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Junkyard's work thread.....maybe haha

Junkyard

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While I don't do stuff near as cool as most of you I figured I'd start showing what I do on a regular basis. I'd like to name my favorites on here, but being a father of five I've learned to avoid hurt feelings haha. I manage equipment for a small excavating company. We run a D11N, D7R, D5G, D65, Steiger 485 HD with two 19 yard pans, two 210 Linkbelts, 110 SD roller, champion grader, 627B and a couple water trucks. I do all the service work and 99% of the repairs. Just did steering clutches in the 11. I also do a lot of work on the side as the owner hired me away from myself. Strange I know! I'd love to get into boring. Not many do it here. I've always done fab work as well. I enjoy it.

Today's post is a quandry for me. Serviced the Steiger. Last oil drop was the Trans. Pulled the plug, heard splash followed by a thud. Right away I knew it wasn't normal. Reached in my drain pan and pulled a chunk of a tooth out. Heck if I know where it came from. Now we're stuck trying to decide when to tear into it. New Trans or rebuild? 4,526 hours. We've had it maybe 1,000-1,200. New Trans is $39,000. Parts are steep. Gasket set $2,000, gears $800-$1,200, one shaft I priced was $3,100 and clutches are $85 each. Yikes! We have slopes to finish on two bridges in a month and 110k yards to move this fall.

Here's what I found.....

image.jpgimage.jpg

Junkyard
 

Scrub Puller

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Gladstone Queensland Australia
Yair . . .

Junkyard. I know the feeling . . . we were talking about 'dozer final drives on another thread.

I think I would be guided to some extent as to what you find in the filters.

If it was not for the piece of tooth the that plug does not look abnormal.

I have seen a piece like that come off the top pinion of a newish final drive and due to "financial pressure" the owner took a punt and the tractor went on to do pretty normal hours.

It is always a value judgement.

If the unit remains in service to see out a job or a season sacrificing a filter for dissection and/or dropping out a bit of oil every couple of days could give some insights as to what's going on and provide a small measure of "insurance".

All the best with it.

Cheers.
 
Last edited:

willie59

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That's a fairly respectable size fleet you're keeping up with. :drinkup

That definitely looks like a piece of gear tooth. The scary part about that stuff is you have to ask "did it get broken because a shaft bearing is down which caused improper teeth mesh?" High speed come apart and grenading gets expensive real quick.
 

Junkyard

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I agree 100% with both of you! Haha. I have the old filters I planned on cutting them open today but then one thing lead to another and I forgot lol. Ever happen to you guys? I didn't see anything else other than the tooth that concerned me. Did see some trash in the hydraulic side of things that left my scratching my head as to what it could be. Not knowing how this machine was cared for prior to our ownership leaves a lot of unknowns. With my luck the offending gear meshes with two others and is currently trashing them! Dealer claims parts aren't hard to get. My concern was cracking it open, tie up half the shop and then not get parts for weeks if not longer. I may just flip a coin haha. Filters will help me decide. We road the machine from job to job if it's not far and now that I've discovered this issue I'll have nightmares of what could happen in road gear if something lets loose. I guess we know worst case scenario is $39k for a Trans but if we scrap a good core there's another $20k! Makes his old 627 look a lot better. We bought three about five years ago, one failed, cannibalized it for the other two, another threw a rod so two became one. Now the one has a cracked rear Trans housing and has been sitting at my shop for about a year.

The fleet keeps me out of trouble I'll say that. I need a truck like TomV has. I never have enough room or crane. It needs to be 60% service truck, 20% lube truck and 20% welding/machine shop!

Back in my trucking days I passed through K-town quite a bit. Learned of my daughter Alex's conception there in the summer of 2003!

Boss is looking at a couple 30 ton haul trucks, a little Linkbelt 8 ton excavator and another big dozer, D10N I made the mistake of showing him. Supposed to fly down and look at it this week. Also mentioned some 10 wheel dump trucks after a hellacious bill for hauling borrow on the last job. Just what I need!

Junkyard
 

Junkyard

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I take care of four, a good friend has a small company doing utility work. I never owned any. I'm not sure which is smarter the dump truck or the short between the seat and the steering wheel! Around here they're all retired OTR trucks so they're not made for the work they do. Lots of suspension bushings, crossmembers and power dividers. I think working on my older brothers truck broke me of wanting any. I hope he decides against them. If he adds all that be better budget a helper for me! Or some more tools that help me do things a little quicker!

Willie, what hydraulic test setup do you use? Accumulated over time or a kit? I've gotta get something better than the menagerie I have now.

Junkyard
 

Junkyard

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This was a couple weeks ago, bolts broke in the master on the D5. On a slope. Under a power line. I got it back together, welded the master enough to get it up on the flat and then finished welding it together. Some may turn their nose up at that lol. We didn't have time to piddle with extracting bolts at that very moment!

image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

Junkyard
 

Junkyard

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Here's my "busy work". 210 burnt a few months ago, been stripping it down for spares and we will scrap what's left. It technically makes three 210's I guess lol.

image.jpgimage.jpg
 

willie59

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Willie, what hydraulic test setup do you use? Accumulated over time or a kit? I've gotta get something better than the menagerie I have now.

If you're referring to pressure testing, well, if you work on different brand machines, which it sounds like you do, you're going to have a menagerie of stuff like I have. All the different brands have all manner of connectors and fittings.
 

Junkyard

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Cut the Trans filter open today, lots of chunks the appear to be clutch material or some other non ferrous crud. Every pleat had trash in it. A few stray metal shavings but nothing catastrophic as far as metal. Me thinks it's time to dig into it. They ran it about 4 hours yesterday. I'm tempted to have them run it a day and sacrifice another filter to see what it's doing. In the shop today trying to finish up a clutch, rear main, oil pan reseal and rear end housing welds on a Pete. Man it's a lot cooler in the shade with a fan!!!

Junkyard
 

Junkyard

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Working on a truck today, realized I got ahead of myself so I had to drain Trans. No problem, take top off clean bucket and drain. Except the exhaust goes right below the oil drain. Here's what I did to solve the problem. Might help one of you someday!

image.jpg

Junkyard
 

kshansen

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Working on a truck today, realized I got ahead of myself so I had to drain Trans. No problem, take top off clean bucket and drain. Except the exhaust goes right below the oil drain. Here's what I did to solve the problem. Might help one of you someday!
Junkyard

Also a good way to catch any steel particles in the oil!
 

Junkyard

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This truck has been a thorn in my side for awhile. Owner keeps changing his mind on this and that. Wanted a different PTO on it. I had stuck the Trans back in with the plate over the PTO opening. Just before I stuck the shifter back in I filled it up, then saw the PTO sitting on the tool box. Forgot to take my plate off and install the PTO. I like to get them together just enough to run and check things out before I button it all up. I drained it back into the bucket and went home before I really messed up! The heat here is terrible this week.

Junkyard
 

kshansen

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This truck has been a thorn in my side for awhile. Owner keeps changing his mind on this and that. Wanted a different PTO on it. I had stuck the Trans back in with the plate over the PTO opening. Just before I stuck the shifter back in I filled it up, then saw the PTO sitting on the tool box. Forgot to take my plate off and install the PTO. I like to get them together just enough to run and check things out before I button it all up. I drained it back into the bucket and went home before I really messed up! The heat here is terrible this week.

Junkyard

I know how that can be trying to get a straight answer out of some bosses!

I know at least one PTO maker recommended installing a PTO and after shimming it to start and run it for a short time with no oil and no load to see how it sounded. Rattleing sound too much gear clearance, whining sound too tight. Nice and quiet, put oil in and button it up!
 

Junkyard

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It all started when the driver said "I have to rev it up to get the trailer to lift". He failed to mention they had it loaded from stem to stern with shale on a 39' trailer. I did some research turns out the PTO is running the pump a little slow. No other driver has complained or over loaded it for that matter. Somethings just stick in their heads I guess so now we play musical PTO. Also had some "help" changing the clutch. They didn't pay attention to the discs. Orientation or the fact that the recess in the flywheel was insufficient for the disc to set it correctly. Simple things you can check a lot easier as it's going together than figuring out after the fact!

Junkyard
 

Junkyard

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Here's a new fun project. NOT. Operator calls, hey the left track is loose again. Strange I looked at it the other day. Says it's making a popping noise too. It was late Sunday afternoon. I said park it I'll take a look first thing tomorrow. Drive out to it, look at tensioner, it's out where it usually is but track has slack in it. Now I'm suspecting pin or link. Get to looking around and wouldn't you know it......

image.jpg

Oh and he bought a dump truck Friday...... Ugh

Junkyard
 

Delmer

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Oh come on, show us the rest of the track. I'd love to see em all like that, "rails and pads are servicable, pins and bushings have 2% life remaining"
 

Junkyard

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Haha. They're actually not bad, that was a surprise when I found it. They all measure to spec, 12-1/2" or whatever it is. I'd say the pin froze and wore through the link. Been waiting for Cat to call me back for 2-1/2 hours. We don't have a track press and we haven't found one cheap enough that he wants to jump. I've been busy with piddly stuff while I wait. Blow out air filters, fix the A/C condensate drain, fix the dipstick, I see I have a ripper cylinder in need of rebuilt. Always something! It's been slow the last week or so, I'm due for a cluster!

image.jpg

Junkyard
 
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