Runs pretty well but it's almost 40-years old so go figure it may need a little work: The muffler has a make-shift brackets trying to keep it steady but it's working very well. There is a leak all around the turbo to the exhaust elbow which is putting a lot of heat under the hood. The three bolts holding the elbow are all loose. I plan to cut them off and put some new ones on. Is there a seal that is missing or does it look lake a new turbo? Changed the oil and took a sample, plan to send it and have it analyzed. Insullation around the wire leading from the alternator is falling off due to the heat from the exhaust. Thig will go in reverse but need to use a bar between your legs to move the shifter. It moves when you move the shuttle over but I think it needs the linkage cleaned and lubed.
No seals on the coupling shown in the parts book for 72 model but they did add seals to both ends much later.
Just picked up the coupling today, it has a raised ridge which will go into the opening of the turbo. Hope the ridge fills in some of the void. With all the rust I'm seeing I may wind up buying a new turbo. Don't see any other way of sealing up the opening.
Power washed the heck out of the machine this weekend. All looks pretty good with the exception of the exhaust. The exhaust manafold had several bumps on it, never seen anything like it. The rust had gooten so bad that I was able to pull a sliver off the inside of it. The manafold has a leak and will need to be replaced but maybe get by with it for a little while. Figure I'm loosing some power but if everything else checks out I'll have all of the exhaust replaced within a few months. Tranny looks good, left brake hangs a little but someone moved the return spring back further on the right, may just do the same thing on the left.
It's been a few years, but I've purchased Cat exhaust parts from Machinery Parts Midwest for a good bit less than Cat dealer. http://www.angelfire.com/mo3/ameritractor/
Alldodge, I have found this forum site to be amazing for parts.. http://www.acmoc.org/bb/ I was able to get all of the clutch parts for my 955-12A at very reasonable $$. They are equally helpful there and I have noticed that there are member there that belong to this forum as well. good luck. rod
Thanks I'll have a look
Did some digging this week and all-in-all it did pretty good for a 38 year old machine. Found three issues which need to be addressed. 1) It won't go into reverse unless I use a bar to move the lever on top the tranny another 1/4 inch (placing bar between my feet). Looked at the linkage and in has quite a bit of slop in it, I'm guessing but probably need to buy some replacement linkage pieces. When in reverse it's strong and solid. 2) When the left brake is pressed in hard it will hang and you need to use your toe to release it. Looking under the seat the right pedal must have had the same issue because someone moved the return spring back another 2 inches to increase the tension. I can do the same thing to the left side and it may fix the issue. 3) The bucket control works opposite from what it should. The arm controls, pull back and the arm goes up, reverse it goes down. The bucket, pull back the bucket dips down, push forward it tips up. Wonder if someone replace something and put it together backwards? There is the forth as previously mentioned about the exhaust, but as I mentioned before, not a bad loader for the money.
The bucket control is correct. Push forward to close, pull back to open or dump.
Cat did it right with the bucket control and everybody else got it wrong! No Really, I'm not kidding. Once you get used to it it makes it much easier to operate with out taking you hand off both levers. Generally you raise the boom and dump the bucket at the same time most of the time. What I don't understand is why Cat used the conventional setup on wheel loaders. We had a wheel loader rented for a while and it made it tough to go between machines.
I guess but I sure had problems digging. I wanted to dig about level and then tried to decrease a bit so I pulled back like my backhoe and it just went deeper, wound up with all kind of holes instead of flats. Maybe after a few weeks of doing it I'll get better, but then I'll have trouble with the backhoe front bucket. Learning curve issues
It does take a while but becomes second nature eventually. It does seem completely wrong I admit. The computer guys would say "it's not intuitive".
I felt the same way when i first started using the machine.. now it is totally comfortable. have fun rod
Anyone ever have any issues with wear on the shifting linkages? Sounds like just replace parts in the linkage but should their be parts that are more important than others?
I guess it depends where you started out..I had a lot of time on wheel loaders before ever using a track loader and hate the trackloader setup, always found the wheel loader setup much easier to use.
Same here, was on the wheel loaders a long time before getting on a 955. Took a while to get used to it but once I did it was easy to switch between machines. Ran into the same thing moving from one backhoe to another. Once you get use to the 955's bucket lever it seems to make sense to have it set up that way.