CAT 941B Track Bushing Replacement Help

[dmcschultz]

Regarding transmission oil you certaintly don't need to use Cat oil. Any SAE30 oil meeting Cat TO-4 specification will work fine. I have no idea if the oil you mention from Tractor Supply meets TO-4 BTW, you'll need to check. Otherwise all the major oil companies make a TO-4 oil. The 21.5 gallons is approximate only, always fill to the dipstick using the conditions on the stick (engine stopped with oil cold or engine at Low Idle with warm oil).

I've done some searching and have found a couple of options, but boy that TO-4 spec oil certainly isn't cheap is it. But then again I suspect a new transmission isn't cheap either.

 

[Nige]

Regard oil as cheap insurance. whatever the cost of the oil you can generally multiply that by something in the region of 1-200 to get the value of the system it's protecting.

 

[Nitelite]

NAPTHA will work just fine to thin the cat paint for spraying. It is comparable to gasoline. I chose to use a hotter thinner because it will actually etch the old paint to achieve a tighter bond. Too much acetone will burn up the paint causing a dull powdery finish. The more gloss you have, the tougher the paint job.

 

[dmcschultz]

I'm pretty sure I found the transmission filter (bottom right side on the front of the transmission) and the plug is right there in the center but I have a question about the torque converter - there appears to be a plug at the bottom so I assume it can be drained from there but how is it refilled? I'm thinking the transmission will pump the oil into the converter - is this right or am I totally off base.

 

[Nige]

Transmission & converter all share the same oil so in the strictest sense it's not necessary to pull the plug from the converter when changing oil. I would though, just to take a look and see what sort of particles (if any) there actually are in the bottom of the converter housing.

 

[dmcschultz]

So the weather was finally decent enough to work on the CAT. We were able to get the frame back on the right side and a couple of rollers (had some issue with one of the rebuilt rollers not fitting) so now I need to finish up drilling out the dowels that held in the spring stops. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to drill this out. I've used everything from the Harbor Freight Titanium Nitrite tipped to Bosch TN tipped and even some silver deming bits and they barely made a dent. I've probably spent about 20 hours trying to drill out those dowels and they're still there. Brand new bits right out of the package don't make a dent, maybe a little dust. Any ideas??

 

[lantraxco]

Heat them with a welding tip and then let them cool out slowly? Should take some hardness out and maybe shrink them a bit.

 

[dmcschultz]

So the new rails are on and as Nitelite experienced these things are super stiff. Do they loosen up after a little use? I hope so. The tensioner is all the way back and the rails seem awfully tight, no slack what so ever on them. I'm thinking that maybe the paint that's on the rails and sprockets might be adding a little bit to the issue, figure even 1/32" thickness of paint over 38 or so bushings is a little over an 1". So I'll put the shoes back on and finish up the painting this week.

 

[lantraxco]

The SALT track has seals on each end of the bushing, and typically sintered metal thrust rings. When assembled new they're pressed tight and often quite stiff, and even though it seems incorrect, it's not. The will loosen up some, but what little resistance there is there is nothing compared to moving the machine on flat ground, so don't worry about it.

 

[dmcschultz]

Today I changed the transmission fluid and ran the ol' gal for about 20 minutes just to get things loosened up a bit. The rails are still pretty tight with virtually no slack. I did notice something strange and I'm a bit perplexed, it seems things got a little worse with the transmission. Before changing the rails, sprocket, etc... and transmission fluid while in reverse when I shifted to second gear there was a noticeable increase in speed, going to third the speed remained pretty much the same. Now though second is barely different than first and when I shift to third the machine comes to a stop after a few seconds. Could this be due to the rails being so tight, or is there another culprit??