Cat 955L saved from being paperclips. Looking for help on tensioners and injectors.

[d9gdon]

You did a pretty good job on the video last time, just make it so we can hear it.

You had that algae problem in the beginning in the fuel tank. I wonder if it's showing up in the pump. Have you isolated which cylinder is acting up...and how do you know it's the engine and not the torque causing the vibration? What about engine mounts?

If you can, show which type of injector pump you have on the machine.

 

[DMiller]

kb, I know what you mean by shallow, on my old Allis it is a full load just with the bucket, it holds just under 2 yards heaped by guesstimate then it gets really heavy. I have the bucket off the donor, soon as shop is done and house well underway I will move it into position to rebuild and swap to it. My tubing down the right lift arm is pretty well track eaten anyway and seeps thru some crappy wire feed welds the previous owner put to it so won't be out much. Once I put the GP on it may rebuild to old 4/1.

I am in the need for GP bucket corner(side edge) teeth off a early 955, preferably a H, I have a set of cutting lip teeth(6) that I bough a year or so ago but would like to add corners to match. These teeth are kind of odd, they mount with a thru bolt(both upper and lower ears) near to the leading edge and then only a support bolt to the back(no lower ear), will post a photo when I get back to the farm to dig them up.

 

[kb9tci]

You did a pretty good job on the video last time, just make it so we can hear it.

You had that algae problem in the beginning in the fuel tank. I wonder if it's showing up in the pump. Have you isolated which cylinder is acting up...and how do you know it's the engine and not the torque causing the vibration? What about engine mounts?

If you can, show which type of injector pump you have on the machine.

Here is the video. I dropped my phone in the belly halfway through the video. Take a look at the air filter. It rattled loose a second time.

Towards the end of the video, I put my phone against the structure of the machine. That is the shaking.

Video http://youtu.be/tS-gF8QtXrY

 

[kb9tci]

kb, I know what you mean by shallow, on my old Allis it is a full load just with the bucket, it holds just under 2 yards heaped by guesstimate then it gets really heavy. I have the bucket off the donor, soon as shop is done and house well underway I will move it into position to rebuild and swap to it. My tubing down the right lift arm is pretty well track eaten anyway and seeps thru some crappy wire feed welds the previous owner put to it so won't be out much. Once I put the GP on it may rebuild to old 4/1.

I am in the need for GP bucket corner(side edge) teeth off a early 955, preferably a H, I have a set of cutting lip teeth(6) that I bough a year or so ago but would like to add corners to match. These teeth are kind of odd, they mount with a thru bolt(both upper and lower ears) near to the leading edge and then only a support bolt to the back(no lower ear), will post a photo when I get back to the farm to dig them up.

That's one thing I'll give this 955L, it'll handle the weight with no problem. But if I'm loading loose dirt, I can work circles around it with the backhoe. I just can't jamb enough dirt into the bucket.

And without teeth, it grumbles quite a bit trying to scrape a bucket full. It seems to peel better with the clam open pulling backwards. It would probably help if I get some more seat time, too.

I'm in the same boat as you with the house and shed. They seem to take up every waking minute of my free time at the moment!

 

[Mobiltech]

Is the vibration maybe the balance shafts out of time. One tooth makes them shake pretty bad.

 

[tctractors]

I once had to sort a CAT 215 that had a bit of a shake but only at a set speed, it would send the shake into the hand controls in the cab, this I found to be due to the balance shafts to be set incorrectly, they must have been assembled by someone like it? I also had another 330C series engine with a bent rod after combustion chamber dramas that also had the "DT's" this engine needs poking around in.
tctractors

 

[Mobiltech]

I find the mistake most people make is they pin the balance shafts and then install the oil pump which puts each shaft out one tooth as the pump pulls up into place. You need to roll the shafts back half a hole and then put the pump in . Once the pump is in the balance holes should line up.

 

[d9gdon]

I think somebody got the balancer shafts out of time at some point too. An easy fix after you practice one more time on getting those belly pans off.

That's a sleeve metering type injector pump, but I don't think it has anything to do with your problem anymore.

 

[OldandWorn]

I went to go fire it up, and clunk. It stopped rotating after a thud. Not a metal thud, but a thud of the piston with too much water sitting on top of it coming up to the head.

Could be a bent rod.

 

[kb9tci]

I've had a few more ears on the beast, and the general consensus, with the events leading up to the present, feels that a bent rod just may be the culprit after the chamber fiasco and hydro. This could be an aggravated wound from before I brought it home, as the PO could have done the same thing with the first round of loose chambers. I will rattle it back over to the shop to pull it down and find out what ails it.

With the oil pan back off, I will take a look at the balancers to see if I can see the orientation. Maybe, I can sneak away from the house project for a night or two and find what the fuss is about. Not enough hours in the day... :dizzy

 

[Bryant_955L]

I am so curious about the orientation of the balancer shafts that I would like to jump in on this conversation. How do you know when you have the correct alignment on the balancer shafts?

 

[kb9tci]

Still haven't done anything to the motor yet, but I thought about trading it for this new machine.



If you can't read the tag, this is a hand built model I had seen at a toy show today. They wanted a modest $7500 for the 45lb mantle piece.

 

[kb9tci]

I have now, a year later, finally opened it up!
I have been consumed by building this new house/money pit and it's still not completely finished. We have made the ultimate mistake of moving in before we were 100% finished. So we are hovering at 95% and will probably be for the next 40 years... I have to at least finish up the outside to keep the funny looks down.

The bright side is the pre cups haven't dumped any water in the chambers after a year!

There is some more good news. I found the problem of the shakes.

The bad news is that it is an unfortunate failure, as I have found that the three center mains have spun. I was aggravated enough I did not see what lies under any of the other caps and had to walk away for a bit. I'll post pics when I come back to it later tonight.

The crank is not in bad shape at all. The caps have a pretty good lip on the bottom.

I guess the water in the oil got the best of it.

 

[Nitelite]

Kb, I thought that you had fallen off a hole where you was digging around in the front yard. Hope you can salvage the crank and all ends well. I don't know if you have been keeping up with the thread but I did do the complete engine overhaul on the 951 and it seems to have come out well. The old gal is in the midst of being fitted up with new sprocket rims, SALT track chains and a paint job. I have missed your posting, welcome back.

 

[kb9tci]

Thanks, Nitelite! I've got a lot of catching up to do. I been investing what free time I have into sleep for a while. I'm hoping to start digging myself out of a hole soon!

 

[Nitelite]

Thanks, Nitelite! I've got a lot of catching up to do. I been investing what free time I have into sleep for a while. I'm hoping to start digging myself out of a hole soon!

What is FREE TIME?

 

[workshoprat92]

What is FREE TIME?

That is all the time you spend working on your machine that you are not paid for and cannot charge for. As opposed to the time at a cat dealership which is most certainly not free LOL

 

[kb9tci]

That is all the time you spend working on your machine that you are not paid for and cannot charge for. As opposed to the time at a cat dealership which is most certainly not free LOL

That is the truth!!! I need to find a lest costly hobby!!

 

[kb9tci]

So I finally mustered the courage to see what else lies inside the beast. Caps 2-3-4 on the mains are spun. None of the bearings are welded to the crank at least! They all spin freely around it!

Mains 1 & 5 are fine. Not making a whole lot of sense. But here I am trying to decide the best path to take. I was almost talked in to cutting the caps and reinterpolating the profile in the caps and see how it would plastigauge out. I considered it for a while, but couldn't do it, not knowing how bad the block was.

I went on the hunt to see about finding a good block. I looked around and I was finding ones for $3k for a used, checked bare block. Not enticing. I really contemplated about "making" what I had work again. I was being talked into calling the dozer yard that pressed my springs, but I figured they were going to be around the same numbers. I found out the next day, from the one that was talking me into calling, that the dozer yard is going to auction the end of this month, so I better call!! Well, crap. So, call I shall - and to my surprise, they have a block! And for $500! So the only catch is I had to find out what all I need. ASAP!! They are closing this week so I have to see what hard parts (if any) I will also need.

So, after siding the house past dark Saturday, some friends decided to be quite nice and gave me a hand yanking out the heart of the beast. Sounds like a fun Saturday night, right??

Well, we got it out of there rather painlessly, so I really can't complain. I borrowed a 5-ton A-frame gantry and set it over the dozen, which is still parked over the pit. It actually worked so well, we did not pull the radiator and nose from the loader!

We stripped the block down a ways and dropped the crank. Everything is in good shape except for the caps. The crank needs a polish, and the bearing bore in the block is actually in good shape as well. I could have possibly polished the crank on the machine and went after a block with a window in it to steal off the caps, but we're this far into it, so I'm going to build it a bit closer to "right". I will be strongly considering new liners and pistons this go, since my main reason to use the old ones last time was to see how the rest of the machine fared.

 

[Nitelite]

Wow, $500 for a block sounds like a steal. Is your engine a 3304?