A neighbor had an old 977L sitting out for years. A few days ago, I offered to get it going in exchange for its use. Well, so far so good until today when I got it back to my place and it blew a hydraulic line to the main lift cylinder on the right side. 

My dilehma is I have no idea what the S/N is on this thing and after looking in the usual places, can't find a tag on it anywhere. Can find lots of part number stamps but can't find much more then that. 

I haven't been around much heavy equipment so any tips/suggestions on how to tackle this is appreciated. Should I find the s/n and order specific parts as needed or take the parts off and find p/n stamps?

Thanks in advance!

977L s/n's are located on the rear face of the bevel gear case (rear of tractor), in the operator's compartment on the lower right hand dash and the plate on the left hand side of the cylinder block. If all that fails remove the hose and have it duplicated by Cat or a capable hydraulic shop.

Thank you. I did exactly that - took the hoses off and had them replicated.

Now I need to try and track down the auto-leveling valve body (P/N 8J84). Any good sources for old CAT parts?

Try here, also a good source to check for other parts..
www.machinerytrader.com/parts/search?pag...archtype=starts-with

@Old Magnet - thank you very much for the tip on Machinery Trader - I was able to get the parts i needed in under a week.

Another quick question - is there a way to bypass the auto leveler while I await other parts?

Hi, motoman.
2 other sources for parts are Florin Tractors in Sacramento, CA: (916)383-0317

and Tractorparts in Boise, Idaho.: tractorparts.com/

Just my 0.02.

Thank you @Deas Plant