bucket curl. Any idea on working pressure? 3000psi? 4000, 5000, 6000? My default choice is 4000 psi.
I'd guess 2 wire hose and 4000 PSI rated would be fine. A lot of 2 wire hose is rated higher than 4000 PSI anyways.
Komatsu also has their own type of fittings for hydraulics
So I was all ready to move this machine yesterday. I had used it the day prior for about 10 minutes leveling off some ground, it ran fine. The morning of the move it ran fine, throttled up ok. Hour later when I went to drive it on a lowboy, no matter how high I put the throttle, the engine would not gain RPM's. it was just stuck at idle, until finally it died and would not start again. All the linkage moved freely, decelerators were not stuck etc. I checked: 1) No clog at fuel tank, the small strainer there is clean. 2) The fuel filter looks decent, nothing majorly wrong with it as I can tell. 3) The fuel canister only had about 1 inch of fuel in the bottom of it. The canister is not being gravity fed by the tank for some reason... I notice the hose from the tank does not go directly to the fuel filter canister, it goes to some sort of manifold, or is it a PTO driven fuel pump? I'm getting fuel up to that point. I can't get my hands in there or even see where the output hose is connected. The Fuel canister is definitely lower than the tank, so to me seems like it should just be gravity fed? I guess my question is, to get this thing loaded can I just rig up a temporary fuel bypass hose from the tank to fuel filter canister to get this machine moved? Or does the fuel filter canister actually need to be pressurized? I will say, I had to steal most of the fuel from this machine to get the Hitachi UH122 moved (after the loader "ran fine"). There is about 5 inches of fuel left in the bottom of the Komatsu tank. To me that seems like enough to gravity feed the fuel canister? However, I think the first thing I will do is steal about 30 gallons of fuel back from the Hitachi and add it back to this Komatsu to see if that makes any difference. Hard to believe it's as simple as the fuel level? The dipstick shows about 110 Liters (30 gallons).
This model should have a float tank the fuel tank gravity feeds into the float tank and then the engine pumps it from the float tank I have seen the float tank get plugged before. with out the float tank the engine would flood with diesel when not running
The year of build is around 1976. My book (which is a U.S. book), does not show any machines before 1977 for the Komatsu D65S - and it says the first S/No is 28920 in 1977. But the D65S was built from the early 1970's, so my book is incorrect. The engine is a Cummins NH220. The D65S is a reliable machine, but that undercarriage is certainly in very poor shape. All traxcavators are difficult to work on, you need to have the bucket arms raised to get any kind of decent access. Even then, access is tight. The fuel problem is almost certainly a plugged fuel line. Run a piece of wire through the lines and blow compressed air through them to ensure decent fuel flow. Make sure the tank outlet isn't being blocked intermittently by trash that goes directly to the tank outlet when the engine is sucking fuel, and which trash falls back when the suction ceases.
I was able to get it running again by manually filling up the filter canister taking care to only pour on the outside of the filter. I got the loader in the air but still could not see this "float tank". And I was not about to work on the machine with the loader in the air. The safety pin is missing. Filling up the fuel filter canister by hand I think will give me enough run time to get the machine on a lowboy.
I can't remember where it is at but it is down low and hard to get to
I was at an auction quite a few years ago and there was a similar Komatsu loader. It had ran perfect the day before for moving other stuff around. On auction day they couldn't get it started. They boosted it and tried a fair amount of ether and nothing worked. About an hour and half later a guy somewhat familiar said to check the shut off mechanism. It was kind of a weird system and they said they already checked it a couple times. The guy said check it again because (apparently) they can stick. They played with it turning it off and on a few times and voila it started right up. I'm sure the machine would have got a better price if they hadn't been screwing around with it for almost 2 hours. Don't know if this will help the machine in question but might be something to check.
I have a pdf operator's manual for a D65S-7, only page that mentions the float tank or a fuel shutoff issue is this page: I guess I'd need a parts manual to see what the heck the float tank looks like. I won't be able to remove a belly pan in the field, would need to get the machine back to my place before I dig into that. In any event, what I am doing when I want to run the machine is similar to what is done when the machine is run out of fuel. This is the shutoff valve mentioned: But not going to mess with that for now. Issue definitely seems to be a clog in or near the float tank.
The operators area of this machine fills up with smoke very quickly upon startup. It's coming from a breather vent that I think is from the float tank? It doesn't look or smell like oil smoke, it actually smells like burning wood/leaves. There is another breather on the crankcase that does not puff out a lot of smoke so don't think this is blow-by. See video: D65S-6 smoke
Both machines successfully moved:
Next to a 225 You ARE a sucker for punishment
I've done a lot of work with that 225, have owned it for nearly 20 years along with a D6C dozer and Ford 575D TLB. I also picked up a Pettibone Extendo 88 all terrain fork truck for scrap value a few years back. Yeah, lots of future projects...