My Wife's Hide/Part 1

[KensAuto]

The knock was the isolator, just how it's designed I guess. It does have some wear in the splines but should last the rest of my life.
Since I didn't have to spend 2 grand on the isolator, I decided to build the engine. She had blow-by and blue smoke under load. Looks like someone did it recently, but probably didn't cap the exhaust and rain rusted the cylinders.

Just noticed that I have only mentioned the bad stuff so far.
The good parts are the undercarriage.
Someone has changed all of it at some point.... chains, pads, rollers, and sprockets. They are at 90-95%.

Yesterday I straightened the skid tray.
Don't have a before pic but it was tacoed pretty bad

[KensAuto]

And I thought I was ambitious with these?? I almost pulled the handle on one last week, just $3500. Just can't justify it right now with having 3 tractors and my pad/road is 99% done. Boy was I tempted though, Cat D4 (about the same size) but I could see the drive wheels were shot in the pics already too.

I have been following this guy rebuilding a 1950 D4, very cool.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apf3cJIaeDw&list=PLkzQBXOwxGo_DZVRcJsvQ2qsB0rQOpH87

That's what I was running into. There's plenty of these out there from 2k-15k but you can easily spend $10k on the undercarriage alone.

What year D4 were you looking at?
The old ones weigh close to a JD350 but I think in the 80s they weigh about double.

[stlaser]

Ken, I just ran across this meme and thought of you. Do we need to do an intervention here? Has H driven you to build your own killdozer?




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[JR]

The dozer is just to carry H

[EL TATE]

That escalated quickly.
I see piston an sleeve, that’s not good.
Was this the knock?

yeah this, and was the sleeve cracked before you yarded it out?

[KensAuto]

That escalated quickly.
I see piston an sleeve, that’s not good.
Was this the knock?

yeah this, and was the sleeve cracked before you yarded it out?

Naw. The kits come with sleeves so I had to knock it out to see what o-ring set up it had. There's 2 styles, o-rings in the block or on the sleeves. Neither one is a press fit. They just pop out.

[Sammconn]

Well that’s waaaaayyyy easier than press fit.

I remember helping (can’t say doing as I was 12) doing a JD 4630.
It was press fit. Had the danged thing off the ground before a couple sleeves popped.
We did it in the tractor on the farm.
So a bit redneck it was. Lol.

[KensAuto]

I've been researching the crossbar issue in some old posts on some crawler forums.

Let me back up and explain. The entire track assemblies are held on by 2 crossbars. The rear one is a large round bar. The tracks could pivot on these, in theory.
The front one is basically a large cross member, bolts to the frame, transmission, and sticks out supporting the tracks. It uses 4, 5/8" bolts on top, and 2, 3/4" bolts on the inside....per track. These bolts have shouldered bushings and oversized holes to allow some movement. Terrible design. The steel actually rusts and wears away over time.

The fix is to just put new bolts and washers to bolt it down firmly, and or weld it all together.

Blue=rear crossbar.
Red= the trouble area

[KensAuto]

The hard to reach bolts, that normally require a 15/16 wrench, were rusted down to about half that.
After burning countless pounds of mig wire, and air hammering til I was deaf, the bolts were removed.....on one side of the machine.

First pics are from the opposite side and look like they've been replaced before (hopefully)

[JR]

My job is easy compared to that. Got em out though!

[stlaser]

Ken, you know I buy ear plugs with the little string attached to them in bulk. Pretty cheap compared to hearing aids. In your case you’d get added benefit of not having to hear as much from H, come to think of it maybe why you chose not to wear hearing protection in first place…..

[KensAuto]

The holes have a slight recess at the top. I ground washers to fit (each one was different) then added more washers above them to try and keep tension on the bolts. I was going to fab inserts to fill the holes, and plates to shim up the crossbar, to replace the missing metal, but decided it would be way too much unnecessary work.

One more side to do.

[rpar86]

Only grade 5 hardware? That’s what the 3 marks is, right?

[KensAuto]

...and then there's this job coming up.

[JR]

Maybe a little slope in the pin. Its greene is coming out.

[KensAuto]

Only grade 5 hardware? That’s what the 3 marks is, right?

Good catch, but if you could only see the threads...lol
I also assume that there's going to be a bunch of flexing going on down there, especially since I couldn't get the mating surfaces flat. The 5s should be more forgiving, at least in my mind.

[KensAuto]

Maybe a little slope in the pin. Its greene is coming out.

Naw, she's always been yellow. You're seeing the rust!

[JR]

Naw, greene as in John Deere.

Think my blade pins are a little sloppy too.

[KensAuto]

Naw, greene as in John Deere.

Think my blade pins are a little sloppy too.

Oh, gotcha. Haha

 It's amazing that they don't put grease zerks on some of the pins but they do on others. I've seen that on some Deere backhoes also.

[Bigdave_185]

All of our new equipment is lacking grease fittings, the whole track area is fitting free non serviceable, replace as needed on Deere anyway


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[Farmer Jon]

All of our new equipment is lacking grease fittings, the whole track area is fitting free non serviceable, replace as needed on Deere anyway


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It is the same with all new equipment. My Kenworth has 1/4 the amount of zerks my old truck had. Disk brakes eliminate some but there is nothing to grease in the driveline either. It used to take half an hour to grease the combine every morning. Now it takes 5 minutes.

[Bigdave_185]

That is the one place I hate to grease is drivelines!!! My Mack has four joints I think.. crawling under there and fighting our shop floor drain, and not being able to roll under the axle!!!

New stuff sucks a lot!


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[JR]

Did that for years Dave, mostly in the dirt. I don't miss maintaining/repairing all that stuff.

[KensAuto]

Made some bushings for the dozer frame. The pushing forces from the blade end up at these 2 points. The bushings are almost 1/8" thick and have a 1/4" flange. That's as wide as I could fit. A bunch of freehand grinding to make them fit, then welded in.

And no Ryan, it isn't right, and won't last.... maybe. 

[JR]

Nice Job. Have you watched Cutting Edge Eng on YT? Out of AUS, the guy is great and does all kinds of repairs on const equip like bushings and cyclinders.

He welds and bores those one the machine.

[rpar86]

And no Ryan, it isn't right, and won't last.... maybe. 

I was going to challenge this remark… then remembered the grade 5 hardware I pointed out… carry on.

[KensAuto]

Nice Job. Have you watched Cutting Edge Eng on YT? Out of AUS, the guy is great and does all kinds of repairs on const equip like bushings and cyclinders.

He welds and bores those one the machine.

I watch all his videos.
#1- cheapest line boring tool is from China. $2000+ $1500 shipping.
#2- absolutely no room for such a set-up.
#3-Pulling out subframe is not a small task. Would have to remove transmissions and track assemblies to use a boring tool... that I don't have.

...flappy wheels FTW!!!

[KensAuto]

So I'll give you guys something else to critique. Replacement pins for the dozer frame are $167 each... that's $334 for 2.
Factory pins (and bushings I found out) are hardened.
1-1/2" hitch pins from the local store are $30 each. You guessed it, $60 for 2!

The dirt is very soft at our place in Idaho. Soft dirt, soft pins. Perfect!

First I had to cut to length, then make square flanges. The pins aren't meant to turn, nor do they have grease points. I may change that.

I don't think I could wear these pins and bushings out in my lifetime, especially for how often it will be used, and the type of use. Worse case I bend the pins but if so, oh well.

[KensAuto]

And back together. Can't believe it fit.
Also did some touchup paint while the motor is out.

Just waiting on the 10 hydraulic lines to show up. I wasn't going to replace them but... typical oil change.
Hopefully I'll be building the engine this weekend. Sent the crank to get polished and having them go through the head.

[Flyin6]

I just haven't figured out how to keep those tracks painted???

;-)

I like this kind of thing #bigredsarge

[Flyin6]

Just my thinking, but end bore the pin (he end that protrudes that you can get to, then cross drill the pin in the center of the bushing/load area, screw a zerk into the open end and grease it every day

[Bob Smith]

And back together. Can't believe it fit.
Also did some touchup paint while the motor is out.

Just waiting on the 10 hydraulic lines to show up. I wasn't going to replace them but... typical oil change.
Hopefully I'll be building the engine this weekend. Sent the crank to get polished and having them go through the head.

Just keep that thing away from the lake, unlike Charles pond that lake get darn deep darn fast. No favors done for the friend that owns lakefront OK

[TexasRedNeck]

LOL Bob.  Ken’s not used to being close to water…

Ken, you can heat treat them yourself.  You have the Katana forge…jus sayin.


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[KensAuto]

LOL Bob.  Ken’s not used to being close to water…

Ken, you can heat treat them yourself.  You have the Katana forge…jus sayin.


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Doesn't quite work like that Charles.

Bob, hahaha. Good thing my property is on the side of a mountain.
...oh wait, there's a river at the bottom. Hmm

[TexasRedNeck]

I trust you can figure it out Ken….

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_treating


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[stlaser]

Ken, toss those pins aside and buy some known 4140 round then oil quench it.

https://www.metalsdepot.com/alloy-steel-products/4140-alloy-round-bar

[KensAuto]

I trust you can figure it out Ken….

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_treating


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Doesn't do anything to mild steel.


Shawn, you don't like my reasons?
They'll be just fine.

[stlaser]

I trust you can figure it out Ken….

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_treating


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Doesn't do anything to mild steel.


Shawn, you don't like my reasons?
They'll be just fine.

You can case harden it but for this application not sure how much it will help

Up until you try to push H………

[JR]

Nice work Ken. Doubt you needed to go as far with the RR as the Ausi does, but great insight and work.

Yeah some goo hardened rod would do the trick and not crazy $$. I would not drill the pins, but the housing. Pins are out anyway right?

[KensAuto]

Started putting the engine back together. Found out the rod to piston pin bushings are way out of spec so I'm having the machine shop install and hone out some new ones.

Also made a patch for the rusted out muffler (new one is $400).

Need to take some more pics.

[JR]

pics aren't showing up, mostly grey

[Flyin6]

pics aren't showing up, mostly grey

Too large of a file?

[stlaser]

pics aren't showing up, mostly grey

Too large of a file?

My money is on that H was in the pic, camera broke……

[rpar86]

I’ve been complaining to Tapatalk for weeks now… pic upload failing repeatedly. Their excuse is “they’re doing server maintenance”. I’m guessing something happened with your pic upload which is why they’re mostly gray.

[KensAuto]

pics aren't showing up, mostly grey

Too large of a file?

My name isn't Don!

[KensAuto]

Muffler patched up.

Fixed a hole in the radiator. Painstakingly straightened all the fins.

Then straightened the fan blade previously destroyed from the alternator bracket that came loose, and the beat up shroud. Rattle can. Repeat.

[KensAuto]

On to replace all 10 hydraulic hoses. I don't trust the local shops and decided to hit up "DiscountHydraulicHose.com" for a second time. I had factory specs from the service manual, which really helped because over the years someone has changed them, some of which were too long.
You pic the style of hose, length, and fitting size. You can type out custom labels for .50 each which makes it handy...lift cylinder #1, tilt #2, etc.
I opted to install protective sleeving myself.
All 10 hoses (2 wire, 4800psi) was $360+ tax. Very reasonable.

The dozer runs 2000 psi hydraulics but opted for a bit more durability.

[JR]

I will have to remember them. Using NAPA cost me at least $400 for 3-4 hoses, but done as I waited.

[KensAuto]

...that was the passenger side consisting of 6 hoses.
The lift cylinder on the left side was leaking so I got a seal kit. No biggie, just repack it and move on, right?

Yeah, no.

I guess the Deere engineers from today were trained by the previous generations. So there's a jamb nut, like most rebuildable cylinders. Typically the rod guide (or cylinder head) is threaded into the cylinder. Not on this one.
It pushes in. Matter of fact, it can be pushed to the bottom of the cylinder.
There's a snap ring that keeps it from coming out. There's a large void that can hold approximately 1-2 tablespoons of water where the snap ring resides....it was so rusted I couldn't tell what was what.
There's no direct replacement that I could find.
After 2 days of chiseling, hammering, picking and needle scaling, I found the ring.
You have to drive the head down into the cylinder to remove the snap ring.
I did.... but it wasn't pretty. Now it's not just stuck, it's stuck covering up the fluid port. It's amazing how much air can be compressed...

So, I tied the rod to a forklift with a chain hoist and pumped air into the open port. Nada.

So I beat the living **** out of the cylinder, and to my surprise, it basically exploded across the shop, bouncing off of the forklift, anvil, and 4 small children.

Sorry, couldn't not share some of my stupidity. What a mess. (Last 2 pics.. I already moved the forklift drenched in hydraulic fluid)

[KensAuto]

... And seals finally installed.