Anyone Know Anything About Vintage Cat Dozers? Potential Rescue of 1959 D7...

[bulletpruf]

I don't have a lot of 'hands-on' with an old CAT like you're looking at, but I have watched some youtube videos of a fella who rescues old iron like that, and he showed the process of freeing up a stuck injector rack, along with other things:
Diesel Creek

Yep. I'm familiar with Diesel Creek. I just need to find the video where he frees up the rack on an old Cat.

 

[timg]

Scott, Did you pull the fuel lever in the run position? Normally on those older Cats that is the way they shut down. Its all mechanical, no electronic shutdown. It holds the rack in the no fuel position and the rack stays in the no fuel position. So you have to pull the Throttle lever back at least half way for starting. And also keep your right foot off the deceleration pedal too.

 

[bulletpruf]

Scott, Did you pull the fuel lever in the run position? Normally on those older Cats that is the way they shut down. Its all mechanical, no electronic shutdown. It holds the rack in the no fuel position and the rack stays in the no fuel position. So you have to pull the Throttle lever back at least half way for starting. And also keep your right foot off the deceleration pedal too.

The throttle lever? I had it forward, backwards, and upside down. Nothing seemed to make any difference.

Thanks

 

[bulletpruf]

Ok, so I posted a video about my trials and tribulations in case anyone is interested -

 

[moparnut88]

The throttle lever? I had it forward, backwards, and upside down. Nothing seemed to make any difference.

Thanks

open the side of the injector pump. the fuel plungers are stuck. very common. while cranking gently pry them to help free them up. use plenty of penetrating oil. pm me for any details ill talk you thru it over the phone. i have a d7 17a about like that one. been the best old cat ive had. ive got old cats going back to the 30s.

 

[bulletpruf]

open the side of the injector pump. the fuel plungers are stuck. very common. while cranking gently pry them to help free them up. use plenty of penetrating oil. pm me for any details ill talk you thru it over the phone. i have a d7 17a about like that one. been the best old cat ive had. ive got old cats going back to the 30s.

Excellent! Sending you a pm.

 

[Yukon Stihl]

Here's my D7E
Had it in the family since 1988 ish
At that time we rebuilt the finals and replaced rollers and track pads.
Was used at our gold mine at the time, it got converted from the pup motor to electric start at the mine as the pinion broke on the pup motor.
Engine was rebuilt around 2002
Last use was about 5 years ago when i rented it to a logger friend of mine.
Now it's resting tucked in with snow waiting a fresh set of batteries and a reason to start.
The story we got was it was a US army Cat that had spent time in Africa...

 

[bulletpruf]

Cool story @Yukon Stihl !!!

 

[bulletpruf]

Headed back to the dozer tomorrow to try to get it started again, but I'm not super optimistic...

 

[jakethesnake]

As mopsrnut mentioned. It’s in the injection pump. I’m assuming that’s how that machine is shut down? Similar to the old ford back hoe. You’ll need to get that open and pump pumping. If you’ve got fuel to the filters then the injection pump isn’t moving it. The old injection pumps are simple enough. It’ll run if you get it flowing

 

[jakethesnake]

Make sure that slide is sliding on the rail. I’ve ran into this more than once. If you try ether and the pump is not open the engine will likely try to lock up Just stop turning the engine over if this occurs

 

[bulletpruf]

Today was a good freaking day!

On the road at 6:30 am. Picked up my buddy Will at 6:45 and we headed south.

Arrived at 8:40 am. Got unloaded and got to work.

Hit the bolts on the monster winch access cover with some 50/50. They came off with ease. Immediately inside was where the two cables entered the winch housing, one for brake, one for engage/disengage. Will managed to free up the brake lever with some 50/50 and elbow grease. We couldn't get the engage/disengage cable to free up, so we cut the cable at the winch with a death wheel and unthreaded the stub from the actuating lever inside the winch. Once that was done, we freed up the lever with equal applications of 50/50, brute force, and curse words. Once we had the engine turning over later in the day, we figured out which position was neutral and left it there so the winch wouldn't spin when the engine was turning over.



We worked on the clutch brake next. Yes, the clutch brake; it has a wet clutch (submerged in oil) and there's a brake shoe that rides on the clutch to keep the clutch from turning when the clutch is disengaged. The clutch brake is actuated by the main clutch lever moving all the way forward. Checked the oil level in the clutch and it was good; oil was clean, too. Anyway, we figured out that the clutch brake was not actuating as it should have been when I tried to start the tractor last time, but I managed to get it in place to where it would actuate if the brake itself wasn't junk...more on this later.



Next we worked on the fuel system. I removed the cover to the rack and hosed everything down with 50/50. Then, with Will watching the rack, I spun the tractor over using the HF 24v jump pack. Will reported that all the spring loaded plungers were moving up and down except for one, which was stuck in the up position. So I managed to gently persuade it to move back down to where it was in contact with the cam...and then spun the engine over again...and it stuck up again... We went back and forth for about 10 iterations of application of 50/50 and gentle persuasion and finally the plunger moved up and down its own.



At that point, we weren't trying to start the engine, and we weren't building oil pressure, but I did see a slight puff of smoke from the exhaust, so then I cracked open the fuel lines at the injectors about 1/2 turn. Spun it over some more and got a fair amount of fuel flowing from each fuel line, so I snugged them down and decided to see if she would crank.

Now that it had been spinning over for a while, the jump pack was getting a bit tired, so we went up to the owner's house and picked up the pair of 8D batteries. Wired them up for 24V and gave her the beans. I didn't get much of anything with the decompression lever in the START position, but when I switched it to the RUN position, I started getting some smoke out the exhaust, so I gave her a little whiff of ether. Engine picked up and started to catch like it was going to start. This happened a few times and then she lit for good! It was running fairly rough at first, but that's because I didn't have the decompression lever all the way shut. Once I shut it, she cleaned up and idled nicely! Great oil pressure, too!

From there, I tried to get her to move by putting the forward/reverse lever in either forward or reverse, but no such luck; all it would do is grind and I wasn't about to force it. Even with the clutch lever in the disengage position and the clutch brake on, the clutch still seemed to be dragging. I could see the driveshaft spinning, too, so I suspect the clutch brake is smoked.

At that point, we were out of time and had to head north back to San Antonio.

On the way back I spoke with a guy who owns a D7 of similar vintage (D7E) and he said he has had a similar clutch brake problem with his, and he will just crank the engine over with the tractor in forward and low gear. That will either actually start the dozer in gear or it will break the clutch free so it's no longer dragging.

On the way home I also spoke with the D7D owner (he's out of town for work) and he's tickled pink that the old girl is running again.

Plan is to head back out there again in the next week or so to drain the water out of the transmission (we didn't have the correct tool to remove the drain plug) and see if we can actually get it to move.

FYI - I love to complain about south Texas summers, but days like today do NOT suck - sunny and highs in the low 70's. I was in short sleeves at the end of the day.

I'll work on editing the video over the next few days and will post to my YT channel.

 

[Loony661]

Been great reading your adventures of getting this old iron going again. This popped up locally and a friend is trying to talk me into buying it:

 

[jakethesnake]

The old farm all tractors clutch used to stick used to put it in gear and rock it or something or other to get it unstuck. Glad to hear she runs

 

[jakethesnake]

If you get it started in gear might have to bury the blade to achieve the rocking motion to unstick. I’m out of my element on this one though

 

[bulletpruf]

Been great reading your adventures of getting this old iron going again. This popped up locally and a friend is trying to talk me into buying it:

That doesn't look too bad!!! Let us know if you end up picking it up.

 

[Loony661]

That doesn't look too bad!!! Let us know if you end up picking it up.

I likely won’t. It does look good though..

I could buy it, but I can’t afford to put what it could take to fix all the problems it might have.

 

[moparnut88]

Today was a good freaking day!

On the road at 6:30 am. Picked up my buddy Will at 6:45 and we headed south.

Arrived at 8:40 am. Got unloaded and got to work.

Hit the bolts on the monster winch access cover with some 50/50. They came off with ease. Immediately inside was where the two cables entered the winch housing, one for brake, one for engage/disengage. Will managed to free up the brake lever with some 50/50 and elbow grease. We couldn't get the engage/disengage cable to free up, so we cut the cable at the winch with a death wheel and unthreaded the stub from the actuating lever inside the winch. Once that was done, we freed up the lever with equal applications of 50/50, brute force, and curse words. Once we had the engine turning over later in the day, we figured out which position was neutral and left it there so the winch wouldn't spin when the engine was turning over.

View attachment 402330

We worked on the clutch brake next. Yes, the clutch brake; it has a wet clutch (submerged in oil) and there's a brake shoe that rides on the clutch to keep the clutch from turning when the clutch is disengaged. The clutch brake is actuated by the main clutch lever moving all the way forward. Checked the oil level in the clutch and it was good; oil was clean, too. Anyway, we figured out that the clutch brake was not actuating as it should have been when I tried to start the tractor last time, but I managed to get it in place to where it would actuate if the brake itself wasn't junk...more on this later.

View attachment 402331

Next we worked on the fuel system. I removed the cover to the rack and hosed everything down with 50/50. Then, with Will watching the rack, I spun the tractor over using the HF 24v jump pack. Will reported that all the spring loaded plungers were moving up and down except for one, which was stuck in the up position. So I managed to gently persuade it to move back down to where it was in contact with the cam...and then spun the engine over again...and it stuck up again... We went back and forth for about 10 iterations of application of 50/50 and gentle persuasion and finally the plunger moved up and down its own.

View attachment 402332

At that point, we weren't trying to start the engine, and we weren't building oil pressure, but I did see a slight puff of smoke from the exhaust, so then I cracked open the fuel lines at the injectors about 1/2 turn. Spun it over some more and got a fair amount of fuel flowing from each fuel line, so I snugged them down and decided to see if she would crank.

Now that it had been spinning over for a while, the jump pack was getting a bit tired, so we went up to the owner's house and picked up the pair of 8D batteries. Wired them up for 24V and gave her the beans. I didn't get much of anything with the decompression lever in the START position, but when I switched it to the RUN position, I started getting some smoke out the exhaust, so I gave her a little whiff of ether. Engine picked up and started to catch like it was going to start. This happened a few times and then she lit for good! It was running fairly rough at first, but that's because I didn't have the decompression lever all the way shut. Once I shut it, she cleaned up and idled nicely! Great oil pressure, too!

From there, I tried to get her to move by putting the forward/reverse lever in either forward or reverse, but no such luck; all it would do is grind and I wasn't about to force it. Even with the clutch lever in the disengage position and the clutch brake on, the clutch still seemed to be dragging. I could see the driveshaft spinning, too, so I suspect the clutch brake is smoked.

At that point, we were out of time and had to head north back to San Antonio.

On the way back I spoke with a guy who owns a D7 of similar vintage (D7E) and he said he has had a similar clutch brake problem with his, and he will just crank the engine over with the tractor in forward and low gear. That will either actually start the dozer in gear or it will break the clutch free so it's no longer dragging.

On the way home I also spoke with the D7D owner (he's out of town for work) and he's tickled pink that the old girl is running again.

Plan is to head back out there again in the next week or so to drain the water out of the transmission (we didn't have the correct tool to remove the drain plug) and see if we can actually get it to move.

FYI - I love to complain about south Texas summers, but days like today do NOT suck - sunny and highs in the low 70's. I was in short sleeves at the end of the day.

I'll work on editing the video over the next few days and will post to my YT channel.

glad to hear you got her running!! these old cats are tough but simple. that machine will run for a long time yet.

 

[bulletpruf]

I likely won’t. It does look good though..

I could buy it, but I can’t afford to put what it could take to fix all the problems it might have.

Yeah, I found the ad. It sounds like it has some serious issues.

 

[bulletpruf]

Latest video is up in case anyone is interested.