Hadn’t pulled the pans on this one for too long…. Last job it was on, started losing some hydraulic and trans oil. Pulled the floor pan in the cab and the dirt was up to the driveline. Oil was getting slung EVERYWHERE and couldn’t find the leak. Kept adding and limped it through. Made a Friday out of it and a proper mess today cleaning it up to find the leaks…. I’m gonna have to clean this mess up too when I’m done♂️. I stripped down to my underwear on the porch and headed straight to the shower when I got home.
“Dirt was up to the driveline” I’ve seen high dirt in pans vibrasand right through oil pans. Got to pull them very regularly and clean all that crap out. Make time for maintenance or the machine will do so for you.
Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been raining…..
It was raining boiling water when I was in there with the steam cleaner! But yeah you’re right, at least I got to dry out after instead of staying soaked in that rancid mud. It’s amazing how fast these things fill up and how bad it STINKS!
The only good thing about a large dozer is there's more ground clearance.
I have a pretty new to me Komatsu D31 that i have the belly pans off of. They were chocked full of everything. I sand blasted them and painted them (it’ll make it run better right?). Putting them back is it’s own project. The bolts aren’t going in too well so i ordered new bolts and am going to chase the holes with a tap. I have a bunch of 6” concrete slab squares that i pulled the dozer up on to do the work.
Pulled the belly pans on a Allis Chalmers HD-12g loader. Was used to load ag lime. I must have shoveled 2 yards of oil soaked lime out of there.
I stocked taps in my box for belly pan bolts and if they were crusty I’d replace the hardware and retap the holes to clean the threads up, then use plenty of copper antisieze when putting them back on. I cared about the stuff I worked on. too many mechanics are too stupid to do stuff like that though.
Yeah I ordered new hardware for the belly pans on this one and new u-joints for the driveline just for good measure.
The last place I worked we dropped the belly pans and cleaned and inspected everything a minimum of once a year. With as much dirt/mud/leaves as collects in a year I can't imagine what it would look like after several years. Just the thought of all the hoses, electrical connectors, harnesses, etc living in that gives me the shivers... Cleaning it out on concrete without a barrel of oil over everything is bad enough... I did have the privilege of replacing a nearly new hose that blew in the belly of a D6K2 when it was in a mud hole... Those clothes got thrown away when I was done.
Bottom guards used to be part of our 500hr PM, so about once a month on average. I fail to understand machine owners who fail to clean them out regularly.
Both coal mines I worked for only pulled pans when we had to. All the stuff at the first place was twenty of more years old and probably been through two mechanics before me. Only reason to pull the pans was to fix a leak or replace a component. All the pans were dented and buggered and just hell to get down and worse to get back up. We never had anything but soil or worse to park the machines on because the shop was just a place to lock up your tools in or store some parts. No jacks were ever used and I got to be expert and using come-a-longs and manual labor to get them down and up. Most of the bolt holes in the pans were egged out by cutting torches to get a bolt through and line up. One inch washers were in all of the holes so the nuts had something to press against. Lots of hoses or O rings were blown and leaking down through the sides or middle of the machine and soil or worse became much worse. You didn't get to lift the machine up for clearance so you low crawled for everything. Sometimes there was another machine around to drag the pans out from under the machine but most of the time I used a come-a-long to get a little more room to work around the pan. The machine had to be fixed before you could dig out the pans. You got used to bugs crawling all over you and stickers hanging off your coveralls. No supply of water there so no pressure washer to blow the junk out of the way to be able to find the leaking hose or fitting. Didn't matter because soil or much worse became a rain gear story instead of coveralls. Lots of times I left my clothes on the back porch in the weather long enough for the stench to die back before the wife would put them through the washing machine. Even the wild animals would stay away from them. Two kinds of operations in the mining world these days. Above is the first type. I've worked as a dealer wrench in the big coal mine in West Central Washington State. Had their own trucks to bring the machines to the wash rack and then to the twenty bay shop facility with three foot deep concrete floors and two 40 ton overhead cranes for each building. Complete parts facilities, hose reals for any fluid product you might need and huge fancy floor jacks that could run across the floor like little sport cars. I found that working on concrete made for more joint pain and there was no challenge or much thinking about how to solve problems in the big shops. If there is a next life, I'll go back to small mines again.
What gets me with these things is the work for them is pretty sparatic. They’ll run for a few months and then sit for 6. While they’re sitting, I’m tied up with the excavators and trucks or doing a hitch rebuild on a scraper. That kind of stuff. Always spread thin and never needing something to do… It’s really no excuse but it’s somewhat easy to forget about. Truth be told, I had to do belts on our nice old D7H a couple years ago and had to drop the pans and clean it out because I couldn’t get the new belts over the damper…. We’ve got a d6k2 that gets the pans dropped fairly regularly but not cause we’re friends. Cab comes off once in a while too…
And by the way, happy Easter!
I just got my belly pans back on. Not because it took this much time but i’ve been busy with other stuff. As i was up under the machine initially just trying to put the bolts back then later doing as JD955SC said above, chasing the holes with a tap, using new bolts, and then using antisieze, man all i can say is have this stuff from the beginning. A much better outcome. Good advice JD955SC!
I’ve fought in the belly pan wars before. Not fun at all!
Many years ago my daughter asked me why I have under dunies in my glove box. She was a little girl and I explained that sometimes people get crapped up. There is the rest of a change of clothes behind the seat. I never had to use them. The TP was very nice to have at times.
John C has a good explanation of things in my opinion,especially when working alone. In comparison to the modern D8 and D9 belly plates,they are super easy in comparison to the older D8’s and D9’s. A fully choked D8H rear belly plate with the wishbones to contend with,is a real head banger. A D9G engine belly plate with the inside push arms for the 9C blade,is also pig dog material.
Oh yeah the most fun job "not", and dangerous if you don't know how to properly, D8 and D9's of the old days. Even better the oil pans on the D342.
Years ago Co. was working for almost lost a lubeman out in TX.. He was changing oil in a dozer and he thought it was briars when he would stick his hand up thru the pan for the drain plug but it was little pen rattlers, had marks all over one hand. And no he wasnt from TX.
In Tennessee, the Copperheads loved the heat from the outdoor air compressors. Had to be careful working around them.
Syringes/needles--from garbage running in a dump site.
I had a lot of contact at the Cedar Hills land fill in King County over the years. In the early days as kids, my brothers and I were peeling Cascara bark for school clothes money. In recent years I was doing used equipment appraisals for the Cat dealer. Syringes weren't a thing in the early days. In the appraisal days it was a constant worry just walking around a machine. Measuring an undercarriage became a nervous and slow process of making sure you could watch your hand moving. Imagine trying to reach over a porcupine's tail. I can only imagine at that time what pulling a pan was like.
Don’t put your hand where you wouldn’t put your d**k is a favorite refrain. No need to be in a hurry around a landfill machine- or any other.
As one poster stated,D8 D342 sump pans were horrible too,especially if you wanted to take the number 6 one off over the eq bar. As for landfill compactors,do quite a few of these for a friend if he’s short staffed.Thw 826/836K’s have all hydraulic lift belly pans fortunately,but it’s still a risky business opening them up at first and seeing something move.
At the landfills out here, anything that moves turns into eagle food.
Then I guess welding naked is out.
Need full riot gear to enter the site. My gray hair had to be covered under a hard hat.
OH PLEASE HELP YOURSELF BUT WE ARE NOT GOING TO WATCH! I am just over that burn in my arm that went threw two jackets. When some things are going really good you just do not want to stop until the end.
When you have a good weld going you don't stop even if you're on fire... unless your crotch is on fire. Then you want carefully try to put it out ASAP. BTDT, thankfully just the coveralls burnt.