Supply and demand

Al Smith

Mac Daddy
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
14,307
Location
Northern Ohio
Mechanically speaking nothing is impossible .However at times you have to get real creative .For example the track rollers on my old Oliver crawler .They were originally made by Atlas track and parts became NLA decades ago .
Track rollers use plain bearings because of the shock loads .Caterpiller uses hard bronze ,Oliver used steel backed bronze inserts .I found that Chevy 350 transmission tail shaft bearings were the same ID/OD but were half as wide and were steel backed babbit like the cam bearings in automotive engines .Using two on each side I was able to save one roller out of 8 .The other 7 I had the correct parts .
Any thing if the demand is high enough somebody will make the parts eventually .In surfing E-bay recently I found now you can get repair parts for the afore mentioned .
 
I would have thought you had a whole machine shop and would just whip up the parts real quick!! I would also imagine Babbitt working just fine too tho... and yes ebay is awesome. I've also had luck on certain tractor sites finding stuff for my backhoe, but then again my backhoe is younger and likely more common than your dozer.
 
Al, I love the way your mind works, like an engineer.

You would of been proud of me yesterday, I put together a grill. :O I had to keep telling myself, patience, patience. :lol:
 
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Gas grills are a pain in the back sides .The Chinese don't really have a good command of the English language when it comes to writing directions .The bolt lengths are so close if you get just one length out of place you have to hunt for the correct one .The Indians aren't much better at it .They don't send any extra hardware either .I bought a new stainless steel grill at Lowes and they tried to con me into assembling it.Nope,not going there .I'll pay for it when you get one together .
I can throw a chainsaw together with all the parts mixed up in a big box but "ready to assemble" stuff drives me bonkers .

Funny part about that story being they were not going to knock any off if I assembled it .When I payed for it my niece is a department head so I got her discount plus I get ten percent off because I'm a veteran .Now that could be labeled "the art of the deal ":)
 
:lol: Good one!!

I put together an Ikea armoire last night at our church...great details in their drawings but you BETTER look at every tiny detail they show or you WILL screw that pooch.

We did put the back cover on "inside out"...the black was supposed to go to the inside of the unit...we put black out and that made the inside a beautiful cardboard color.

The fellow's wife that was watching us gave us the blessing to just leave it alone...it took 60 frikkin' tacks to anchor it in place...when we stood it up and realized the error I was dreading taking out all those tacks. She said they would either spray paint it, wall paper it or something. We already had 3 hours into the build process...she took pity on us. It's going to be for a child Sunday school room...I said just let the kids paint it.:D

All I know is we didn't have to take it apart. I hope that's the last Ikea I have to do.
 
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I would have thought you had a whole machine shop and would just whip up the parts real quick!!
I have on some things but it's not real quick .The 1951 Ferguson TO 20 I have at the house broke the valve retainer and swallowed an intake valve .The stem was long enough all it did was go up and down with the piston .This retainers are a cup like thing with the pin .So I drove 22 miles to my shop and used a piece of cold rolled steel shafting and made another .Held the valve up by going through through the spark plug hole with a long screw driver,put the spring back on etc ..Down time about 3 hours ,finished mowing the lawn with a 6 foot flail mower .---drank beer ---
 
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Here's another one .The 1965 CJ5 Jeep I have is the last one my dad put together from parts from two or three .He was over 80 at the time . Probably never checked the head or just dropped another engine in it .IOE engine intake in the head exhaust in the block,odd ball engine .Bad valve seals,fouls two out of four cylinders .Jeep had a brain fart because all the valve seals are is an o-ring between the split retainers to keep the excess oil from sliding down the stem.They never were worth a pinch of coon shit .They don't list umbrella seals for that engine .They don't know how determined Al Smith is either .The Jeep is .373 stem diameter ,a Ford big block FE engine 330-360-390- 428 is .372 ,close enough and 10 bucks for the whole set ,Ford OEM .--never say die ----
 
On finding replacements like that, i have never figured out how you find a similar part that works... do you memorize engine parts to pull that off or something? Like how did you ever find out the valves were that closely matched
 
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I first looked up the specs on an F134 Jeep engine to get the stem diameter of the intake valve .Then I looked up Chevy small block,283 -350 etc .No go .smaller .Then I tried Ford 289-32 ,same same .Then Ford big block( FE -Ford Edsel ) ,bingo.All that stuff I did on the internet in about 15 minutes .I do have a real old TRW book that shows all the specs for most engines made 50-60 years ago too .In addition to all that I have an entire book case full of reference material covering a lot of things .
 
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My bud Tom who owns a tree service I often mention had an old POS bucket truck with a Chevy 292 inline 6 with a leaky water pump. Couldn't find a pump or a rebuild kit.I took it to work,took it apart .Went on the hunt .It just happened a Ford 3 liter used the same arbor and seals .The impeller end of the bearing assembly was just a little bit larger so I got a tool and die maker to bore it out .Worked . Fact one of my old Ferguson tractors has Ford parts in it .It sucks now being retired now I have to buy that stuff .
 
Al, I have a king pin that was neglected and is not taking grease. I douse it with penetration oil (atf + acetone trick that I picked up from this forum) every couple of days and it seems to keep things moving, but I would really like to get some grease in there. Is there any trick up your sleeve that you can think of that I could do without taking things apart? I put the gun on the nipple and no matter what angle I try, grease just splooges out everywhere but where I need it to go.
 
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Heat it up with a torch .Old trick .Here's what happens .Grease is just oil with a thickening agent which is kind of like a soap .After much time the oil leaves and all that's left is the soap which gets like concrete .They make an injector you smack with a hammer that works some times ,The heat works all the time .
 
A stripped grease-fitting hole, like on a grapple, can be easily replaced with a fine-thread nut welded over a stripped out hole. Zerk threads into that.

FWIW.
 
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The heat causes the oil to melt out out of the grease and often dribbles out on fire when you pump in new grease .I have no idea what the pressure might be on a grease injector but it's higher than the standard 5,000 PSI on a standard grease gun .Some guns have higher pressures but I don't own any myself .Damned king pins are often neglected of which I'm guilty of myself
 
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At one time about everything had zerts .Then in the 60's they cheaped out and had plugs which could be replaced with zerts .Then they eliminated any method to lube them .Things might last 80,000-100,000 miles before they needed replacement .Then like U-joints that didn't have OEM zerts the replacements did .Go figure .
My old Oliver crawler has a zillion lube points that over the years I must have missed half of then because they were not visible .This go round I got out the service manual and hit them all .They have big Alemite button head fittings and it took some arm strong to break the old crud loose but they all took grease or oil,depending .My heavens they might not have been lubed for more than 40 years .
 
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