D65P-8 Komatsu final drive repair

[Twisted]

Here we go guys.

I decided to start my own thread so I don't muck up tctractors final drive thread with my ramblings.

Long story short, I have an older dozer with a lot of new parts that has a final drive making bad noises. I found the tooling & a mechanic if needed from a couple of local contractors if & where needed. I spent a couple hours with the pressure washer tonight cleaning things up & will clear out a spot to do the repair tomorrow. Fixing this old rig might not be profitable but I don't want to be the guy scrapping some good old iron if it isn't too expensive of a repair. I don't want to buy a newer dozer & run into all of the same issues. I'm a little nostalgic as well.

I'm not good at taking pictures and posting updates but I will do my best because these type of threads have helped me a lot over the years. I hope to repay the favor with a thread of my own. This may seem like a simple project to some but nothing to tackle for others.

I hope to pull both finals for a complete inspection then repair as needed. My 2yo son was helping clean by peeing on the blade. We all do our part I guess.

Thanks,
Twisted

 

[lantraxco]

The good news is, if you do it right and take care of it you should get thousands of trouble free hours from the old girl once it's done.

:drinkup

 

[Twisted]

I'll see if I can figure out how to attach a pic.




Backing the project into the wash bay. My kid's first dozer ride. He's a good lever puller but needs a little practice to be an operator yet. I've worked with worse.

 

[fixou812]

Congratulations on your new operator
He isn't asking to many things or breaking too many yet
Hope he doesn't holler to much or sleep on the job.
I don't think he's too young for a screen name here
how bout little ripper?

 

[Twisted]

Grrrrrr. tough to post pics here. I'll keep trying.........

 

[Twisted]

The boy kid is always happy to help. He slows me down but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I hope he will learn a trade rather than want to play video games. He looks to be on the right track.

Here is my progress.....

I turned a dozer into a crawler tractor. 3-4' wrenches & a little heat was all I needed.



Tracks ready to drop....



These bolts are giving me problems so I may have to go mid-evil on them. Bring out the gas axe. Yes it's repairable.



When I find the engineer that designed this tilt cylinder hoes routing we may have words. I may actually run him through this small corridor to teach him a good lesson. I'll clean up the engineer goo later.




I ran out of blocks but it's close to being free of track frames.

I need to take care of some honey-do stuff tomorrow so it'll be a little slow. Dr. appt I've been putting off for months & mama wants me to shower & not just wipe down with GOJO like I have for the last for 6 months. You wrench hands know the situation....

I hope to be pulling sprockets Friday or Saturday & will take pics when I can.

Thanks for looking.

Twisted

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . Good thread Twisted . I will follow your progress with interest.

Cheers.

 

[Twisted]

I've never done a thread like this before but the more interest, the more info & pics I'll try to post

This will be a first time final job for me with a sketchy manual & some basic skills & tools. Not unlike the guys that did it 30-50 years ago. I'm just going to tear into it & fix until it's right.

I admire the guys that fixed these break-downs with an adjustable wrench, torch & a welder in the middle of a field or job site. Those fellows have earned my admiration.

Plenty of you here.

I have a few tricks up my sleeve & maybe I can share.....

Thanks,
Twisted

 

[Twisted]

Congratulations on your new operator
He isn't asking to many things or breaking too many yet
Hope he doesn't holler to much or sleep on the job.
I don't think he's too young for a screen name here
how bout little ripper?

Didn't mean to miss your quote.

He's all dad so he'll be asking questions & breaking stuff constantly. That's the only way I learned. He sleeps a little around noon but I let it slide because that gives me a chance to service the equipment.

 

[tctractors]

Bit of advice for you, fire up your motor and suck those rods in and tie the rods to the cylinders with cord, also fit the other half of the rod caps to them, then get rid of that silly bar you have stuffed under the cylinders, if there is no cylinder store brackets on the nose cone use rope/cord over the the rad top to balance them off in a near horizontal position, as this stops you clubbing your head on them some, its easier to split the track chains on the spocket by the way also safer, its easier to join them on the sprocket as well, the 4 bolts that hold the outer bracket to the track frame usualy cause little trouble? before you start making a mess its also worth draining down the F/Drive cases before you start stripping off the frame, oh and pop your clip bolts back into the the track link then you cannot loose them in that dusty yard.
tctractors

 

[Twisted]

Thanks tctractors. I'll be honest. My main shop with concrete etc is too small for a project like this so I decided to use my pole shed that I put up last fall. I backed into the shed, blocked up the rig, indexed the tracks & drove it out to drop the dozer. I marked my pads where the split links are & began backing up. I then split the tracks & started to back up. About the time the first link came over my front idler I realized my huge mistake. I was one track revolution away from being inside! oh well. I can shove it in with the excavator or payloader if needed.

The silly bar on the lift cylinders is there so they didn't drop down & hit the tracks when they got unhooked. They are going to get resealed before this project is over so they are coming apart anyway. I've always split tracks on the sprockets but I read the destruction book this time. The showed a different procedure that I tried. I'm thinking that the sprocket way would have been better. As far as putting my parts away, I just hadn't yet at the time of the pictures. Mama & the kid came home with the camera & we were visiting while I took pics.

I'll try to post up more tonight If I make more progress. Thanks to all for the looks & advice!

Twisted.

 

[boone]

Looking forward to following this thread. Don't have a lot of experience with undercarriage. Lots of folks here who have. I can relate to having little "helpers". I also have a two almost three year-old "helper" and he has a younger one year old brother. Makes me tired thinking about it, but they are a lot of fun!

Those pads are huge. Look ideal for pond work.

 

[tctractors]

To stop the rods hitting the track plates as you remove them from the blade, you tie a bit of rope to the top of 1 cylinder then remove the rod end cap on that cylinder then rap the rope around your hard frame, then suck the rod into the cylinder, then remove the rope and tie the rod to the cylinder to avoid it creeping out.
tctractors

 

[nicky 68a]

That looks a tidy tractor mate.The tracks look good at first glance and it's too good to break if you think the rest is ok.It's going to be expensive one way or another but it may be worth it if you are happy to keep it long enough to get pay back.If you do decide to part it out instead,buy a Cat next time because any money you put into the cat will allways be retrievable.
Good luck.
I have two sons who mess about in the muck with big Tonka's and I wouldn't change it for anything

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . After a couple of notable stuff ups I always tried to have rods retracted or, if not possible, covered with canvas or what all . . . on any breakdown it always seems there is need to run out the welder leads for something.

Bare bits and splits on cable seem to have great affinity for chrome and like to fizz against a nice shiny rod. (wry grin)

Cheers.

 

[Twisted]

This is a learning process for me & I'm learning as expected.
Should have the track frame off by the end of the day but depends on how my other projects sort out today. I went to do a simple half-shaft replacement on a Buick & half of the transmission wanted to come with the joint. A little more cutting & pounding & that should go back together. Tomorrow I have a +6 hour drive to meet a business client. It sounds like the press & a mechanic will be here Friday afternoon or Saturday to assist with the sprocket & final separation.

The tracks are all good with Trex (I believe) sealed pins & bushings. I haven't measured them but they have many hours left on them.

My next dozer will be a Cat. My very first toy was an old D4 7U. Just keeps going at 60+ years of age. I got what was a great deal when I bought this D65. I'm into it for what's it worth now so we'll see what the insides look like. I didn't think anything of buying a Komatsu dozer as they are very common in this area. I found out different when I began buying parts. There may be a few parts floating around with some of the local contractors who used to run these older machines years ago. I'll look into that when I see what is needed.

It really sounds like a bearing cage let go & the balls are knocking around. We will all see in a couple more days. I can get plenty of work in the area with it so no problem on getting my money's worth if this repair is doable. Lots of wet, swampy work for a LGP dozer. That is the most common configuration in this area.

Off on a parts run.

Later,
Twisted.

 

[lantraxco]

Scrub, now that's the voice of experience... sorry to say I've been there, done that.

ointhead

 

[tctractors]

I always suck rods in and tie them up then its 1 less thing to worry about, anyhow I am starting to feel a tad sorry for Twisted as he is willing to pop up snaps as things happen, for the likes of us to prod at, the bar thing under the rams had me smile some but it did work, it just looks a bit un something? the E and the P series tractors are about all you will see in the U.K. as we like boggie's the most common fault with the F/Drives is the top pinion flange working loose on the taper, otherwise they are very good.
tctractors

 

[Twisted]

I really hope it's nothing with the top pinion as I was just in the steering case & all looked good there. As good as can be inspected from that compartment anyway.
Tctractors, I think you said in your other thread that some metal flakes on the magnet wasn't a huge deal. Is it worth pulling the other side yet, or see what I'm up against with the known bad (left) final & go from there? There were a few flakes on the right filler magnet. I only wonder because it's going to involve a lot of oxy/acty and welding rods to get it apart & back together. I obviously don't want to do a half-azzed job either.

I hope this all goes well but if I stick around and post my other projects you guys will see that it's always worst-case when I tear into repairs of my own. I can usually do a repair for a customer in half the time & way less cost vs. my own equipment. I try not to cut corners so it's not that. Just call me lucky I guess. I have a lot more tracked rigs to dig into. I'm an equipment junkie. I'll grab a few "snaps" of those when I go into picture mode this evening.

 

[tctractors]

Twisted, you should hardly need any heat or welding rods on this type of repair, the idea in doing both sides at the same time is to possibly swap gears from side to side so you get the other tooth face to run on, the job is best done outside as it makes for more room usualy, when you pop the casings you will (usualy) find a load of "Cornflakes" at the bottom, these are bits flaked off the bull gear, its something I only see in Komatsu F/Drives, in CAT you just get teeth off.
good luck tctractors