I like the attitude change from the beginning of my thread when I was just interested in the machine.
The interior is in good shape, but you wouldn't have known before I spent 4 hours cleaning vacuuming and wiping down everything and armour all coating everything.
When I went to look at the cat at the dealership I showed up after hours and the salesman I was communicating with had already went home. So I got to talk to a serviceman. He was very honest and blunt about it, like everyone else said, this machine is BIG but I knew what I was getting myself into and what I would be satisfied with. The second thing he said was this motor in the 973 is one of the best motors CAT made, and was the first motor he rebuilt when he was in school. The serviceman was in his mid 50's, he said it had been around 30 years? I never thought the motor would have been around that long. Mechanical injection is what I wanted from the beginning and minimal electronics.
So far I have found a handful of extra bolts and one 7/16 wrench, oh and a quarter lol. I haven't had time to sift through the belly pans but I will most definitely do that I like freebies. When the ground dries around the machine I'm going to move it tomorrow and bring it up by my shop and out of the pasture and I'll get more pictures of how well this thing has actually cleaned up underneath.
Boone, where did you find those rubber bolt on o-rings? Only place I've seen them is on a case loader but I absolutely hate the local case/Volvo dealership.
Some few jobs I have to do are dig some nasty deep holes and push some old wooden grain bins into the hole, and burn them. Same with an old house. Have a few massive rocks bigger then a large dining table that I'm either going to move or just burry deeper. Then word is getting out I have this machine and I might be spreading dirt from fresh dug basements.
I'm going to try my best to figure out which hoses are actually leaking and which ones are just sweating or need to be snugged back up. That pivot shaft seal is driving me nuts just knowing its leaking.