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Happy New 955L Owner With Questions

Athompson2817

Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
24
Location
Birmingham Al
Hey, i have a 955 that i just walked many of your paths on. Most notable was the fuel tank and radiator/torque cooler. For the fuel tank, mine was full of a tar substance. Wound up putting 20 gallons of straight purple power in there and agitating it with a 1 gallon paint stir with many drill extensions on it over the course of many days. This converted the tar to a brown mud substance. Next i let pure gasoline do the work. I made sure the line going to the engine was disconnected frome the tank and run gasoline through the tank letting it sit for days at the time and agitating with a wooden paddle. I would drain out the tank, let the junk settle, then pour the gas back in the tank and go again till i hardly got any junk out per flush. Rinsed gas from tank with several flushes with diesel fuel. Put a filter right at the tank outlet with a clear bowl so i can monitor contaminant build up.
Just got the radiator rebuilt and installed. The radiator cost $2,500 and the torque cooler new replacement was $1,150 in Birmingham AL.

Now i have to figure out why the machine wont walk straight, every 15' -20' of travel, i have to apply the left brake to keep it going straight. Any ideas? Tracks are within guidelines of tension but one is tighter than the other.
 

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DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Is a alignment check in service manuals for the idlers start there
The one small thing most miss, do a shoe count L to R, old cheat on old rails was cut a link out when worn severely to take up slack, then think of a full size tire on one side a donut the other, one is turning a faster circle
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,258
Location
Canada
I've read in the past (on here) that one track being shorter or looser shouldn't cause a machine not to track straight. Sprockets are the same diameter and should turn at the same speed. Have seen some specialized machines with different length's of tracks on each side.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,258
Location
Canada
I can't remember the thread but I think it was Scrub Puller or tctractors that said a shorter track on one side won't affect tracking on its own. There would have to be something else like a dragging brake or binding on one side to cause it.
 

leadfarmer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2019
Messages
229
Location
SW PA
Ran the machine around to find the leaks and boy did I find one. Fluid pouring out of the front of the torque converter. Amazing what a skid plate full of crud can hide.

t9RATy5.jpg
sNNDZzC.jpg


You can also see a drip from what appears to be the rear main seal (not dealing with that) and my wet flex hoses on the transmission cooler lines I will replace.

i1tgFLS.jpg


5Jbx7Y9.jpg


Looks like I need torque converter input seal 5S4408. I happened to read in another thread that this seal can be replaced by just removing the flexible coupling and shaft between the motor and TC. I also read a sleeve and oversized seal are available if the shaft is scored. Can someone provide PN for those in case I need them? I will also check the input shaft for wobble and replace bearing 5H1901 if needed. Can the front TC cover 8S9058 be removed with just the engine coupling removed?

Aside from this find, I now have a working TC temp gauge and engine oil pressure gauge which are reading in the green zone so that is good. Also fired the machine up with the glow plugs for the first time so that was exciting! I rewired most of the machine. Someone really hacked it, bypassing the ammeter, eliminating the circuit breaker, bypassing the pressure switch for the hour meter, and a broken starter switch was the reason the glow plugs weren’t getting power when the switch was turned to heat. The wiring is back to original diagram now with all gauges working.

I ordered a replacement fuel primer pump. Fuel leaks out of the plunger tube when pumped up and the handle isn’t turned CW to lock, so that can’t be good.

I still have fluid migrating from the transmission to the gear case and I’m debating on pulling the steering pump and trans pump to rebuild/replace. Multiple sources say leakage between the pumps is a common cause of fluid transfer, but the only other cause I could think of would be the steering actuators leaking into the gear case. Is there a way I could observe those operating through an inspection cover to watch for fluid spraying past the seals that actuate the pistons? Edit: wait, don’t these use the fluid from the bevel gear case? So then that leakage wouldn’t matter. Pretty sure the steering pump pulls fluid from the gear case and doesn’t circulate transmission fluid.

I know all of that would be for nothing if the leak is the pinion shaft seal, but people have said this is uncommon to fail. Also, given the amount of fluid transfer, my gut tells me pressure/suction has to be involved. I transferred at least 5 gal of oil from the gear case to transmission after 8 or 16 hours of operating. I don’t think either side of the pinion gear shaft seal is pressurized.
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Sounds eerily similar to the run I made with my Allis
Enjoy putting the machine back in working trim and getting work from it, I did from mine.
 

Athompson2817

Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
24
Location
Birmingham Al
Looks like this unit here ($5 off today for Prime Day if you have Amazon Prime): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...title_oth_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1KRLKF0DBKPYQ
I found my filter on Amazon. It leaks between the housing and the clear bowl as a lot of the reviews indicated. I wish i would have went to a local Ford tractor dealer, they were bound to have one similar. Don't be trying to steal my patten on that bracket. Custom fabrication. Lol.
Also, i highly recommend the ball valve shut offs for the fuel line and drain. I also installed a brass plug in the drain valve to avoid any accidental openings.
 

AllDodge

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2011
Messages
2,289
Location
Kentucky
Amazon and ebay have knock offs, so you really don't know what your actually getting.
You could replace with about any top I'm guessing. Most all use the same thread and outer diameter. Get a racor and I'm guessing it would fit and have no issues
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
One caution, Order OIL Rated hose for those lines, all too many go in and buy by the diameter and use Radiator style hard wall hose, NOT THE SAME. Had that problem on old Fat Allis, all of the flex connection hoses were swollen twice their size as someone installed Coolant rated hose, got Oil Rated and all was good again.
 

Nige

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
28,979
Location
G..G..G..Granville.........!! Fetch your cloth.
One caution, Order OIL Rated hose for those lines, all too many go in and buy by the diameter and use Radiator style hard wall hose, NOT THE SAME. Had that problem on old Fat Allis, all of the flex connection hoses were swollen twice their size as someone installed Coolant rated hose, got Oil Rated and all was good again.
Agreed. See post #137 on previous page. The spec is SAE100R4 oil return hose.
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
My Bad Nige, was thinking he MAY go to a local supplier and just buy by diameter, saw that post and read over it, SORRY!
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Back to the question of repair sleeves.

I checked and Cat does not list in SIS a repair sleeve and oversize seal that I can find.

One option I have used with some success is a Speedi-Sleeve that uses the original size seal:

https://www.skf.com/binaries/pub12/...1337_2-EN-SKF-Speedi-Sleeve_tcm_12-128020.pdf

Depending on the amount of damage to the original shaft surface some extra work may be needed. Such as filling groove worn in shaft with epoxy before installing sleeve. Note when I use the word "shaft" here it could be any round part with the sleeve going over the O.D.

Filling a groove in a round shaft with epoxy can be a problem as with even fast setting epoxy it will tend to flow due to gravity and end up as a drip on the lower side of the shaft. Not good! To get around this on one project I came up with a work around to eliminate the gravity problem. NO! I did not ship it to the International Space Station!

What I did was to clean part very good and mount it in the lathe and as soon as I had the coating of epoxy applied turn lathe on to slowest speed and let it run over night. Next morning epoxy was nice and hard and it had a very smooth finish. Then a light few cuts with sharp tool and a touch with a fine file had the shaft looking almost like new.

A little red loctite and then install Speedi-sleeve and it was ready to be assembled.

One more note, Cat does sell speedi-sleeves or at least did ,but the ones we got from them did not come with the installing cups so they were a bit hard to install although to be fair many times the cups are not deep enough to position where needed on a shaft so it requires a bit of ingenuity to come up with a way to install without damaging them! One reason to not toss out any round hollow scrap!
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
One more thing while I'm rambling on this morning.

This is aimed at Leadfarmer but applies to many people but especially those who have threads like this one that tend to get long.
It can be very helpful if you edit your profile to have it include the information on your machine or machines. One very good example is AllDodge who has this at the bottom:
CAT 416C 4ZN21998
CAT D3B 27Y03918
CAT 955K/L 85J05044 Eng 4B13320 4N4207
International 1997 4700 Dump 466DT
Grove MZ66 Manlift

Saves those trying to help from having to scroll through several posts to find the 8J10466 serial number for a 955L

If not sure how to do this, just double click on your name over to the left and then double click on
"profile page" and then "information" and you can enter it there. In the box that says "signature".
 
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leadfarmer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2019
Messages
229
Location
SW PA
Got the torque converter drive flange out. Has a nice score in it. That won’t be hard to fix now that I see where the sealing diameter is. Getting the old lip seal out is a real pain so far. If I remove the cover plate from the front of the torque converter housing, will the torque converter want to fall out? It would be a lot easier to replace the seal with the plate sitting on my bench.

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