Same drill, yellow ones are earlier.






More to come...

Bruce I think your Dads 70X ended up in Yuba City, if you could find the serial number I will see if I have the last known location. What kind of problems did you have. The only problems I have had with mine were,the rails jumping the rollers, solve it by putting two Spokane guards on each side front and rear. The other common problems were oil transferring from oil clutch to the engine, and steering clutch case to transmission.

Well I know I didn't get it! I have several neighbors that may possibly own it; if you have the particulars, I may be able to track it down without too much effort. Juiceman

Bruce P,
Thanks a bunch for the postings. Still digesting the information. Interesting that in some places they boast about the turbo and others have no mention. Also find it interesting that the cooling systems are all 9 gallons on the D5, D5B, D5 SA in spite of the big horsepower jumps.

Well as I remember, Dad traded it for a JD wheel tractor in '93 it went to a guy who was using a 7U to pull a ripper in an orchard. He wanted to upgrade, so did Dad.

There were lots of smaller things, engine oil transfer to clutch, rearend oil into tranny, front idlers not round. The big deal was the rearend oil heating. I mean HOT like discolor the paint hot, like spit on it and it wouldn't stay on there long enough to sizzle hot. It went back to the dealer, I'm not sure what they did but I remember hearing about a bearing that was messed up so they thought they had found it but it went right back to heating. I think they tried just about every flavor of oil that Chevron made at the time. Keep in mind that we were pulling stuff our old 7U would pull. It didn't matter whether you were rod weeding (light load) or pulling 9 bottoms of plow, the bastard would heat. I remember they gave Dad some of those heat strips that you could stick on and they would tell you the hottest temp, they melted the first ones clear off, then they got hotter range strips that wouldn't melt.

Then Cat sent two guys up from Stockton, they were gonna figure it out. They were wearing pressed shirts, ties, slacks, and penny loafers. They gave Dad a plastic Syringe with a long plastic tube (oil sample kit) they insisted that the oil be hot when Dad took the sample, Dad said "I'm pretty sure it will melt, why don't we take a sample now" the slickey boys chuckled and said "no sir it won't melt". Well guess what, the old man came in at lunch time and went to take a sample..... melted tube.

After that he just didn't care anymore, It had gotten out of warranty so the dealer washed his hands of it, and Cat didn't seem to concerned either. Dad contracted colon cancer in '92, I think he saw the writing on the wall and traded it with about 5000 hrs on it. I estimate 1500 of those were with me at the helm. Turned out for the best, after Dad passed in '95 Mom did a lot of the farming while I was in school. The wheel tractor was nice for her with a cab and all. Of course we still had our 7U and I would seed with it. Dad would tell people that the 7U had more quality in the radiator cap then the D4E had in the whole tractor.

There was another one up around Moscow Idaho same story, hot rearend. On that one there was an issue with the slave cylinders that disengaged the steering clutches getting pressure when not steering, thus causing the steering clutches to slip just a little, eventually a mechanic at Columbia tractor in Moscow figured it out and added a flow diverter to dump the excess oil back into the case. Problem solved and it ran cool as could be from what I'm told. I heard this story long after ours was gone but I've often wondered if that was the trouble with ours.

Since I went through diesel school it has always been in the back of my mind that I would have loved to figure out the deal with that tractor, oh well. Sorry for the long winded post.

Bruce P

Same drill, Old Magnet you're very welcome

All very interesting Bruce shame about your Dads experience with the D4E unfortunately back in the 80's a lot of gear was like that (not just Cat) and a lot of big companies policies was bullshit to people till the warranty was over and then they would wipe there hands

Even when the workers out in the field would find problems with the way something was made and report the problem back to head office the same crap just kept coming down the production line seemed big business thought they were above most people in the 80's hence forth today a lot of those companies dont exist any more or if they do its in name sake only I guess what they sent around came back around and bit them on the bum

Thanks for taking the time to share these pictures and stories with us really appreciate it

seeya

Paul

OK well the two oldest Kiddo's and I went for a quest in the attic after school, they were getting cold and I was about to give up when I found the sale sheet.

Serial 70X0118, Eng #12Z05268, 4V6546 low gears

$41,182.85 paid in full Dec 2nd, 1985

If the old SOB is still around I wouldn't mind finding it.

Bruce P

I've got this one and another that's about 15 pages long.