In the market for a good used loader to dig out and load corn silage on a dairy farm. Will only be used for about 3 hours on daily basis. Found a Cat 966G with about 25,000 hours. Most seem to be priced in the $50 to 75K range with those hours on past auctions. Owner might take $60K for it. Has 5 & 8 yard buckets. 8 Yard was off a WA-500 but adapted to this 966G. Was only used to push and load mulch and snow all it's life. Engine has never been overhauled and only has some black smoke upon startup and clears up afterward. Has the 3306 Cat motor I believe. Had a new transmission about 2,000 hour ago. I'm just hesitant if something else is likely to fail at these high hours on the engine or maybe I should not worry too much since it is a Cat? I don't wish to stick a lot of money into it for major repairs. Is there some common problem areas I should look for to give me an indication of how life is left in this loader? One of my local mechanics who is not too familiar with Cat's but mentioned he heard from a Cat guy that they had some issues with the oil cooler for the transmission getting plugged up over time and then this caused an o-ring to fail in the transmission from overheating, and if left like this for too long, it would then cause tranny failure. Was this a common problem out there with these loaders and was it a fairly simple fix or is it just a matter of changing fluids/filters more often to prevent this?
With 25k operating hours and no rebuild that engine ought to be dead on its feet. Are you sure about the hours..? If the hours are genuine I can think of the following components apart from the engine that would more than likely require rebuilding soon - torque converter, both differentials, rear axle articulation, final drives, centre hitch, hydraulic pumps, re-bush the loader frame, and all the hydraulic cylinders. Now that's not to say the machine is no good, just that if you buy it you need to get it at the right price (that takes into account your future rebuilding costs) and have money budgeted for rebuilding components right from the get-go. It would also pay you to rebuild those components before they fail, it'll be much cheaper in the long run. If the loader has hard an easy life up to now pushing snow & mulch it good be a really good buy for someone, but you need to go into it with your eyes open and get it at the right price. The issue about the oil cooler should have been taken care of when the transmission was changed. Either the cooler should have been replaced or at the very least cleaned out, along with the complete power train cooling system. If it wasn't it could very well still be harbouring debris from the previous transmission.
Any weak items with the brand and model would have flushed out years ago. It's a used machine and anything is subject to failure at this point. Basically you pay your money and take your chances.
This is true but the hours are not relative because You can have a low hour machine that will have tranny or engine trouble, so when are you safe! We purchased a John Deer 644 with less than 5000 hours and one month later the engine went out!
Without trying to put words in anyone's mouth I think what John C was trying to say is that any major design/build defects with the particular 966G model that the OP was interested in should have come to light early in its life and been fixed by the manufacturer by now. Buying used is always a throw of the dice. Even if you buy a machine from someone that has looked after it well and that has all the service history, oil analysis, etc, there's nothing to prevent a major failure in the first few months of the new ownership if there is no external evidence of an impending failure at the time of purchase. Nobody apart from CLark Kent is equipped with X-Ray vision.