Cat AP555E Ventilation system

I got this nice little job dumped in my lap this morning...….I should have run!!!! LOL! What a pain in the ass this is to get out.

I looked at the overall job requirements and the easiest access is to remove the entire top of this machine. They didn't design this to work on very easily so I was looking for a shortcut.

All of the bolts that held the fan housing to the pedestal were gone! That allowed the fan housing to shift over into a pump hose, then it proceeded to vibrate through the housing over a period of time. The hydraulic motor was pouring oil from the shaft seal the squirrel cage was bent up pretty good. I went through the front access doors in the hopper and removed around 10 hoses to gain access to this. Much easier than removing the top end, I just have to get the new stuff back in there.

Of all the stuff I've worked on over my career I'm happy to say that I've avoided asphalt stuff almost completely. Nothing is meant to be worked on. Stand on your head and reach around two corners just to be able to put an angle head wrench of a seeping fitting. I did an inspection on one machine that had multiple hydraulic leaks and the mechanic on site just said they figured the leaks were a different kind of releasing agent.

Well, its all out! I did discover that the bolts that were missing go into the round shroud from the INSIDE. What dumbass engineer designed that!? My kid could have designed this better. I now have to assemble this in 3 pieces inside that open area. That should be interesting since my cant fit my 250 LBS ass all the way up in there. Updates when I have new parts!

John C. said:

Of all the stuff I've worked on over my career I'm happy to say that I've avoided asphalt stuff almost completely. Nothing is meant to be worked on. Stand on your head and reach around two corners just to be able to put an angle head wrench of a seeping fitting. I did an inspection on one machine that had multiple hydraulic leaks and the mechanic on site just said they figured the leaks were a different kind of releasing agent.

Click to expand...

Consider yourself a lucky man JohnC. I see way to many pavers and not a one was engineered to repair easily...….on anything. And your right, this is one of those contortionist jobs. My shoulder still hurts from trying to reach around numerous stuff, and I still have to figure out how to get this back together.

Well, this machine is back together! ……………...You should see the bruises I have on my back and stomach from having to lay on the fuel tank and pumps to assemble this mess. There was not room to install the upper vent outlet and the fan housing together, so it had to be done inside the compartment 1 piece at a time. After the start up, I throttled the engine up to high and heard this whistling noise...……….found a hole on one of the aftercooler hoses. I should have taken a couple of pics of replacing that dam thing since it was another contortionist job in itself.

Once I got this machine ready (or so I thought anyway)…..the operator asked me to look at the extension vibrators on the right and left side. He said they the right side smokes, and the left side doesn't do anything. I removed the front strike off plates to find the right side had a failed bearing and the coupler from the hydraulic motor had separated. The left side is the pic below...…………...Vibrators DO NOT WORK in this scenario.

Took me an hour to chip all of this out of that compartment. Works like a champ now!

This project done for now! ………...until the next disaster LOL Now its Leeboy paver time...……….oh joyyyyyyy

I have done a few of those lol, not much fun. The ap1000s are much easier. We had a bunch of them on our E models that blew the motors apart. Found out there was a svc bulletin on the aux hydraulic pumps and they would get stuck at full stroke and blow the ventilation motors. Was quite the sight when the operator fired it up and 15 gallons of hydraulic oil shot out of the the stack lol

I don’t use vibration on screed ,all it does is shake screed apart