cat is usually pretty good at keeping parts around for old loader crawlers. They were very popular with farmers and construction companies.
Got a Free Cat 977H. Now What?
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Time for a long overdue update.
Several weeks ago, I ended up renting a 20’ x 50’ shop about 15 minutes from home. Added a few mini-splits, so now it has AC. Working in an air-conditioned shop on concrete has been a real game-changer. Sure helps that the machine is 15 minutes away, too, instead of 1.5 hours away.
Moving the 977 to the shop set me back $800 (different driver this time) and it was uneventful. Didn’t even have to crawl up the back of the trailer like I did last time, either.
Several weeks ago, I ended up renting a 20’ x 50’ shop about 15 minutes from home. Added a few mini-splits, so now it has AC. Working in an air-conditioned shop on concrete has been a real game-changer. Sure helps that the machine is 15 minutes away, too, instead of 1.5 hours away.
Moving the 977 to the shop set me back $800 (different driver this time) and it was uneventful. Didn’t even have to crawl up the back of the trailer like I did last time, either.
I've been spending most of my time moving the majority of my tools to the shop and getting it outfitted and organized. At the same time, I'm reconfiguring the home garage so the Long Haired General can park her new car in there (we've been married 13 years; first time she'll be parking in the garage). Work has been busy as hell, too; good for the bank account but not great for wrenching time. And we're headed to Jackson Hole on Sunday to escape the San Antonio heat for a week. I hope that's enough excuses for not getting a lot done on the 977 lately!
BTW, please don't make fun of my itty bitty toolbox; I'm moving a few big boxes to the shop.
AC is working well in the shop; I keep it set at 78 and the two 24k units are able to keep the temp at or near 78 and that's fine by me.
I have managed to get some work done, however. Pulled the batteries and confirmed my fear that the box was rotted out under the 2x4's that the batteries were sitting on. No big deal, but something else to add to the list.
The batteries are junk, too; won't hold a charge. They're group 31's, so something you'd see in an RV, commercial truck, etc, but not enormous, by any stretch. Certainly not nearly as large as a 4D, which I think would have been original equipment. I'm inclined to get another pair of Group 31's.
BTW, please don't make fun of my itty bitty toolbox; I'm moving a few big boxes to the shop.
AC is working well in the shop; I keep it set at 78 and the two 24k units are able to keep the temp at or near 78 and that's fine by me.
I have managed to get some work done, however. Pulled the batteries and confirmed my fear that the box was rotted out under the 2x4's that the batteries were sitting on. No big deal, but something else to add to the list.
The batteries are junk, too; won't hold a charge. They're group 31's, so something you'd see in an RV, commercial truck, etc, but not enormous, by any stretch. Certainly not nearly as large as a 4D, which I think would have been original equipment. I'm inclined to get another pair of Group 31's.
Got under the machine a few weeks ago to remove the three belly pans; not a required task at this point, but just trying to do a more detailed inspection before I start spending $$$ on parts.
Anyway, it has three belly pans. The rear pan stunk to high heaven! Might have been a dead possum in there somewhere. Kept track of the material that came out of the middle pan, I think, and it ended up being about 250 lbs. Haven't gotten to the front pan yet.
Anyway, it has three belly pans. The rear pan stunk to high heaven! Might have been a dead possum in there somewhere. Kept track of the material that came out of the middle pan, I think, and it ended up being about 250 lbs. Haven't gotten to the front pan yet.
Glad I pulled the belly pans, because when I got under the machine to look around a bit, I noticed that the crossmember wasn't bolted to the roller frame on the right side like it's supposed to be; it was welded. Shite. And that's the side that needs to come apart to replace the final drive. So I guess I'm going to need to do some grinding on those welds to get it apart, and then see what's under the plate that was welded to the roller frame. I'm guessing there are some snapped off bolts, and whoever put this back together figured it was easier to weld it back together than it was to remove the snapped off bolts. Just. Freaking. Awesome.
Here's the left side - bolted like it's supposed to be.
And the right side...
Up next - got to get the front belly pan off and do some more inspecting underneath, drain the left final drive to make sure there are no big chunks in it, check the transmission filter to make sure the trans doesn't appear to be self-destructing, and then either rent or buy a forklift and get started on removing the right final drive.
Here's the left side - bolted like it's supposed to be.
And the right side...
Up next - got to get the front belly pan off and do some more inspecting underneath, drain the left final drive to make sure there are no big chunks in it, check the transmission filter to make sure the trans doesn't appear to be self-destructing, and then either rent or buy a forklift and get started on removing the right final drive.
What model is your 977? Solid Cat workhorse. First time I was ever around one, 1968 I was limbing & topping for my dad on a high-lead show north of Whittier in Prince William Sound. BIG timber. Very steep mountains. The 977 was fitted with log forks, pulled the logs away from the yarder and assembled them into rafts on the beach. From there they were towed by tug boat to Two Brothers Sawmill in Whittier. I was 15. My 14 y/o brother Dan helped with limbing & packing gas cans. My mom and us 6 kids lived in a tent on the beach for two months that summer.
Sounds like quite an adventure!!!
My machine is a 977H 53A, manufactured in 1961. One of the earlier lever steer machines.
By "lever steer" you are of course referring to steering clutches, which was one of the hallmarks of Caterpillar crawlers for many years. One of the steering clutches on my '55 Allis Chalmers HD-5G is frozen (won't release) from disuse. It was that way when I got it. The previous owner had done some land clearing with it. Forward to go left, and back-up to go right, so off course the right side sprocket & chain now have way more wear than the left side. Everything was dry clutches back then, and if it set unused for too long, specially in a wet climate, it might not release. I don't recall ever encountering a Cat with a frozen clutch though, probably all wet clutches by then. The 977 was based on the D6, and the D6 was pretty common in the forest for skidding logs before the wheel skidders took over 
By "lever steer" you are of course referring to steering clutches, which was one of the hallmarks of Caterpillar crawlers for many years. One of the steering clutches on my '55 Allis Chalmers HD-5G is frozen (won't release) from disuse. It was that way when I got it. The previous owner had done some land clearing with it. Forward to go left, and back-up to go right, so off course the right side sprocket & chain now have way more wear than the left side. Everything was dry clutches back then, and if it set unused for too long, specially in a wet climate, it might not release. I don't recall ever encountering a Cat with a frozen clutch though, probably all wet clutches by then. The 977 was based on the D6, and the D6 was pretty common in the forest for skidding logs before the wheel skidders took over
Yep, lever steer. The later 53A's had pedal steer. It has dry steering clutches, too, but the later 53A's had wet steering clutches.
Correct on the D6, to some extent. The 977H tractor is basically a D6 with a D7 undercarriage.
Oops, now I am thoroughly confused. All the older tractors I was around you pull the steering lever to disengage the clutch, and then if you wanted to turn more sharply you would have to step on the appropriate brake pedal. So what is "pedal steer"? Must be a two-stage mechanism where the first half of the stroke disengages the clutch, and the second half of the stroke then applies the brake? That would be similar to the clutch/brake set-up on my twin-track Caribou snow machine of the late sixties, only using the handlebars instead of pedals.
Attachments
That's exactly what it is - press on the pedal and at first it disengages the clutch, press further and it engages the brake. Frees up your hands.
Watched you video, condolences on the cratered final. On older machines--let's say 40 yrs or more--major components (like the finals) tend to be let go way too long until they're just too far gone to be fixable. Final drive failure is usually a death sentence for vintage crawlers. I do have a final drive story that you might find interesting though. A crawler with a cratered final came in one day to the base shop I was working at here in Anchorage. Drug it off, eventually got it apart (some of the old-school heavy-duty guys would always have a few 1/4 sticks of dynamite in their bag of tricks). I recognized the machine from a field job I was on the preceding year. The service oiler and I both new it was leaking, so he topped it off every night. No problem. Near the end of the job they hauled it off, BUT it didn't go back to base. Instead it went to a different job. And apparently no one communicated to the other oiler about the leaking final. And then moved again to a third job after that. At some point there's no more oil coming out, and thus no reason to suspect it might be low. So it doesn't get checked, and nobody realizes there's a problem until it locks up. I remember being amazed at how big the rocks were that we found inside the ham case. Not just sand and pea gravel, actual ROCKS! Yours hasn't locked up yet, so it might actually still be salvageable, it just comes down to how much are willing to spend on a 63 year old machine with worn out undercarriage.
I'll be watching for that next video
I'll be watching for that next video
I'm working on editing the third video now; hope to have it out in the next week or so.
Good story on the final; I suspect something similar happened here.
Yeah, I hear you on how much should I spend on an old machine like this one. There's also the issue of parts availability; not everything is going to be available new, and I'm not excited about the prospect of putting used undercarriage bits on it.
Thanks
Good story on the final; I suspect something similar happened here.
Yeah, I hear you on how much should I spend on an old machine like this one. There's also the issue of parts availability; not everything is going to be available new, and I'm not excited about the prospect of putting used undercarriage bits on it.
Thanks
Just an FYI, it was pretty common to replace the 4d cat batteries with a bank of group 31 batteries. They can be had anywhere and fit in the battery boxes quite nicely. Realistically you don't need 2 4d batteries unless it gets real cold out, which I don't think is an issue in your area lol.
Well done so far, quite the adventure!
Wondering what's the expected Market Value there in Texas of a fully functional machine ?
https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...erral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp:6f
https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...erral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp:6f
that's not actually a bad price if it isn't totally shot.
Lots of 966C loaders from pipeline days still in service. LOTS of them. And doing just fine. But you never know on something like this, where you can't put her through her paces to get a good thorough check out of the engine and transmission. And the steering and finals. It's always a gamble. But isn't that what makes it fun though? Its kinda like Vegas. Sometimes you do good, and sometimes you lose Big Time
It would be somewhere around $10k. It would be more, but the undercarriage isn't great.
