The red filler cap is for the splitter box. There should be a dipstick under it.
I would like to suggest you do the checks I wrote about on page 2 of this thread and report back.
Thought maybe there was some folks that had spent time in the 977l and then moved to newer machines. My 977l is going to be a farm machine(if I keep it). I want to dig up some somewhat soft limestone with it. Small stuff for roads big stuff for retaining walls. I just retired at 55. I have quite...
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If you're keen to shortcut the troubleshooting process, your problem sound like it
may be similar to this one.
Hello new member here. I have an early 80s 953 78y01021 intermittent left side tracking problem. Bare with me as this is hard for me to explain, the left track doesn't engage at all times but sometimes will and it's fine until you stop again forward or reverse. We did a test so to speak when it...
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At high idle, on solid level ground, both tracks start moving at the same time going forward or reverse, even at the slightest movement. I did notice when I was hung up in the mud the other day, and there was basically no weight on the tracks, moving FNR forward, right track moves slightly before the left. Didn’t take much more movement of FNR for the left to start, but it was a slight bit behind. On solid ground though, no difference.
At medium slow speed. Push left pedal slowly, it will turn slowly, both tracks still driving. Push left pedal more, left track will stop. To the floor, left track counter-rotate. Same in reverse.
At medium slow speed moving forward, push right pedal slowly, it turns right, both tracks still driving. Push right pedal more, right track will stop, and push further it will counter steer. In reverse however, push right pedal a little, and it doesn’t seem to do anything. Just keeps driving backward. In-fact, sometimes at just the right amount of reverse on the FNR, it will actually steer the wrong way - left track stops, and right track continues to power backward. However, give it a little more lever and it turns correctly. It’s only at the first 1/4 of reverse travel on the lever that it acts up.
And this is all true of any RPM. Basically machine does all movements as expected, except with low speed reverse request on the FNR, using right pedal, regardless of throttle or RPM, that is the only place it malfunctions.
So basically while digging tonight, I simply had to commit to hard right turns when in reverse. Give it enough FNR and it behaves pretty nicely.
Machine seems to move forward about as fast as it should. Brisk walk / slow jog. I could outrun it for 30 ft until I ran out of breath..
Engine does not bog at full speed at all. I’ve been hauling heaping buckets of coal shale up a 14% grade and it does bog and slow, but still keeps a respectable pace up the hill. Also with a load like that, it seems to pull less hard to the left.
Machine pulls to the left when going forward, and backward. Slow speed, high speed, seems to be consistent no matter the speed. I’d say by 100 feet I’m facing 10 degrees to the left and 10’ off my original center line.
Slam into neutral or slam center brake - does not lurch to either side - it stops evenly.
Driving into a pile, the tracks will spin and engine will load up but stay revved. Pulling up on the bucket and still moving forward, RPM’s drop but engine pulls strong / have to completely load up hydraulics to bog engine.
Park on a hill, put in neutral, doesn’t move. I did notice it will roll back a little on a hill before going forward, when slowly pulling FNR forward.
Filled the transmission up tonight with $100 of TO-4 and moved a bunch of dirt with it - everything else seems pretty solid, and this track travel issue is not a show stopper, so long as I’m not going to ruin the machine further by running it like this for a couple hundred hours
