So, I was going to make a video showing how to tilt the pony motor of my D6 5R and replace the starter clutch and pinion. Was...

You would think the starter pinion and clutch removal and replacement should be a 1 hour job at most. It is Just sort of hanging out there like the starter of a car. But no. The first hour is draining the oil from the pony and draining the coolant from the tractor.

The best part of draining the coolant being the fact that you have to drain the coolant from two locations, the engine block and the radiator.

The next hour is removing the hood and dash. Oh, and the engine breather and floor plates for easier access to the pony bolts. Also disconnecting the decompression lever. Oh, and the coolant pipe to the top of the pony. I really do not know how the heck they put that there because I unhooked the connections but there seemed to be no way to remove the pipe from either end. So I left the pipe in place with the connections disconnected.

Then you look in between the small space between the diesel and the pony and wonder who in the heck thought putting a bolt there was a good idea?

As you realize your socket wrench is not going to fit on pretty much all of the bolts holding the pony, you start to ponder how anyone who built these tractors for a living actually put these things together.

However, you were smart. You have ratcheting wrenches. Then your relief is short lived because the ratcheting part of the wrench is too big to fit in the small space. So you have to use a standard combination wrench.

Then the fun begins because now you get to spend, on average, something 10 minutes per bolt or nut turning them about 1 quarter of a turn at a time.

When you finally get done turning the bolts, you try to lift the pony only to realize it is basically glued to the block. However, after spending and hour trying to figure out how to tip the pony, I got a brilliant idea to use a bottle jack to assist me.I just had to angle the jack right and have the jack sit inside the support for the fender.

The clutch and pinion was also basically glued to the flywheel housing. After unbolting that, it took some coaxing to get it to break free from the housing. I had to jack the pony up a little more as it was still hanging up on the pony gear. I think overall I jacked the pony up about half an inch.

Then, well, doing the reverse of all that. It was a whole thing in itself just trying to pop the replacement clutch and pinion into the housing.

Anyways, there is no way a person could maintain their sanity going through the whole process and recording video at the same time. It would also be the longest video ever.

People should know that what takes up 2-4 pages to explain in the service manual is probably an all day long job.

Then buy something new! You'll have boat loads of fun!

I spent all day yesterday replacing the starter pinion and clutch. The wind was a nice breeze, then the wind would blow really hard, then it would die down to a breeze, the sun would come out, then the clouds would come back, then the wind blows hard again...then the sun went down.

I still have to hook the pony exhaust back to the heat exchange tube and put the hood back on the tractor.

I heard Coyotes howling somewhere down the hill so i figured I had most everything together enough to leave to finish another day.

Spot on BAC. Repairing the pinion on my D4 was the same mess. It took me 4 days (although not long ones) to do mine. The manual says to loosen the pony, pry it up a couple inches and bwana you can pull out the pinion. They don't tell you about the 24 steps to take to jack up the pony nor all the grief clearing the governor and on and on. I wonder what it would cost for Cat to do one? The Cat mobile fix-it truck around here is about $150 per hour My bet they couldn't do it in less than 20 hours at $150 per hour is $3,000. Common sense tells me the bill would be more than that. The second time I did it was much less than the first because I knew what had to come off in what order.

Thanks to your post the rookies wont think it is a quick job as implied by the manual.

Thats what happens when previous owners dont do maintenance or get an operation and maintenance manual and check and change oil like they should. Thats why when you purchase an old dozer for doing work with you might as well just go through the whole damn thing and rebuild it or hire somebody to do your land project.
Guy I know couldnt wait for a local professional contractor to clean ditches with a Gradall for him, he thought well i'll just buy my own, yea cheap for around six grand, ok, takes it out does some work with it, oh theres a couple tree stumps on the bank, oh i can just pry them out, ok, all at once a whineing noise and then no hydraulics, one year later from the dealer and 65 grand for the repairs! the whole hyd system, cylinders dissembled and new pumps to remove all the grindings.

"D4Jim" wrote:

Spot on BAC. Repairing the pinion on my D4 was the same mess. It took me 4 days (although not long ones) to do mine. The manual says to loosen the pony, pry it up a couple inches and bwana you can pull out the pinion. They don't tell you about the 24 steps to take to jack up the pony nor all the grief clearing the governor and on and on. I wonder what it would cost for Cat to do one? The Cat mobile fix-it truck around here is about $150 per hour My bet they couldn't do it in less than 20 hours at $150 per hour is $3,000. Common sense tells me the bill would be more than that. The second time I did it was much less than the first because I knew what had to come off in what order.

Thanks to your post the rookies wont think it is a quick job as implied by the manual.

It would have been nice to get paid $150 an hour while doing that job, hehe.

I could probably shave off an hour or two if I did it again. Some of that time spent was trying to figure out how to go about solving some issues like how to jack up the pony and how to empty the radiator when the valve seems to be chewed up and possibly stuck. Interestingly enough, there was a 1/4" opening next to the radiator drain valve which had a small valve on it that I think was plugged up. I just ended up removing that 1/4" valve and the fluid came out.

You are kind of working with the age of the tractor too. The bolts don't turn like they probably used to. A combination of a wrench and pry bar helped break some bolts loose. I was thinking of looking for some longer wrenches...

"BigAgCat" wrote:

It would have been nice to get paid $150 an hour while doing that job, hehe.

I could probably shave off an hour or two if I did it again. Some of that time spent was trying to figure out how to go about solving some issues like how to jack up the pony and how to empty the radiator when the valve seems to be chewed up and possibly stuck. Interestingly enough, there was a 1/4" opening next to the radiator drain valve which had a small valve on it that I think was plugged up. I just ended up removing that 1/4" valve and the fluid came out.

You are kind of working with the age of the tractor too. The bolts don't turn like they probably used to. A combination of a wrench and pry bar helped break some bolts loose. I was thinking of looking for some longer wrenches...

Before we went into lockdown we got a long dead pony running, removed it from the main engine, and installed it completely having it running in about 3 hours in a RD4. OK, Ill confess, It was at a Chapter 3 workday. Them ugly bolts don't go so bad when there is about 4 experienced people working on them from various angles all at he same time.