When Catpillar tells you to replace parts do it ....Just saying

[truecountry]

Project finished but this d6h with 10899 hours was run after Cat Tech came out and said everything is worn out and tracks are leaning meaning pivot shaft bearing are bad etc ......Well 14500 later for tracks ,idlers and rollers and bolts etc , the machine work started pivot shafts built up and turned 1000 ea ...roller housing where equalizer pins go line bored 1800 for both sides ..equalizer was scraped and purchased new 1299..labor lol I lost count...just parts and machine work 19599..

 

[truecountry]

 

[truecountry]

Life aint easy ...and I didn't like blocking it up but what else could I do

 

[redneckracin]

OUCH!!!!!! Thats a tough bill to chew on!

 

[Desertwheeler]

Probably wouldn't have made a difference if you replaced the parts when he told you or not. But damn that has to hurt!

 

[truecountry]

OUCH!!!!!! Thats a tough bill to chew on!

Yup it was and I tolded my Boss damn lets stop this quick we have 4 dozers d6h d5m and 2 d5ns....D5m broke a pivot shaft and I found a old new stock cat for 900 and replaced it and bearings ..talked to a old retired cat tech and he tolded me seals in these machines suck ...fill them with grease and a lil gear oil ...I thought about this and what could it hurt grease doesnt leak that easy and cheap it pivots but not a lot if you think about it so grease will lube it ....Redneck she shook so bad it shook the hydraulic tank loose and control valve and all linkage ends.. all fixed now but damn long hours and none easy

 

[truecountry]

Probably wouldn't have made a difference if you replaced the parts when he told you or not. But damn that has to hurt!

yes sir it does but 4 months of work she will be making money for a few more years

 

[pafarmer]

Dang ! That's some big cabbage to dish out...

 

[Nige]

..talked to a old retired cat tech and he tolded me seals in these machines suck ...fill them with grease and a lil gear oil ...I thought about this and what could it hurt grease doesnt leak that easy and cheap it pivots but not a lot if you think about it so grease will lube it ....

The main problem with using grease on pivot shafts is that the bushings that the pivot shaft pivots on don't have grease grooves in them to spread the lubricant across the load-carrying surface. So if you take a new/rebuilt pivot shaft with new bushes the shaft-to-bush clearance is going to be too tight for the grease to properly lube the joint and you'll get accelerated wear which is undesireable in a newly-repaired joint that just cost you a shed-load of money IMHO.

I'm not totally against using grease on a worn machine because the clearances are already fairly large so the grease can actually get in there.

Also to lube a pivot shaft would need an NLGI #2 grease that has very high load-bearing capacity (say 500kg weld point) and probably 5% molybdenum disulphide as well. That's a fairly specialized type of grease and not one that most maintenance shops would have kicking around in their back pocket.

 

[Multiracer]

Question.......

Your $19,995.00 figure. Does that include a complete new CAT undercarriage as well as your machine work ?

 

[DPete]

Just think of the tax deduction

 

[truecountry]

Your $19,995.00 figure. Does that include a complete new CAT undercarriage as well as your machine work ?

Yes sir Cat undercarriage plus cat machine work ......I had the sales lady sharpen her pencil 3 times

 

[truecountry]

general duty 4000 hour rated

 

[RayF]

I have never heard of welding up pivot shafts and machining them. I thought that would be a definite no no. I'm more familiar with the 9's and tens. Theres an allowance for machining the shaft undersize and fitting undersize bearings. I've line bored the shaft bores many times. Bob your head up and collect that drive sprocket. Great fun!
Machining the ends of the equaliser bar is pretty standard. Easy enough if the loose bearing hasn't taken out the circlip grooves.

 

[Nige]

Ray, I wouldn't weld and machine a pivot shaft on a larger machine either because it would be too easy to distort the shaft when welding with them being so long and all.

On the smaller machines the shafts are literally 2 short stubs that bolt on the outside of the machine frame. If I had damaged ones I would be more inclined to metal spray them and then on reinstallation index the shafts 120 or 180 degrees from their original orientation depending on the extent of the wear that was on them. At $1000 per shaft to refurbish versus $3000 each for new shafts I can see the attraction.

 

[RayF]

Thanks Nige. The photo's make sense now. I've only done pivot shafts on the bigger machines.

 

[Nige]

This is what the assembly looks like on tractors up to a D6H in size. D7H and above use the single long pivot shaft that goes right through the chassis from one side to the other. The bolts #1 fix the two pivot shaft assemblies to the machine chassis - the ring of bolt holes you can see right under the final drive in the first post.

 

[truecountry]

Ray, I wouldn't weld and machine a pivot shaft on a larger machine either because it would be too easy to distort the shaft when welding with them being so long and all.

On the smaller machines the shafts are literally 2 short stubs that bolt on the outside of the machine frame. If I had damaged ones I would be more inclined to metal spray them and then on reinstallation index the shafts 120 or 180 degrees from their original orientation depending on the extent of the wear that was on them. At $1000 per shaft to refurbish versus $3000 each for new shafts I can see the attraction.

I did as Caterpillar quoted and asked them to call me with any problems .... I thought they did great work and was right price

 

[truecountry]

Guys im on a fixed cash flow I have to call 12 to 25 machine shops to do this 1 quoted me 8000 just to do machine work and cat low balled them and better to deal with

 

[RayF]

Guys im on a fixed cash flow I have to call 12 to 25 machine shops to do this 1 quoted me 8000 just to do machine work and cat low balled them and better to deal with

You never called me. I can easy beat those prices and still make good money. Send them down.