I'm a little gutted today as my friend called me to let me know due to a miscommunication, his Dad had a Cat D4 7U sent out for scrap that he was holding for me. I have my grandpa's D4 7U18985 and my friend had D4 7U11066. Mine has had a very hard life and has a broken left steering band, 5/8" slop in the dozer linkage dogbones, a cracked front gear train case, the track tensioners are bent like bananas, cracked pony block leaks coolant, missing a rockgaurd on one side plus probably many other things I will find once I open up the machine. Ah what's a man to do? There are alot bigger issues these days. Gotta just realize it's a first world problem and get on with things. Here is a pic of my papa on his D4 many years ago. It now has a seat tank and missing the front sweeps which the parts machine had.

Here is what my grandpa's machine looks like these days.

And the machine I was supposed get from my friend. A near twin to my papas.

It’s never too late until it is...

You need to start shopping the scrap dealers. Usually find tractors in one piece at the scrap yard (easier to move/weigh in one strike) and the scrappers know it’s easy to sell as one piece to guys like all of us...

The slow boat to China has no delay...we must act fast....

Some years ago I made a deal for a 22 that included delivery, but the guy had to go to Myrtle Beach for the weekend first. Anyway, the guys that were scrapping his cars got too ambitious & got the 22, but left the 212 single axle gas grader that was completely hammered.

"STEPHEN" wrote:

Some years ago I made a deal for a 22 that included delivery, but the guy had to go to Myrtle Beach for the weekend first. Anyway, the guys that were scrapping his cars got too ambitious & got the 22, but left the 212 single axle gas grader that was completely hammered.

That is painful. A sick feeling for sure!

My simpathy and condolences, I feel your pain, years back I wanted to buy an old D9D near buy, had an angle blade and Hyster winch, really nice machine yet, I knew the company that had it before him, made the guy an fair offer and never heard from him, he just seamed like a real ahole, next thing I drove by and there was just few pieces laying there and the rear case, my jaw just dropped and I got feeling sick inside. The case was partly cut open the steering bands and insides were clean and like new! It still makes me sick to this day.
That pic is a nice memory of your grandpa.

That sure is discouraging especially since they were such a close match.
But there are other tractors around to get parts off of. I think we're close (less than 3 hours) and I have 2 7u d4 that are going to be parts machines. Let me know if I can help. My d2 was pretty worn down and I think its turned around nicely. Lots of time but worth it.

"Rome wrote:

My simpathy and condolences, I feel your pain, years back I wanted to buy an old D9D near buy, had an angle blade and Hyster winch, really nice machine yet, I knew the company that had it before him, made the guy an fair offer and never heard from him, he just seamed like a real ahole, next thing I drove by and there was just few pieces laying there and the rear case, my jaw just dropped and I got feeling sick inside. The case was partly cut open the steering bands and insides were clean and like new! It still makes me sick to this day.
That pic is a nice memory of your grandpa.

Ouch! That's way worse than me. D9D Cats dont grow on trees that is for sure All those good parts are worth a mint to those or us that are trying to preserve our old iron and then there are people who couldn't give a rip.

"d2gary" wrote:

That sure is discouraging especially since they were such a close match.
But there are other tractors around to get parts off of. I think we're close (less than 3 hours) and I have 2 7u d4 that are going to be parts machines. Let me know if I can help. My d2 was pretty worn down and I think its turned around nicely. Lots of time but worth it.

Thank you Gary for the offer. Yes I may take you up when I am ready. I'm not far from Idaho for sure. About 2hrs north of Spokane. I've been occasionally following your D2 build and it looks like some nice work you've done.