Cat 955. Left side track, steering works some days, majority of the time steering does not turn

[flyman]

Caterpillar 955. My left side track, the steering will work some days, and majority of the time will not work. Over the months, I’ll make slight adjustments, it will sometimes work for 30 mins, an hour and out of the blue work all day or until I turn off the machine. They nothing, the brake stops working again or will not work at all. I've search for months, reading blogs, youtube, posts.

Is it an easy fix, what does it cost, etc. I had machinic come out and he tighten the adjuster all the way down. Now, the adjuster doesn’t work at all. Just spins and will not return my phone calls.

 

[Dave Neubert]

Check your steering clutch pressures

 

[flyman]

Figured out the brake was at the end of the adjustment. The machinic over turned the adjust screw. The reason why it keeps spinning is the threads of the screw comes out of the support that pushes the retainer that tightens the band/pad around the drum.

Found that the pads were very worn down. The drum had deep groves. Which explains when it worked once a while, when the groves of pad and drum pop out, able to grip the band around the drum.

 

[flyman]

Posting the pictures of worm out pads and drums. I figure once in a blue moon when it did pop out of the groves, it would grip and begin turning correctly. New pads are $2k. It took a while, and lucky to find used pads at 90% off a machine being torn down.