Cat 955L saved from being paperclips. Looking for help on tensioners and injectors.

[kb9tci]

Hello all! I have been researching on this forum for quite some time and have found a wealth of information that has helped tremendously, but I need some more knowledge.

I have just joined so I can hopefully find some answers. I have recently rescued a 955L from the thought of being scrapped. I brought the old gal home and I am trying to give her some love to get some more life out of her.

She has been setting for a few years after the previous owner let her overheat with a clogged radiator. He cracked the head, so they pulled it down on the spot and changed the head. He said he spent $2000 on the head and $1000 on the water pump. They fired it up and it was still dumping water in the oil and combustion gas in the antifreeze. That was enough to make him mad, so they loaded up the machine, hauled it home, and put it out to pasture.

After perusing craigslist for something completely unrelated, I found her and had to bring her home. I made the two hour drive a few times to drop the oil and get her running long enough to load on the lowboy. That was an adventure in itself, as the steering booster was frozen up on one side, so I had a one sided adventure getting her on the detachable.

The hour meter surprised me at 3800 hours. Must be broken. Wait a minute, it works! Definitely bringing it home! Tracks in decent shape, rollers a little worn, but would be OK for what I need.

The fuel was rotten. It was also slimy. Oh boy.... I had it running for about 5 minutes before it plugged the filters. Nasty, nasty stuff. I changed filters and got it to prime up and run some more. Had to keep the cap off the radiator because of all the combustion gas, but it ran enough to move and load.

Got her home and started pulling her apart. I found that the input plungers on the booster had rust from condensation. Got the rust off the booster input plunger and made sure the steering clutches worked. It was a big relief to feel power from both sides!

This means that it was time to attack the engine. Got the loader in the air and the sheetmetal off. I finally got to test the capacity of the pit in the farm shop. That sure beats the heck out of working in a space I can almost lodge myself into.

I decided to pull the oil pan off after dropping the belly plates. I am expecting to find cracked sleeves from the overheat. I drop the oil and the pan and see water dripping past the number one and two pistons from the bottom. I pumped up the radiator to 20lbs and water was dripping, so off comes the head.

Water is setting on 1, 2, and 3 pistons. What the heck is this? Gasket is great, but I look up and see water around the precombustion chambers on 3 of 4 cylinders. The chambers were loose! They came out with channel locks! I am already into the engine, so I pulled the sleeves and I am resealing everything with new rings and rod bearings.

So this gets to problem number one- the bosses inside the head are pitted, and I am not sure how to get them to seal against the bottom of the chambers. The "gaskets" are steel spacers.

By the way, I pulled the fuel tank and am getting it dipped. Twice...

Problem number two is the track tensioner. The tracks were tight when I first saw the machine. Now one side is limp and the other side relaxed a bit. The limp side has adjuster problems, so I pulled off the guards and found my spring was broke right at the end. There is not even a full revolution of what broke off. I will replace it eventually. Maybe.

The problem is with the vent holes. There are two vent holes that are oozing grease. I tightened up both the valve and the fill. It seemed to slow it down but will not pump tight. Is this bad valves?

Sorry for the novel, but I would appreciate any advice!!

 

[kb9tci]

I forgot to mention it is a '75 model 85J. Open rops with a 4-n-1 with an extra counterweight.

 

[DMiller]

You will need to send that head out, maybe Chapin Head in Chapin IL could work it where the pre-chambers will seal, they have pulled a few miracles for those garages I have worked in the past. As to the rails adjusters, get the units apart, sound like you have corrosion products there messing with the reliefs and get that rebound spring replaced unless you really want to roll a track back on in the field.

http://www.chapincylinderhead.com/

Fuel, the slime you mentioned is algae, blow out all the lines, drain anything that had fuel in it and flush, flush, flush, you will have a few filter load ups even at this but will be ok.

 

[kb9tci]

I have been looking around at aftermarket springs. I know it is a bit of an ordeal to change the spring itself. Not worth the gamble of having that blow up on me. I will put a call in to the local-ish dealer to see what the damage will be. Is there any way to pull the valve out of the adjuster without major disassembly? I am going to do a repaint next spring, but I have some work needing done with it in the meantime.

I was thinking about spotfacing the head on the mill and adding a copper sealing washer under the chamber. Or just adding a hydraulic sealant to the cleaned threads.

I took the fuel level dipstick into the best diesel shop around and they said that the fuel was way past the point of additive, as the film on everything was inpenatrable.

I took the tank to the radiator shop and they needed to cut a hole in the top of the tank to try and clean it out. We will see how it looks in a few days. The only thing I could get to flush through the lines and remove anything was carb cleaner.

 

[powerjoke]

On the algae matter,

The only ALMOST KINDA SORTA NEARLY for sure way to get rid of the algae is to remove tank (or at least have good access to it) steam it, also wash and steam and blow steel lines and replace all the rubber lines you can, whatever you do don't dump algae killer or use bio-fuel lol

Algae is a bitch there is no good way around it, we even fight it on farm machines that set for as little as 3months especially after using bio-fuel, they put some additive or something in it that kills and breaks it up......as long as it's alive it'll stick to the tank and not cause much problems but as soon as it's dead and starts flaking off......look out!

Just trying to save you hundreds of dollars of fuel filters cuz I been there done that

Pj

 

[wagspe208]

THERE IS some algicide biocide stuff to put in the fuel.
I'd say go for it. It is not expensive.... but once it starts growin it is a PITA.
Wags

 

[kb9tci]

I tried all sorts of additives and biocides and nothing cut it. I left it set for a fee weeks hoping that it would at least loosen up. Not a chance. The lines are soaking full of carb cleaner, and the tank will be good as new except for the welded shut access hole. Most of the misery confined itself to the tank, so I am hoping to not have to mess with the pump.

 

[DMiller]

Try a fuel additive as Startron to fill then blow flush the fuel lines, almost any alcohol Based fuel system additive will work.

As to the head, if the pre-chamber cup seats were so bad they leaked, I would definitely leave it to a pro at a head repair shop before I destroyed a engine trying to prove I could fix it on the cheap. Sounds like that option came close to fruition already.

As to the adjustment leaks, I am awaiting the Cat masters here to pipe in, seems they are awfully quiet right now.

 

[Outasite]

I once bought a diesel powered life boat that had sat for years,had never had any algae until then.Holy crapp that stuff sucks!Anyway I was at the marina changing filters,for about the tenth time,there was a Cat service man,working on a new Tiara,he took a liking to the old life boat and we talked about the algae.He went to his truck and came back with a little brown bottle with a eye dropper end.He said how much in the tank I said fifteen gallons,he put in THREE drops after that I did have to change the filters a few more times,but even after storing for quite a while no more algae problems.I did ask what the drops were and all he would say is "PURE CYINIDE" whatever it was, it killed that crapp!!!!

 

[Nige]

As to the adjustment leaks, I am awaiting the Cat masters here to pipe in, seems they are awfully quiet right now.

Still sleeping. It is Sunday y'know ...........

The track tension grease fill/drain valves have a conical face at the bottom end of them. You'll have to pull the valves right out and check the condition of both the end of the valve and the seat in the track tensioner cylinder. You might have to do a bit of remedial work on the machined faces in the tensioner cylinder. If the bottom of the valves are bad you have the option of playing around with them or replacement.

Don't mess with track tensioners unless you really have a good idea of what you're doing. There have been a couple of threads about 951's where the owners have replaced broken springs. If you don't replace the spring you WILL regret it at some point down the road IMHO. See photo at the bottom of this page of tctractors thread shwoing the replacement process.

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/showthread.php?23240-using-a-bit-of-muscle-(hydraulic)/page37

I'm sure Tony himself will be along in a while with ideas regarding the engine, but for my money don't try to bodge it. It will come back and bite you in the rear end if you do. Proper engineering fixes are around for all the problems you describe. How about posting some photos of the damage..?

 

[kb9tci]

Thanks, Nige, for the visual! I am not a stranger to hydraulic help. It was in a completely unrelated field but I've used them quite a bit in the field I used to work in.

I looked at a few of those pics in that post and I am very thankful I have this machine inside on concrete over a pit. I could not imagine rebuilding one in the middle of a "pond"! I can deal with the cold.

I'm looking at springs. Cat wants $1500 for just the spring. I think that the $200 aftermarket one wins. Now to see if I can find someone to change it. I can always torch the old spring and dissasemble myself. The book says a 15 ton press will do it as long as there is enough stroke. Not sure about that...

 

[kb9tci]

I've now got 40 gallons of brush pile starter. The fuel was so bad I gave up. I cried a little when I emptied that much out of the tank.

 

[DMiller]

Sometimes a little wasted is better than wasting time and other resources. I know how costly it is but you will be better off in the long run.

 

[Nige]

I'm looking at springs. Cat wants $1500 for just the spring. I think that the $200 aftermarket one wins. Now to see if I can find someone to change it. I can always torch the old spring and dissasemble myself. The book says a 15 ton press will do it as long as there is enough stroke. Not sure about that...

Nobody said you had to buy a Cat spring.......and unfortunately there is no Cat Classic Part (cheaper price range) available to replace it.

Cutting the coils of the old one with oxy-acetylene will get it off without drama, installing the new one will be a little more difficult. According to the machine Service Manual the cylinder required for disassembly & assembly of the recoil spring assembly is a 9S-8900 which is rated at 70 tons - a bit more than the 15-tons you mention. It doesn't necessarily mean you need all the 70 tons, but that's what the manual calls for.

 

[GregD1]

If you do not have the proper tooling for the recoil spring as has been mentioned, do NOT try it yourself. If it all goes wrong wrong the least that will happen is somebody gets hurt. It will kill somebody real fast.
As for your head problem, find a good engine shop. I did an old D-8 years ago with the same problem. He made a shaft that screwed into the pre ccombustion threads and used his valve grinder an a stone to lightly clean up the face of the seal surface. The seal rings are different thickness so that you can index them for the glow plugs anyhow so if the glow plugs don`t line upm change to a different thickness seal ring. Have fun and be very careful.

 

[kb9tci]

I went ahead and ordered a selection of the sealing rings. That is a good idea on the valve grinder. I may see what I can come up with.

On the track spring, if I can get the vent to stop leaking, I am going to try and limp it by until I repaint next year.

Nige, can I pull the tensioner valve out around that shield? The shield looks like its welded on.

 

[Nige]

PM me your e-mail address & your exact Serial Number and I'll send you the Service Manual showing how to get the tensioner out of the track frame and how to strip/rebuild it. That will include changing the spring.

The plate is held on with 4 big bolts that also hold the recoil mechanism to the tensioner cylinder. Don't go loosening those bolts unless you have first relieved all the pressure in the tensioner.

 

[tctractors]

The Safety Guard over the Valves is usualy bolted in place with 2 bolts, these can be removed without any drama after the valves are undone some.

 

[kb9tci]

Tctractors, I will look a little closer at it then. It looked like it was welded on the recoil rod flange. I pm'd you, Nige. Maybe you have something better than what I have. I have a service manual for it, but I was shorted the recoil spring section. It jumps from step one to step four on spring removal. Nothung else besides step one and four. Not much help... I got the manual on CD from Jensales and I printed it out and made a binder. I have an OEM parts manual.

 

[tctractors]

Some of the guards are afixed to the rod needing all 4 bolts to be removed, so its the same thing only 2 more bolts to undo, between the cannon section thats the bit with the valves in, and the rod end plate is a square section seal (O Ring) let into the cannon end so try not to damage it, its unlightly to need replacing but things need to part at this section to remove the valves, (unless you cut off the guard?) the recoil spring set up can be a handfull on 951C's as the end mount is a fare enclosure around the spring, the spring also has another spring and tube inside it to increase the weight some, I pressed some recoils free on Friday and have posted up a pic in Shop Talk, the cylinder head is a simple job to sort, the chamber fixing detail is well detailed in the service books and only the hard steel rings will form a seating needed.
tctractors