1963 44A D6B General Questions

[leadfarmer]

Drained the wet clutch compartment last night.

Suction screen was clogged and sucked to the point of failure.

Pulled out a bunch of pieces of what looks like clutch material? It is non-metallic.

Anything I should be worried about? The clutch works fine. I was planning on opening the inspection cover on the top side to to have a look inside.

Planning on replacing the screen and filling it with fresh Cat TDTO 30.

Whoever thought a 1-1/4" allen was the right tool for the drain plug sucked! 3/4" or 1" square pocket would of been much better.

 

[charles walton]

Drained the wet clutch compartment last night.

Suction screen was clogged and sucked to the point of failure.

Pulled out a bunch of pieces of what looks like clutch material? It is non-metallic.

Anything I should be worried about? The clutch works fine. I was planning on opening the inspection cover on the top side to to have a look inside.

Planning on replacing the screen and filling it with fresh Cat TDTO 30.

Whoever thought a 1-1/4" allen was the right tool for the drain plug sucked! 3/4" or 1" square pocket would of been much better.

you're right,most of the plugs I've seen are square,maybe some of the really old stuff is hex.

 

[leadfarmer]

Found a good crack in the right sub frame and welded it up

 

[Bluox]

That is called the diagonal brace and that one has been patched before.
Keep a close eye on your weld cause when that brace breaks it's pretty much a disaster!
Your tractor don't have a hard bar it still has springs so carefully inspect them for loose bolts ,brackets and cracked spring Leafs.
Bad Bob

 

[Mcrafty1]

Found a good crack in the right sub frame and welded it up

If that is a solid piece of cast steel how would you ever weld it with enough penetration to ever make it near as strong as it was originally? If it wasn't welded entirely would it be expected to have near enough strength to hold up to the stresses that area is subjected to?

 

[Mcrafty1]

Drained the wet clutch compartment last night.

Suction screen was clogged and sucked to the point of failure.

Pulled out a bunch of pieces of what looks like clutch material? It is non-metallic.

Anything I should be worried about? The clutch works fine. I was planning on opening the inspection cover on the top side to to have a look inside.

Planning on replacing the screen and filling it with fresh Cat TDTO 30.

Whoever thought a 1-1/4" allen was the right tool for the drain plug sucked! 3/4" or 1" square pocket would of been much better.

Cat sells a special tool made for those style plugs, it's around $25.00 bucks if I recall correctly, it's reversible and fits two different sizes of the hex plugs and is used with a 1/2 inch drive racket or breaker bar. I don't have the part # but the cat guru's here could find it.

 

[leadfarmer]

It’s hollow and shows signs of welding being part of it’s original construction

 

[Mcrafty1]

It’s hollow and shows signs of welding being part of it’s original construction

Ok thanks, that would make it much easier to weld.

 

[leadfarmer]

got to push some stuff yesterday! Woohoo

 

[OzDozer]

When I purchased my first new Cat, a D6C in 1966, it wasn't long before the Cat dealer organised a major modification for the diagonal braces on the D6C.

I took the tractor back to the local Cat dealer and they plated the diagonal braces top and bottom with large sections of 3/8" plate, fully welded to the braces. The plates extended over two thirds of the length of the braces.
The D6C had only done a few hundred hours at that point.

The repair was carried out free of charge by Cat, so the Cat engineers must have come across a number of D6 tractors with cracked diagonal braces.

The diagonal braces never gave me any trouble at all, and I sold the D6C at 13,000 hrs after much hard heavy earthmoving work - including ripping a lot of rock.

I'd suggest plating your D6 diagonal braces would be a good move.

 

[kshansen]

Cat sells a special tool made for those style plugs, it's around $25.00 bucks if I recall correctly, it's reversible and fits two different sizes of the hex plugs and is used with a 1/2 inch drive racket or breaker bar. I don't have the part # but the cat guru's here could find it.

Tried to find the 1/2 inch drive version but I think this is an earlier version:

Plug Wrench - Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club

If you have an interest in Caterpillar, ACMOC offers something for everyone. Through our full-color magazine, shows, local chapters, and bulletin board, members enjoy the camaraderie of shared interests.

www.acmoc.org

 

[kshansen]

OK guess I finally found it on SIS:

 

[Mcrafty1]

Tried to find the 1/2 inch drive version but I think this is an earlier version:

Plug Wrench - Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club

If you have an interest in Caterpillar, ACMOC offers something for everyone. Through our full-color magazine, shows, local chapters, and bulletin board, members enjoy the camaraderie of shared interests.

www.acmoc.org

That hs the same end but with a handle, mine just the head like that with the 1/2 in ratchet squre made into both sides. That's more than I paid for mine, but will work fine even if you have to use a pipe to extend it for more leverage.

 

[leadfarmer]

The transmission gear selection lever randomly pops out of first into neutral. Seems to happen randomly, pushing material or just driving. It's pretty infrequent, not a constant thing. Maybe once every other hour of operation. Is there an adjustment somewhere to deal with this? Someone mentioned something about a transmission interlock related to the clutch lever. I don't know if it does it in other gears, I only use it in first gear.

 

[Bluox]

You need to get a service manual for your machine, it will show how to adjust the interlock linkage and all the springs and detents in the transmission shift controls.
Bad Bob

 

[OzDozer]

Leadfarmer, here's the relevant information from the service manual to assist with adjusting and repairing the interlock mechanism of your D6.

 

[OzDozer]

Last page (I am only allowed 4 photos per post for some reason) ...

 

[leadfarmer]

Many thanks!

 

[leadfarmer]

Back to the possible interlock issue...

I ran this dozer for a few hours today. Only once did it pop out of gear while moving (speed selector, not the direction lever).

Most of the time I was struggling to move the direction lever (F-N-R) when I was stopped and trying to change direction. It felt locked solid and I had to keep working the clutch lever until the direction lever would finally move, and then it was magically free. It didn't happen all the time, but it happened most of the time. At one time I thought pushing in both brake pedals while stopped caused the lever to free up. Most of the time I was not touching the brake pedals because I was on flat surface. Maybe just a coincidence.

So I referred to the reference material that was posted by OzDozer and I refered to the 44A service manual I picked up that is a little different in what it shows.

The only adjustment given is the ideal length of the linkage for the interlock on the left side of the transmission that connects to the clutch lever. I confirmed this was right on the money. 4.6XX".

Then I decided to pop off the cover over the plungers. Boy is that thing fun to work on.

The end of the plungers that contact the shaft are worn on one side. They are all worn the same and the worn edge is facing towards the front of the machine. Are they supposed to be worn like this?

No broke springs or plungers. Nothing jumped out at me. My first thought is to tinker with that linkage length, though the manual does not give a range of lengths, just an ideal spec.

Any thoughts?

 

[leadfarmer]

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