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cat 988a poor steering
- Thread starter EARTHWORM
- Start date
Chisumtrail
Well-Known Member
Have you checked steering cylinders for leaking in the cylinder?
kshansen
Senior Member
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- Central New York, USA
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- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
How about a s/n? Seems I recall a few different versions of this machine, different types of pumps and also some have ground driven steering that adds to the possibilities of problems.
kshansen
Senior Member
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Hard to judge how bad it is steering without being there but I would not expect to have it steer as fast and easy at idle as at full speed. Even our much newer 980 G's will steer slow and stiff at low engine speeds.. Not sure if I still have any manuals at work for the 988A's, tried finding the info on SIS but seems they only have parts books for them online.
Been way too many years since I worked on one of that vintage but seem to recall that the pump that fills the brake accumulator when it reaches full brake pressure it then switches to help supply the steering system.
A machine of that vintage if it still has the original engine the s/n of the engine should be the same as the machine. Also the s/n should be on a tag on either the right or left side of the front frame. Look a bit above the height of the steering cylinder on the flat side of the frame, if the tag is gone the numbers should be stamped into the frame. Does this machine have the fiberglass cab?
Been way too many years since I worked on one of that vintage but seem to recall that the pump that fills the brake accumulator when it reaches full brake pressure it then switches to help supply the steering system.
A machine of that vintage if it still has the original engine the s/n of the engine should be the same as the machine. Also the s/n should be on a tag on either the right or left side of the front frame. Look a bit above the height of the steering cylinder on the flat side of the frame, if the tag is gone the numbers should be stamped into the frame. Does this machine have the fiberglass cab?
kshansen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
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- 11,175
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- Central New York, USA
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- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
I just checked on SIS and as I thought all the 988 87A loaders have the same brake system that includes the accumulator.
As I recall there is a panel on the floor behind the cab and in front of the airfilters. The accumulator is under there. It looks like an hydraulic cylinder standing on end with no ram coming out of it. A machine of that vintage would have a drum type parking brake on the engine side of the transmission.
If I get some free time tomorrow at work I'll look to see if I saved any books on these 87A's, I think we gave them to a guy near here that works on the older Cat equipment.
Some place on this site I uploaded some old pictures of the 988's that were from Cat back when that machine was new!
Try doing a search here for "Old Cat Loader Pictures"
Last edited:
kshansen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
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- 11,175
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- Central New York, USA
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- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
I did find a service manual for 988 87A loaders it's a little newer than your's it is dated Oct. 1972. It has the newer parking brake that is spring applied/hyd. release but most every thing should be the same.
One test they call for is checking the steering speed. Test is to be done with warm oil and at high engine speed. It says turn from full right to full left and then full left to full right should be no slower than 3.0 seconds and should be equal in each direction within 0.3 seconds.
If you can send me by "private message" a personal email address I could scan in the pages on the steering system and send them to you, might take a day or two if the weather gets bad here again.
One test they call for is checking the steering speed. Test is to be done with warm oil and at high engine speed. It says turn from full right to full left and then full left to full right should be no slower than 3.0 seconds and should be equal in each direction within 0.3 seconds.
If you can send me by "private message" a personal email address I could scan in the pages on the steering system and send them to you, might take a day or two if the weather gets bad here again.