What to look for when buying a Komatsu PC150

I'm looking at purchasing a Komatsu PC 150. What are the weak points of this machine and what should I be checking? I'm a dozer guy and know little of excavators but know undercarriage. This hoe is a 1988 with 11000 hours. How many hours are these machines good for without becoming problematic? What price range are these hoes? Just seen a picture so far and the paint is good and original, owner says could use a set of chains but has newer sprockets and rebuilt rollers. Just a bucket with gravel teeth, plumbed for a thumb. What does a new set of chains cost?
Thank you.

That year of machine is probably a Dash 3. The big issue with them is the final drives. Basically they don't make them anymore and you will be lucky to a salvage machine with them. Bust a final and you are most likely dead in the water. Dash 5 finals will not fit in the Dash three units.

The pumps are also special to that model. The good thing is that the Dash 5 pump will fit the Dash 3 so you could find another and they are complicated but rebuildable.

Check the cooling system. Make sure it's not over heating.

Make sure that you can adjust the tracks. Really sure. Our -5 has stuck adjusters, very common and the dealer claims they are impossible to free up. He's probably correct and they want $5000.00 a side to replace. I may give it a try this winter and see if I can free them. Our machine has been very reliable otherwise. At 13000 hours a water pump 3 or 4 four starters and just typical small stuff. I think anything over 10000 hours and you're going to start having problems on these and everything is very expensive.

The cooling system is fine when everything is perfect but is a bit marginal. I've seen quite few with the engine cover up while operating to stay cool. If maintained and the radiator and cooler kept clean they're fine.

Thanks Guys. I'll see what it looks like today. I have a Cat D3C, 1990 with 6way blade and he wants to even trade.

John C. is spot on.
The weak spot wasn't necessarily the final drives. But they are now because of the age of the machine.
They are totally obsolete from Komatsu. To my knowledge I have the only solution in the world that works.
I have to take a current production final drive, change the manifold on it, change the gear ratio on it and then the expensive part...I have a custom sprocket made for it.
We've designed this replacement to be an exact interchage for the original. It is even the same brand as the original. Same performance, same hydraulic connections. It shows up, you install it and go. No worries about retro fitting anything, we do that for you.

The Hy-Dash series used in this machine was obsoleted almost 10 years ago and there are no complete units or replacements offered. Even the parts are gone. The center bearing in the RV assembly in the gearbox is what wears out first and I bought the last one in existence in 2008. Paid dearly for it too.
No parts = no rebuliding.
Doesn't sound too bad yet, since I do have a solution. Here's where it gets bad, the cost.
For what we have to do to create a solution for this machine it costs me A LOT of money. We sell this unit for almost $8k and make less than 20% profit.
I continue to build them and have them ready to ship because we do sell 2 or 3 a year. But the cost usually approaches that threshold of whether it cost effective to invest into this old of a machine.
Aside from the finals, any other parts are available. Used parts, apart from finals, aren't too difficult to locate.
I would check the final drives very carefully. Drain the oil, see if there is any metal or if it has a silver color anywhere in it. 11,000 hours is a lot to get out of any bearing in any excavator final drive. Remember, the center bearing is not available anywhere.
I always recommend having an oil analysis done on engine, hydraulic and gear oil. That will tell you the health of the machine.

If the dealer can't free a seized track adjuster they aren't trying very hard. I've erfreed dozens of seized adjusters from Pc130 - Pc450 . Either by fitting adaptor into the grease adjuster thread and pump it apart with a hydraulic pump or putting the whole adjuster into a large hydraulic press and pushing it apart, then replace the bush and hone out the assy . Usually the yoke has to be replaced because the chrome is worn off or damaged.

I've tried pretty hard. Made an adapter and pumped up 10000 lbs. on the gauge and left it for a couple of days, pushed on the tracks etc. Dealer claims they tried before and couldn't do on their press without cutting some metal out and basically made a mess. Hard to believe that enough effort wouldn't do it. My time is cheap these days.

Our press is a large Powerteam unit which can fit upto a complete Pc450 recoil assy vertically inside and press apart. Can take upto 150 ton pressure to push apart though. Any bigger we take to a large engineering company to do it for us .

I had a look at the machine today. Bushings are all worn through to the pins, 3 cow bell rollers, squeaky front idler, crack in bucket, needs a new pin and bushings for the bucket and this is just what I could see on outside visual inspection. I think I would be a fool to trade my D3C on this.
The plus side about looking at this machine today is that now I know I want one and to start gaining knowledge about each type of excavator before I buy.
Thanks everyone!

I have pulled several of those track adjusters apart and it ain't easy at all. It usually never takes less that a couple of D6 size crawlers. I have used a couple of PC300 excavators before also. I tied off to the carbody on each. Forget about using the boom.

I had a couple of 1/2" cable slings and choked them onto the cylinder ears and the yoke is such a way to get a straight pull. Needless to say I wouldn't allow anyone to watch. It's just me on one machine and the other is parked and locked tight.

Sometimes the cylinder is ruined when it comes apart. I tell the customer this is just a gamble anyway, there is no warranty express or implied. Most times I can clean them up and go back together with new packing.

Well I am going to give a try when things slow down. That was a joke, couldn't get much slower.

Stuck track tensioner on PC 130

Dr Komatsu said:

If the dealer can't free a seized track adjuster they aren't trying very hard. I've erfreed dozens of seized adjusters from Pc130 - Pc450 . Either by fitting adaptor into the grease adjuster thread and pump it apart with a hydraulic pump or putting the whole adjuster into a large hydraulic press and pushing it apart, then replace the bush and hone out the assy . Usually the yoke has to be replaced because the chrome is worn off or damaged.

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Dr Komatsu you seem like the guy to fix this! I am in the UK can you help?

We tried pretty hard with a pump. Made up a high pressure adapter and ran the pump up to 10,000 lbs (pretty much the safe limit). Jacked the track up and did a lot of pulling and banging and swearing over a three day period. The gauge never dropped a pound in three days and the adjuster never moved a bit. I don't have a big bench press and dealer refuses to try.