Opening the Belly of the Beast, CAT 977K

[CliffordK]

This reminds me I still have a CAT 955K/L service manual binder on my shelf if someone is interested send me a PM.

I got a 955K service manual, and two parts manuals that should be sufficient for most of what I need.

Is this a closeup of one of your track pins? How about rollers, idlers and sprockets?

I did post a closeup of the middle of a track pin. Other than the tracks being a little loose, the undercarriage seems to be reasonably good. I'm not set up to rotate pins at this point. Several of the track pads are loose, and it has obviously been worn a bit while loose. It is likely going to mean cutting the old bolts off and replacing them.

I got my hydraulic leak fixed. It turns out that it was in the back of one of the flexible lift hoses. Taking the belly pan off helped with access, although I did discover during reassembly that I could actually barely sit up between the side of the dozer and the tracks. I'm not quite sure why that wasn't obvious earlier.

The thing was mighty thristy for hydraulic oil.

I did some lifting, and got it muddy, but I haven't tried any digging yet.

I picked up a grapple that I'm hoping I can get adapted to it. But, I need to figure out a good place to splice in the grapple to the hydraulic system.

 

[4570Man]

My excavator had a bunch of loose track bolts. We tried tightening them up but they didn’t stay tight. We cut them off and replaced the bolts. Some damage to the holes had been done by that point. I wouldn’t be surprised if they loosen up again.