motor oil was added to my 1973 cat 950 loader. and the transmission leaks fluid. won’t maintain required fluid level. did this destroy the seals? is this a major expense? thanks.
On a machine of that age it likely won't have much in the way of negative effects. Simply drain and refill with the correct powertrain oil.
In 1973 you put S3 oil in near everything bar final drives.
Anything with “fuel saving” on the label is bad news. Normally they are very low viscosity oils for modern high speed diesel engines. They contain friction modifiers in the oil which will cause clutch slippage. But most other modern oils will be fine.
I doubt that caused your leaks. Its a 50 year old machine, not many of those out there that don't mark their territory.
This cracked me up… I’m going to put this in the memory bank and use it!! I’ll start telling people that my old 966c is just being dominant on the job site.
Much like older Harley’s. If they didn’t leak, they were out of fluid.
and Detroits....
Engine oil wasn't the correct oil? Some of the shops here still run 0w30 for hydraulics, transmissions and finals instead of Torque Force 10, 5w30 or 30
Weeeeellll….. I may, or may not, know someone that has been running 15w-40 engine oil in the engines, transmissions and hydraulics on the older cat machines. We do have a pretty warm climate here in this persons defence. I have a feeling that Nige will advise me to seek out this person, that I may, or may not know and flog them for doing this!?!? So lucky it’s just a hypothetical person
I would be hesitant to run fancy modern engine oil in a transmission only because transmissions do not want something more slippery then seal snot as clutch and brakes need to not slip, while engines you want lots of slipperiness to stop metal on metal contact. That is my take on it anyway.
thanks for all the support guys ! i bought 10 gallons of T0-4 Transmission, Drive Train & Hydraulic oil. i’m guessing that would be a good replacement the older 1973 fluid. am i correct?
If its anything like an old D8H everything except the hydraulic tank had sae 30 motor oil in it.
That is a fair point and I am very supportive of running a transmission SAE30 oil in the transmission. I think it is much better for clutches and brakes like you said, but what do you think about for the hydraulics? One thing that I am aware of is that hydraulic oil is supposed to have better anti foaming properties I believe. Just another interesting discussion to have.
I do not see it as a problem in the hydraulics at least on older machines, the only thing is the cost. Engine oil costs a lot more then hydraulic oil. For modern stuff running very high pressures I guess you use what is designed for that application.
I put thousands of gallons of 10W series 3 motor oil in the hydraulic tanks and transmissions of every Cat machine I serviced in the 1970's. Never had a problem because of it.