Wombat, the outer hub is a good bit of weight alone and needs holding up in place to press in the bearings, the sprocket never angles off the hub and would need to be jacked up well in the air to clear the frame, the top of the outer case would be around the 6 ft spot, the inner intermediate bearing is dowel pegged into the housing so there must be a bit of fun doing that, 2 men without lifting equipment would not be able to remove and re-fit the components of a D8H/K F/Drive without some form of lifting device, I work near always by myself so the fast method and easy method is the way for me, I used to post pictures up on this Site until one Man complained, so now I just comment about things I tend to have some idea about, I find working on F/drives like your chosen method to be hard work and more effort, this is just my thought but I feel it is correct. tctractors

Amen to that TC, there s also the problem of a D6 track frame having to come sideways as it drops to clear the diagonal brace bearing. The whole weight of the machine needs to be supported with the frame out of the way.

Like I said, well in the bush and very inaccessible and in the days I had very little in the way of resources, so engenuity was the mother of success. The first time took us 3 days, we learnt the hard lessons and removed only what had to be removed to do the job, no transmission oil draining was easy to work out to get out the locking dowel, install bearing cup and replace locking dowel. Flat top canopy with a bar over it and cum along, everything down to a fine art, loaded with all bearings seals etc, leave very early in the dark for the drive up the bush, return at night with completed job, two young fit men with a will to do it without any stuffing around works wonders. Neither of us today now we are old farts would try it in one day. There is nothing in the Cat manuals about the short cuts we used to great success, nor do I know any other fitters who did it this way as they always had lots of resources, believe me we did it.

Wombat