My D6D

[Queenslander]

Now the truth is coming out.
There aren’t many wealthy cattle barons theses days…you’ve actually made your fortune on onlyfans?

 

[.RC.]

Well you have to make sure you use all your assets to make money .

 

[OzDozer]

Wait up, it's getting a bit deep in here ... I'll go get my waders ....

 

[DMiller]

Gonna need hazmat suits and respirators quickly!!

 

[DMiller]

Here in MO Cattle country can buy a Prime Range Steer, having been fed out, hauled to slaughter, aged properly and cut to specs, packaged and flash frozen, all for LESSTHAN $7/lb inclusive of ALL the above, still trying to understand Store Bought Ground Beef(Generally OLD Dairy animals) at $8-14/lb and major cut NAMES as Porterhouse, T-Bone, Roast cuts ALL above $16/lb to $26/lb, many of which are STILL OLD Dairy Animals.

 

[colson04]

Here in MO Cattle country can buy a Prime Range Steer, having been fed out, hauled to slaughter, aged properly and cut to specs, packaged and flash frozen, all for LESSTHAN $7/lb inclusive of ALL the above, still trying to understand Store Bought Ground Beef(Generally OLD Dairy animals) at $8-14/lb and major cut NAMES as Porterhouse, T-Bone, Roast cuts ALL above $16/lb to $26/lb, many of which are STILL OLD Dairy Animals.

Packers and the middle man getting in the way.

I can get a pretty similar rate here buying off the farm and dealing with a small processing facility. Or do it myself from bottle to butcher for even less (on paper - don't look at my labor though for 1 or 2 animals)

 

[.RC.]

The springs turned up and I apprehensively pulled the top cover off the transmission.

Blow me down, it was much simpler then I expected. Three bolts and the top control valve came off.

Three more bolts, then a religious hymn when I found I had to take off the outside oil feed into the transmission, to pull out the inside pipe that feeds the control valve with oil, then the lower control valve came off.

Put in the new springs and all new o-rings. the new springs were a tad longer then the old ones, especially the little check valve spring.

All back together with properly adjusted direction/speed spools (the directional spool was out of adjustment by probably a mm or two) and a test run revealed my problem of the directional clutches not properly engaging at rare times had manifested to not engaging properly, all the time.

Pulled the pressure control valve off, found I had put one spool in backwards. Back in and a few hours test run later revealed that gear changes are snappier. Reverse no longer has a long lag to engage, and I could not get it to play up.

I should borrow this pressure gauge to check the pressures though and adjust the shims as necessary.

But all in all I think it was money well spent. Was quite clean in there and lots of centre pop ID marks from whoever rebuilt it.

 

[.RC.]

Last two pics.

 

[Welder Dave]

It's always good when you can fix what might be a little complicated by yourself. Great job!

 

[DMiller]

Just a Caution.
Try to locate a heat gun and attempt to check heat signature on the Trans cooler section of the radiator, the worst enemy of spring tension inside a hydraulic system is Heat retained.
Could be just cyclical age on the springs but excess heat could beat on the new ones.

 

[Costnsg]

It is also interesting the lack of simple cheap maintenance that is not done. The hydraulic control linkages on this machine have a lot of slop. In fact I am not sure how people used it successfully with so much slop.

RC, my D5B seems to share a fair amount of parts with the D6D, must be about the same vintage or have a lot of overlap. In any case, my hydraulic linkage also had a lot of slop, I ended up replacing the bracket that holds the bell cranks, the bell cranks themselves, several rod ends, and had to heat and straighten the rods under the floor plates. It's quite a lot better now. I wish I could replace the lever on the front of the hydraulic tank, but that's a big job. The hole for the pin is oblong, but not much room to work on it between the tank and the back of the engine. Before and after pics included. I found original cat parts from Nat'l Equip Dealers.

Just noticed in your thread that the year for yours is 1977, same as my D5B.

Well, I should have looked at the dates on your thread. My comments are a bit late to be of any consequence. Sorry about that.

 

[.RC.]

I replaced all the tie rod ends on mine. I repaired those bell cranks. it is much better then it was, but there are that many joints it takes next to no wear for there to be a lot of slop. I never understood why when all the bigger machines that came out in 1974 ( 7G, 8K and 9H) they moved to pilot valve's controlling the hydraulics the 6D which came out years later they kept it the same as 1950's design for the hydraulics.

 

[DMiller]

Cat preferred Simplicity to complexity back in the day. Linkages were a solid value and inexpensive to construct, Hydraulics were back then problematic tended to leak A LOT. Had a Allis 7G, Rockford Clutch built the nmajority of Drive components but were Unique to the machine. Were temperamental and tended to need a lot of care. IH/Drott, Case used similar components but nothing interchanged. Ball Eyes and Heim joints could be acquired or carried cheaply by suppliers forty to fifty years ago.

 

[.RC.]

Goodness me, if it is not one thing it is another.

I guess I should have put some sealant on that dead axle keyway when I put it back together. The nut is tight so seeping down that keyway is about the only place this oil can come from.

 

[Costnsg]

Oh no! Sorry, RC. I feel your pain.

 

[.RC.]

I am not worried about it. Easy fix, loosen off the bearing preload, remove the nut and plate. clean up the key way area, fill with gasket goo. Reinstall everything.

 

[Pony]

They are forecasting another La Nina in the next few months, so give you something to do while it's raining.

 

[Costnsg]

I have a leaking seal of my own, oil present outboard side of the right sprocket. I'm going to finish what I have in progress before I shift focus to that. I've never been into one, so no idea what I'll be getting into.

 

[Costnsg]

RC, do you have to break the track to do that job?

 

[skyking1]

Thanks for the great pics and explanation of your process, @.RC.

As to your rocks, they look awfully familiar. Nice eyeball @OzDozer

they decompose all right. Some of them better than others.