Figured some of you might appreciate what I picked up today. I'll post a few details later, but here are some pics. I'm pretty sure that we stole it, only had to give $12,000. For the pair.
Nice find Shimmy1 ! I know you will make good use with it .
I've watched that rig make it's way around the country since I was old enough to remember, and was in direct competition with the previous owner for the last 20 years. His dad bought the tractor brand new in 1979. It never saw a trailer except for the few times that it went to Butler for repairs. We got lucky in the auction because they couldn't get it started when the guy came to do the listing. On Tuesday, we got permission and went down to the farm where it was sitting, and were able to get it started and walk it around. If I'd have been paying attention on here the last few years, I'd have known right away that it needed the glow plugs to start, even at 75°F. The owner of the farm where it was at came out to visit with us, and after he mentioned we needed to heat the plugs up for it to start, I think it fired up before it had made a complete revolution. The undercarriage it pretty worn, but I think with some new grousers welded on it will last a long time. If I put 100 hours a year on it, I'll be pretty tickled.
1979 Cat D7G ?
Ya buddy.
Those were nice tractors . Perfect size machine for most jobs around a farm . Drop some new tires on it . Just be real careful after that …... You will get to liking it so much ya wont want to operate anything else . LOL !
Curious as to why I'd need to be so careful with new pads? Good thing is both finals have been rebuilt in the last 4000 hours, steering clutches a little before that, and it's had a new equalizer beam at some point.
Be careful because you'll have the Challenger and scraper up for sale once that old iron is "pulling it's weight". Nice find.
You need to be careful about how much time you spend on that machine . They are highly addictive . Your gonna like that tractor Shimmy . Ever run a 7G ?
I saw that on the IP auction. Looked dry underneath. What was up with the smashed windshield?
This tractor has pushed out thousands of trees. No. Have spent quite a little on a 7H though. Everyone around here thinks I'm crazy for buying it. I just tell them that this tractor has a lot of work left in it, and where else are you going to find this much tractor for this cheap.
I think you would have been crazy for not buying it. Besides getting it for a REAL good price it is located right in 'your back yard'. Looks like a win/win to me. Good job Shimmy.
That has to be one of the last Cat machines with a CCU. When did Cat discontinue the CCU? The county I'm in recently sold their 2 direct drive D8H's with CCU's and scrapers (no blades) at an auction. They used 1 of them to work on the road to my property. I think they were 1968 with pup motors. Finning would only give $10,000 trade in when they bought a D6N in 2004 so the county kept them. One had about 90% undercarriage. I remember one of the operators saying to check the cable regularly because it is easy to change before it breaks but a pain if the cable breaks. They had cable reels on the scrapers. Also check the pulleys as they can destroy the cable. What happened to your competition that was running it, just wanted to sell it, retired?
Passed away.
Awesome deal. I’m jealous! Two enthusiastic thumbs up!
That's not good. Doesn't sound like he was too old.
Looks like a great deal shimmy1. Robust machine and simple to work on, and you know a little history on the machine, all plusses in my opinion. And it was close. At that kind of money, it doesn't have to work very much to pay for itself. Its sad or good to say (depending on your viewpoint), but its more likely to be running 20 years from now, than the equipment that's 40 years newer than it is. The newer stuff will all be down because the computer boards are "no longer available".
I've heard 7G's are really easy to service too. If I recall the engine can be pulled in about an hour. Everything is in the open once the hood and side panels come off. Any idea how many hours it has? The scrapers by themself bring at least 8K at auction
I don't know about the engine but a number of years ago I helped pull a transmission on a 7G and it didn't take very long. IIRC we (2 of us) had the trans pulled in a couple hours. It was an OROPS machine so I'm guessing one with a factory cab would have taken longer.
If you want to have a little fun push load it with the 7H. I had a cat & can for years, you can do nice work because you travel slow enough to keep the job smoothed out and you can do things with it not possible with rubber. Yes you stole it at that price. Have fun
Scored some spare parts tonight. The estate auction is tomorrow, the guys brother let me pick through the pile of scrap parts and found some stuff. Sprocket segments are 50% better than the ones that are on it, and these rollers have quite a bit on them as well. I'm not sure how they are going to sell the scrap, and I didn't want to try and guess if I had to buy the whole lot. I paid him $100 for the 20 segments, and $30 apiece for the rollers.
So, somebody needs to give me a crash course on running the CCU. I'm sure I could figure out how to make it go up and down by pulling on the levers, but I also need to know how to detach the cables from the tractor. I assume the cables need to be completely unspooled from the winch to unhook?
It looks like they really took care of the machine. In your pics. it looks like the cables aren't on the CCU.
They surely are. The scraper hasn't been unhooked for the last 5 years.
I see I was looking in the wrong place. It was a few years ago they had the D8 at my property. Seems to me the one operator said the cable scrapers had better control than the hydraulic when they were working right. They let the clutch out at the same time they revved it up and it just poured the coal. Tons of torque and great sound. One of the cables wasn't round anymore. It was squished flat. When they brought it out, they drove the D8 and the front wheels of the scraper on the low boy and left the rear wheels on the road. Probably not legal but since they decide what's permissible in their county they weren't going to issue any citations to themselves.
Yes, they need to be unspooled from the winch to disconnect the scraper. There used to be a spec for the minimum number of turns of rope on the drums but I can't remember it. Go for about four or five turns and you'll be OK. I can't give much advice on moving dirt, but I can maintenance wise. Avoid breaking ropes if at all possible. If one is starting to look a bit rotten, pull a new length through before it breaks. The tailgate in particular is a bitch to re-reeve. The apron rope is operated by a sliding sheave block in the draft tube. This rope is bigger then the other ones (1 1/16" maybe?) and if it breaks and makes a bird's nest, it'll ruin your day. Change it first. Don't winch in until the sheaves bottom out. Learn their travel limit and stop before the end. Take care of the ballstud where the gooseneck joins the front axle. The do break and who knows what the parts availability is like??. Buy a 6V4920 cable cutter and a pair of heavy rigger gloves!
Let the ejector back a couple feet before you turn, if you have it all the way forward and turn it will break the cable because of the hitch action stretching the cable, same with the hoist don't turn with it all the way up. Don't let the ejector slam back it's hard on everything mainly the return springs. Lot's of don'ts I know but they will save you a lot of trouble. Nothing wrong with a cable rig if you keep the cable control adjusted and learn all the don'ts.
Nice find there with the 7G & pan scraper. I ran a 7G a couple of hundred hours in the early 80's & liked that machine more than any dozer I have ever ran. Small enough to get around in a nimble way, yet enough beans to do some serious pushing.
Nice find there,,, someone here said you could pull the engine in an hour? Well if you ever have to pull the starter, pull the engine instead cause those starters are a sob.
I'm generally not the type that tries to "engineer" replacement parts, but I have a question for everyone. At the sale yesterday, the local used machinery dealer bought the majority of the old scrap parts that were left. Among the parts were a set of tracks for the D7H. I'm not sure the story on them, and the oil plugs have been removed, but the pads are 24" and are in pretty fair condition. What I thought of this morning is this: would I be crazy to try and get these tracks, remove the pads, weld the holes shut, and redrill to fit the rails on my G? It would be a lot of work, but I think with a mag drill and using an old pad with what's left of the grouser bar removed as a jig, it could be done? Obviously a winter project, and for what we had to give for the dozer, the case could be made that it is more than deserving of new shoes, but what do you guys think?
I would say it would be far more cost effective and much less mind numbing than drilling all those holes to weld grouser on with the tracks still on the machine
I don't disagree, but the flip side is when the rails that are on it are completely used up, those 7H pads will probably still be close to half and bolt right on to a replacement set of rails. If the current pads were not razor sharp on the backside, I wouldn't even be considering this project.
I am not sure you could drill them easily. Especially after welding on them. You could come across some serious hard spots.
A magnetized press drill with a carbide hole cutter might struggle? I've used one a fair amount, and I know I've read on here suggestions to weld a hole shut before trying to drill a new hole that overlaps the old one. I have also had the cutting edge in a smooth bucket drilled to attach a bolt-on edge, and the carbide turns right through a 3/4" thick edge. I know a twist drill would be a complete waste of time.
Torch the holes in the pad to fit the rail . Drop a thick washer under the new bolt & after torqueing weld the washer to the pads . That's how the hillbillies do it . LOL !
Interesting. You've done it with a full set?
I'll grab a plasma rather than the gas axe for that task but either would be way better than ruining expensive bits drilling dozer pads.
I have a question for O.I.H, Old Magnet, D9don, whomever else might know. I was walking the tractor around today, and I had the brakes come on when I was turning. A couple of guys told me that the old guy had been having a bit of trouble with that, but if he shut it off for an hour it would be fine. After I got it to the shop and had it do it again, I left it shut off for a couple hours while I was doing some other things, and then walked it a few hundred yards to the other shop to fill it with fuel. Seemed to be fine until I was almost back to load it on trailer, and it did it again. I didn't shut it off, just idled it back, sat there for a minute or two, worked the brake pedals a few times, and made sure they were pulled all the way up. Went back and forth a little bit, seemed to be fine so I loaded it up. When I got to the job site, it seemed to be ok again. Any ideas what could be making the brakes stick on? They don't come on all at once, they start gradually and it takes about 50' for them to be on enough to stop the tractor. Transmission oil is full and looks pretty clean.
Your parking brake is on ,if the lever under the arm rest won't release it then likely the roll pin on the ratchet broke. Bob
The park brake lever is up, when I follow the instructions by depressing the left pedal, move lever down, and depress right pedal, the left pedal stays down like it should. Then, when I move park brake lever back up, the left pedal comes back up? Even it it seems to be working correctly, there could still be an issue with the linkage and using the steering levers could be activating the park brake? Edit: If this rollpin is broke, is it possible to tie off the linkage to keep the brakes released?
I think an annular cutter, possible a carbide tipped one (with coolant) and a mag drill would have no problem drilling the pads. To do with a O/A torch or plasma torch, you'd need a high definition CNC machine with true hole(not sure the correct term) software to be accurate. The last thing you want after all that work is for the bolts to come loose. I think the holes are extremely important in keeping the pads from coming loose. On another forum a guy cut JD 350 pads down to size and re-drilled all new holes to fit his rails.
Not sure if this is relevant or not but the 7G brakes do apply via both the steering clutch handles or the floor pedals that hang down from the dash. I am not sure but suspect with that model the brakes may be hydraulically applied. Anyhow when the brake pedals hang from the dash & do not come up through the floor, the brakes can be applied from either the levers or the pedals. Are they sticking on then as you go along after letting go of the handles?
Yes.
Both brakes should have a parking brake lock on them, what does the motor do when the tractor stops ? Have you pulled the mag screen on the transmission pump yet ? Bob
You can feel the brakes coming on, the engine starts to pull, and then you stop, lol. Haven't did anything besides ask you guys where to start.
You can check brake adjuster that will tell which brake is on, pull mag screen and see what's in it. Check linkage on parking brake to see if it's all hooked up first. Bob
I'm not going to look back to see if you have a service manual on the way and it never hurts to ask questions here, but here are some cheap ones on Ebay and they are worth their weight in gold. Not saying just for this problem either, I usually have ten thousand questions when I get a new piece of equipment. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=d7g+service+manual&_sacat=0 Linkages seem to give trouble after sitting for a while. That would be the first thing I checked under the floor plates, especially that park brake. Now you get to pay the price for having that nice insulated cab along with it's floor mat huh?
Nice find Shimmy.
Well, two things about this 7G. Even with the wornout shoes, it is a dirt-hogging animal. Second, it is in no way, shape, or form a finish dozer. It's probably because every single pin, bushing, and rod eye are completely trashed out. I consider myself pretty capable with a dozer, but there is no holding a grade with this one. I only had the brakes start dragging one time today, and it was halfway through the day. Could have been because I was working it pretty hard on a slope, using the brake to stop quite frequently, and turning back and forth trying to work the slope out. I didn't shut it off, just went and worked with the scraper for about 20 minutes. When I came back, it worked fine and stayed fine until I shut it down at the end of the day. It appears that if you treat it like it's 40 years old, take your time, and don't try and use it like it's a D5K, it's perfectly ok. In case anyone is jealous, there's no radio, the A/C doesn't work, and that cab was about 110° today.
That's great Shimmy ! Cat D7G is a perfect size tractor for most work . He likes hoggin dirt , bustin trees & building roads . Finnish dozer , What's that ? Get it close with the D7G then come in behind it with a farm tractor & box blade for mopping up before seeding or spreading stone . First thing I would do is loose the enclosed glass cab & go with open ROPS station . Allot better visibility and aint near as hot in the summer time . I think you got a great rig with the dozer & scraper combination .
? That is pure blasphemy about losing the cab. It was 107 degrees at home today. That will make an AC expert out of you really quickly LOL. I'll trade you a ROPS for that cab. A friend of mine had one about 10 years ago and you could hang meat in it on a 100 degree day. If you will tighten up that blade and linkages, you will be surprised how well you can finish with it.
I wish it was as easy as removing shims to tighten things up. The ball and sockets in the middle of the blade are almost nonexistent, and the pins for the lift cylinders that are welded to the blade have the rod eye worn almost halfway through. I had my local machinist turn me a couple of bushings for the top side on the lift cylinder because both of them were completely gone, and the bottom ones are about an 1/8" thick. They're not hardened, but I needed to get it functional. The yokes for the cylinders will also move up and down at least 1/2", maybe more. It is going to be a massive undertaking to get everything tightened up, might be reasonable to just try and find a complete blade somewhere.
My first thought was get rid of the cab on the D7G so Shimmy would get a good sun tan . LOL !
I should remind you what you paid for it. Pretty sure you have enough left in equity to spend some money on it. Yes, lots of times just getting a different blade is a lot more economical. I see them at auctions occasionally. Wrecking yards would be quicker but inspection would be required for sure. Barely used plus a high price is my usual response from a wrecker with a much different assessment by me on arrival.
When it comes to parts for this old girl I think you need to get on first-name terms with the good folks at Offroad Equipment - www.offroadeq.com/ - Lots of members here speak very highly of them when it comes to getting hold of both genuine and aftermarket parts for Cat machines that are, shall we say, past the "first flush of youth".
We used to keep about 5 winds on the bowl lift side of the CCU, that lets you drop the bowl below ground level and one wind on the ejector side of it. The ejector rope is the one that wears the most as it gets the most use, used to pull thru and cut off about 3 ft a week or there about depending on how bad its worn. When the cable spool is empty you can usually tow a new rope thru by doing a running splice and join the new rope to the old one and winch it thru, if that fails its thread it by hand. Spent many years on cable scrapers. Cat 463, Cat 80 and Vickers Onions, there is lots a tricks to learn.
There should be only a few wraps on the CCU winch when the pan is down. On one other drum when the ejector is retracted with the front gate completely down there should be about 4 wraps. The spare cable will be on the spools on the pan. When you see thinning cable wear on the drums, pull a few feet from the spare spools on the scraper and cut the bad end off the winch drums. Do not carry the gate all the way up when you turn after dumping, The cable will snap as if you do as it shortens in a turn. Do not use them winches as a drag winch or for towing. They are not very powerful and only strong enough for the scraper functions. I to am jealous. Looks like you got a good package.
I suppose I'll just keep this going as a dirtwork thread. A little road-building action. No pics of the iron, I was working alone most of the time. Turned out pretty good, found about 600 yds³ of pit run gravel in the hills.
I only put gravel down in the spots where I built the road up. Wherever there is bare dirt next to the road, there were vertical banks ranging from 3' to 10'. The first pic here is of a curve that I partially straightened so semis can make the corner. The second pic doesn't really show it, but I raised the road about 4'.
Few more. Finding that gravel really made a good finished surface, plus it saved the township about $5000.
Were you able to use the scraper?
Sorry to let you down, but no. My Challenger and hydraulic will do 3 times the work, I needed to crawl around and knock the walls down with the dozer, and the notion of spooling and unspoooling those cables did not appeal to me, lol.
Hey boys. Having a steering issue with the old girl. It seems like the left clutch is struggling to release. A light tap on the brake pedal and you can turn right around, but it seems to not want to brake when using just the lever. Haven't checked anything yet, just wondering what I might be up against.
Figure this got lost in the shuffle. Anyone have any insight on what I'm looking for?
Good morning Shimmy. I’ve read this post from the start,and my first thoughts were to you saying something about the previous owner recieving abit of trouble with the steering. My gut feeling then,was the cross shaft will be seeing daylight with possible bearing and seal issues in the bevel casing. I’m afraid I still think that.