D6c Dead Axle repair

[D6c10K]

I've got a loose dead axle on one final drive. By marking the position of the outer hub and checking it I can see that the axle has turned some a couple of times. The last time I had it worked on it was very marginal on the taper so they tack welded the inner end of the axle to the case in hopes of keeping it from moving. The weld didn't hold and now I'm back to figuring out a repair.

The good way to fix it is to bore out the case and put in a bushing to renew the taper. I talked with Cat a while back, and to make a bushing, bore it, and install was quoted at $8,500....ouch.
Rather than have them do all the work, I thought I'd use a local independent shop, make up the bushings myself, and have Cat come out and just do the bore.
Well, that'd be fine but Cat doesn't have the bushing and won't let loose with any info on the bushing itself.

Does anyone out there know of a source for the bushings, made up their own bushings, or have dimensions for the ones Cat used to supply? Short of getting a new dead axle, taking measurements from it, and making up my own bushing I'm not sure where to go from here.

 

[Alberta Cowman]

Just doing a D6C 99J with a broken dead axle. If yours has turned in the bore I'm thinking you'll need a new one anyways due to it being scarred up.

I contemplated doing a similar repair to mine as it broke 3/8" inside the bore and scarred slightly on the outside 3/8" of the bore( that was fun to pull). I chanced it and the new dead axle was within spec when pressed in. I'd find a new dead axle and have an independent line borer come to build it up and bore the correct taper on it. I'd be afraid of the bushing coming loose in the bore.

There's a few linebore outfits here and most do great work. Would be a couple $k to do but certainly not $8500. Not sure about Iowa.

 

[oldirt]

my d has been sleeved.. this was a common fix years ago when these tractors were current. you might ask several different repair guys about this, cat most likely will not want to mess with this (which might have something to do with their sky high quote).

 

[D6c10K]

Just doing a D6C 99J with a broken dead axle. If yours has turned in the bore I'm thinking you'll need a new one anyways due to it being scarred up.

I contemplated doing a similar repair to mine as it broke 3/8" inside the bore and scarred slightly on the outside 3/8" of the bore( that was fun to pull). I chanced it and the new dead axle was within spec when pressed in. I'd find a new dead axle and have an independent line borer come to build it up and bore the correct taper on it. I'd be afraid of the bushing coming loose in the bore.

There's a few linebore outfits here and most do great work. Would be a couple $k to do but certainly not $8500. Not sure about Iowa.

Bore welding would be fine but I don't know of anyone that would have equipment to bore a taper. Back when they were doing a lot of these I would have thought it would have been much easier for Cat to have a special tapered reamer to clean up the hole and then supply an axle with and oversize taper....would have been much simpler.

 

[Vetech63]

Is buying a used housing out of the question? I would think there would be housings and dead axles on the market.

 

[D6c10K]

Is buying a used housing out of the question? I would think there would be housings and dead axles on the market.

The housing is one piece...the bevel gear case and main frame are all one piece and the starting component to put the tractor together. It would require a complete disassembly of the entire machine to swap cases.

 

[oldirt]

I can't remember now what the cat mechanic told me when he was rebuilding my final drive but I believe he said they used some type of boring device to get the hole to the new sleeve's dimension.. as he was pointing out to me that mine had a sleeve.

 

[seanrogers]

8500$??? That's insane and too much. I remember when I got my axle repair job done at axle doctors in California, after saying it so many times and
But by the time changes, money becomes nothing.

 

[Theweldor]

Odds are pretty good the way they went about that is the housing was bored straight and the sleeve has the taper machined in it. Pretty common practice.