Hey guys, new owner of my first tracked/heavy equipment. Building a house on our farm and picked up a great 85J K or L. All the gauges are dead on it and I’d like to get them replaced. Can anyone recommend a site or do you recommend CAT only? I appreciate the help and I’ve got tons of reading to do!
if you can even get them from cat you will pay through the nose for them. I would look for stewart warner after mkt. lot cheaper and just as good
Cat is ridiculous. They wanted over $4.00 just for the rubber gasket that goes around the oil pressure gauge. The gauge doesn't even come with it.
I have an old Deere 450 crawler that had non-functioning gauges. I found my gauges were good , it was the sending units that were bad. Maybe check that first? Darryl
I’ll look them up! No one wants to be paying CAT prices! How would I go about checking the sending units?
if your gages have been vandalized broken glass etc. chances are the sending unit s will still be good. but check them any way .not many elec. units on an l
Glass is all good just needles are t moving on them. If I were to start looking so I need to pull part numbers for each individually or can I just find a place that sells generic fit all type gauges?
I removed and grounded out the wire at each sending unit and found my gauge needles moved. New sending units fixed my water and tranny temp issues. Somewhere in her life, someone put a wet gauge in for oil pressure.
It likely came with a wet gauge, no sending unit.
A machine Serial Number would get you some part numbers for the required gauges, plus remove all doubt regarding what type they are.
I’ve been chasing wires and re-doing the wiring harness. The manual schematic shows all electric gauges and sending units. She was a Craigslist purchase by me. I’m finding she had a hard life....
Likely not as hard as my old Allis. It has all mechanical instrumentation where may not be absolutely clear but readable and functional.
Agree very much! And if as the first post says "All the gauges are dead" makes me think there is a common problem between them and might just need a wire fixed if they are electrical, but till we know what it has no way to make a accurate suggestion on how to fix. Like I often had to remind one of my bosses, "Just because there is a Bulldog standing one the hood does not make them all the same!"
Pretty sure a Cat machine of that vintage would have all mechanical guages. Except the ammeter of course.
That last sentence I have to (huge Mack fan that I am not) disagree with! Mack makes a truck that needs driving... Paccar makes trucks that you ride in! I never remember to bring enough paper bags or scissors with me if I'm running a Mack LOL!
Still having the full story will tend to get better answers!
I need to verify it when I get to the farm but he parts book has 85-J2416 on the cover of it. Feel like she’s in good shape just needs a bit of love.
Looks nice!
One of my favorite Cat machines
When I use the Ironguide it says this would be a 1969 model. That can’t be right, it’s also got L stickers and the condition makes me think the serial number got wrote down wrong.
I believe the 85J series was applicable to both K and L models. A Cat rarity
85J is from 1968 to 1977. 1969 is from 1411-2675 and 995L starts at 85J4672 (late 1971). It is not uncommon for people to put wrong stickers on a machine, especially if they try to pass it off as a newer machine than it is.
Just because the Parts Book covers that Serial Number range doesn't necessarily mean the machine itself is in that range. He could have bought a Parts Book from eBay for a "955". Just sayin' If none of the gauges work (isn't this where we came in..?) that would be slightly at odds with your "good shape" comment, at least in my eyes anyway. For info 85J1-4671 were produced/badged as 955K. 85J4672-11762 (last built) were badged as 955L. As Dave said the change in model from K to L took place at the end of December 1971. Basically January 1972 was the first 955L off the production line.
I just bought a amp gauge thru Cat used Yellow mark it was only 24 bucks
I think the Ks had brake peddles coming up thru the floor and the Ls had the pedals coming down from the dash
I guess it all depends on what one considers "good shape"! You can have a machine with shinny paint and nice straight sheet metal that looks like it just left the factory but still have systems full of rust and crap from sitting. By the same token you could have a machine that has almost none of the paint left on it and a kink or two in every panel that is near perfect in operating condition. A machine with no working gauges would raise many warning flags for me as does nice shinny paint! Don't know if this machine came through an auction but do know that many auction places will bring in an outfit to pressure wash or even sandblast equipment and paint to try to get price up when the bidding starts.
It’s original paint, second owner that rebuilt the trans and engine. He stopped excavating a few years back and used on the farm mostly. The excavating company that lowboyed it for me wanted to buy it before it got to my farm. Also UC is 90%. But I agree the gauges need fixed ASAP....
You have to remember we can't see it........ all we have to go on is your description. Why not post some photos, and get a Serial Number to put everyone out of their misery......
You’re absolutely right! On the way to the farm. Been over the road the last 4 days. I’ll update this evening. I appreciate all the input.
Original paint and wrong decals doesn't add up especially on 40 year old machine. Neither does none of the gauges working. How can a machine be so well cared for the paint is close to like new and none of the gauges work???
.........and it has the wrong model number decals on it as well ....... Maybe it's just my suspicious nature but I'm getting the whiff of week-old fish. Sometime or other (maybe even before the current owner took possession) it would appear, to me at least, this machine has been "tarted up" to present itself as something it isn't. Aka a "DuPont/Ritchie Bros/20-gallon" overhaul or whatever it is known as in your neck of the woods.
20 gallons? do they really put it on that heavy around you? Here we call it the 5 gallon overhaul! I have to admit I'm "guilty" of wrong model decals myself. Back around 30 years ago when I rebuilt my old Farmall BN I could not find BN Decals so I "cheated" and used the only thing I could find and that was plain "B" decals.
Try painting a large-ish machine with only 5 gallons of paint and see how far it gets you .............
Just takes more thinner! And only paint what shows in the pictures or a quick walk-by!
Well never got the pictures but after cutting in a 1/4 mile drive and running hard for 25-30 hrs I’ve got more info. Few of the gauges work, Oil pressure and Engine Temp. Glass is glazed over for the rest and dead. Starts great, no smoke, and steers and has plenty of power. The down side is it’s eatting oil about half a gallon or more of oil. I started a new thread and posted some pics. I feel like I got lied to about the model but I do know the UC is in great shape. I hope the leaks aren’t too bad....
I’m getting new gauges ordered up and can’t find what this red button does. Mine isn’t functioning obviously but if it’s needed I’d like to repair it. I’ve attached a picture from SIS.
Well not sure where that picture came from on SIS but this is the picture I find in the operators manual section: As I suspected that red button is for the 40 amp main breaker. If it pops out you need to find the cause and fix it. Just know that it only comes out a very little amount almost too little to notice, but if nothing has power that is the first thing to check. It should make a noticeable "click" when pushed in to reset. If you have SIS access go to "Media Search and enter this: -SEBU5511 and it should take you to the Operation manual
Thank you for the detailed picture! Just what I was looking for. Restoring heavy equipment isn’t nearly as easy as old tractors.
That circuit breaker will have a little play in it, not a lot just a slight movement and wiggle able. When they Pop it will stick out about a full 1/2" set will be about 1/8-3/16" tall off surface.
I have a 977K and the trans temp gauge was dead last year,I went online and bought a mechanical aftermarket trans temp gauge,installed and it was OK for about a year then stopped working altogether..now the shiny chrome surround is rusting and looks like s@#$,even with it being a barn kept machine..I shoulda bought a SW or Autometer gauge for it,probably just another $10
When replacing the temp gauges, should I use thread wrap or thread sealant when installing into the block? If not I’m the Maine bushing should I use any for the probe nut?
Main bushing will be pipe thread, use some sort of sealant there, the probe nut is a straight thread and seals on the probe flange to nut face, no need there.
Wot he said above........ Don't use Teflon tape on any thread if oil is involved. Use a good quality liquid pipe thread sealer such as Permatex. https://www.permatex.com/products/t...nts/permatex-high-temperature-thread-sealant/
Just a personal thing with me but I don't like that Teflon tape on anything. It's too good a lubricant. Had a bad experience many years ago working on a D398 fuel pump. I was setting it up and had to run fuel lines to the lift pump. As it always seems to happen with pipe fittings if there is an elbow involved it will get tight enough to not leak around 30º past where it needs to point. Well on this engine that's what happened so I went to turn it just a bit more so line could be hooked up and "CRACK" the lift pump cover split! Bad thing as I was 8 hour drive from shop where there was a spare pump sitting, good thing is another crew was leaving the shop latter that day! After that day my first choice has always been something like: https://www.permatex.com/products/t...ants/permatex-high-temperature-thread-sealant