"Deas wrote:

Hi, Misterskill.
Happy hunting. It's good to hear that the D9G is running well after all the work you have put into it. For mine, the Gs were the best of the oval track D9s. I am currently running a D9T with 57,000 frame hours. It is a real delight to operate. (That last bit is just to turn you green. LOL.)

Just my 0.02.

I'm at 32233 but it may have been around the clock haha

I thought my mates D9L was flash, it has a cab!

End of todays effort. One more rip and the excavator goes in

Hi, Misterskill.
Your mates D9L also has about 75 more horsepower and an extra 10 - 12 tonnes in weight', Those things were beasts, the ONLY big dozer of which I have heard multiple reports of bent dozer push arms.

Don't be too envious. The D9Ts have a LOTTTT of electronic and computerised stuff on them - more things to go wrong - which you don't need out where you are working.

Just my 0.02.

More things to go wrong but not dealing with 50 year old parts past their useby! Benefits in both systems i guess, lots of old machines around here still working, even when they should have been retired years ago.

So we reckon the pivot bushes might need attention and one of the ripper pin and bushes has some serious movement and needs to come out for a look.

Right, before we do that drop the coolant to fix this minor coolant leak, should just be an o-ring, and we can fill her back up and get stuck into it and have look. Pipe between the cylinder head and pony motor.

Famous last words haha.

Ordered the gaskets and orings out of the parts book, oring was correct, gasket was not. Lovely tricky spot behind the injector pump and fuel filters. Managed to get it and sneak the new oring in without taking the pipe all the way out. Leaked like a seive from both the gasket and oring. Dropped coolant again and air cleaner off and fuel filter housing off, still no good so fuel filter casting off too.

Pipe was rotted out so we cut and shut a new piece in, back on, coolant back in and then where we cleaned it up to braze started leaking from a bit of pitting so out comes the coolant again. Thinking about another cut and shut job but worried about the angle of getting it back in square as it's pretty delicate fit so we got some radiator hose and sleaved the whole section with some hose clamps. Cat gasket was too thin so refaced the elbow and made a gasket and added a bit of goo for luck. Back on, coolant back in and no leakage so far.

Well we know a few more tricks for next time i suppose.

Not cat related but had a mate come out and drill a shaft for us with this old rig, pretty primitive but definitely gets the job done. www.instagram.com/p/CD3M-Bwgvha/?igshid=1h6jrncaf5sbv

Old commer truck with a stright piped GM, almost drowns out the rattles and clunks as it drives along haha

Hi, Misterskill.
The old girl may have some more 'surprises' and 'tests' for you before you're done but those D9Gs are still one of the best tractors that Cat have ever made.

That drill rig looks classic outback. The Commers were good trucks in their day and the original 'knocker' Commer engine was almost as noisy as a GM but a good engine anyway.

Just my 0.02.

"Deas wrote:

Hi, Misterskill.
The old girl may have some more 'surprises' and 'tests' for you before you're done but those D9Gs are still one of the best tractors that Cat have ever made.

That drill rig looks classic outback. The Commers were good trucks in their day and the original 'knocker' Commer engine was almost as noisy as a GM but a good engine anyway.

Just my 0.02.

I hope the next suprise is the next 35years of trouble free bulldozing bliss!

Coolant is staying in the engine which is a pretty cool. Got out today, checked a few shafts and got one of the pins out of the ripper box. It's "showing signs of wear"...



Our contraption to get the pin out




Still having grief with the sproket tips getting chewed out. Did a bit of searching and a few measurements today. Sprocket is running straight so not a bent Axel. Drove back and forward a few times. measurements from the tractor to a point on the track frame are all within a few mm. Next step is get the measurements of the single flange roller and check the roller closest to the Sprocket to make sure it isn't too far gone.

Worn "snakey" track links, pins and "bushes" will damage sprocket tips.

isn't running on rock hard on sprocket tips? even turning on rock? not sure what the exact material is in this situation

"Rome wrote:

Worn "snakey" track links, pins and "bushes" will damage sprocket tips.

How do we measure this? do we have to split the track or can it be checked in position? Maybe stand it up off the ground and spin the chains, then check are running straight?

"kittylover123" wrote:

isn't running on rock hard on sprocket tips? even turning on rock? not sure what the exact material is in this situation

Hey Kitty,

Material is sandstone, it's soft.

We suspected the same thing and do have a really hard rock called Jasper, but even after we pushed it all out we're still getting damaged.


Cheers fellas

Hi Team,
sprocket tip wear can be caused by worn/stretched track but also and more likely is dirt packing on the bottom/root of the tooth.
This happens especially in snow, but fine powdery and soft dusty dirt can do the same--it raises the track bush in the sprocket tooth profile causing a miss-match in track pitch to sprocket tooth profile and so the tip wear results. Chart 3.

High speed reverse can accelerate wear, as said above by others, along with running the track adjustment too loose--slack track--YES-- packing in the tooth can be a reason to run a loose track so as to have correct track tension when working.

We had this issue in Vietnam with our TD15B's working in sand--by the time we got back to the Plant Yard the tracks would be super slack--our Captain ordered us to adjust our tracks as per spec.--RESULT in a week was one machine with broken track frame pivot shaft and one with flogged out idler bearing/shaft--I alerted him to this possibility but Rank won out over a Sapper.
I loosened my tracks after leaving Plant Yard and re-tensioned them before returning to fool him.

Clue to dirt packing is dry white flakes of hard compacted dirt on the track frame near the sprocket area and residual in the sprocket tooth root.

To check for a worn track you need to measure over a given number of links for track stretch wear--alas I do not have specs for a D9H but see the chart attached for an idea what we are talking about.
keep us in the loop with your findings.

Cheers,
Eddie B.