988"A" loader brake bladder delete?

[Spalinko]

CAT 988 Loader
SN: 87A4460

Hi guys you've helped me out many times before I'm hoping you can give me some knowledge. I've got a old 988 everybody's calling them the a series because they are before the B but cat never officially referred to them as the 988a.

Anyways I have a brake bladder that's been broken and sitting out for years now hoping to find a replacement but I haven't been able to find one, so now that I'm desperate for its heavy lifting I'm hoping I can put it all back together without the bladder.


Honestly it has never had brakes that worked except for the parking brake.

Has anybody ever attempted putting one of these hubs back together without the bladder in there? maybe just connecting the supply to the return line? Or would I be able to just cap them and call it good?

 

[Dave Neubert]

Just cap the lines

 

[kshansen]

Just cap the lines

As I recall there is only one line to each wheel so capping the one that is leaking should allow you to have brakes on the other wheels.

If running a machine of that size with no brakes I would suggest making sure your life insurance is up to date. If you need to put someone as a beneficiary I could give you my contact info.

I looked on SIS and looks like the part number for the tube assembly is 1V6586 and they show the price as $2,689.00 but also show in one column (Indirect replacement) what ever that means! There is another, depends on S/N, tube assembly 8S3094.

Doing a Google search on that number comes up with this link:

TUBE ASSEM. 8S3094 - Caterpillar | AVSpare.com

spare.avspart.com

Not sure if they actually have or can access them and they do not show a price.

 

[Spalinko]

I found em on SIS but I can't get them in time for mining season.

Cappin the line!!

Thanks for the quick replies!

 

[Dave Neubert]

I worked for a sand and gravel pit back in the 70s they had 3 988 none of them had brakes loading trucks was a challenge not to mention loading the hopper and going down in the pit. used to do doughnuts going down in the pit in the winter when it got slick. Man you could never get away with that now

 

[Nige]

Back in the 80s it was unusual to find an 87A-prefix 988 that actually had working brakes...........

 

[kshansen]

Back in the 80s it was unusual to find an 87A-prefix 988 that actually had working brakes...........

I can say our company actually did a good job of keeping them working at least in the state where I worked. Replaced a good number of those bladders over the years. Really fun doing that job with the only "tool" to remove and reinstall the parts was the arm on a tire changing truck. Plus cleaning up the mess when one of those bladders did fail!

I recall seeing an old airplane used as a display at a military base in norther NY state and got a kick out of seeing the brakes that looked like someone had stole them off a 988 Cat!

If you want to go down a rabbit hole on these like I just did do a search on Google for "expander tube brakes".