Excellent progress! You’re quickly coming down to the finish line of one of the worst jobs a person could have to do to a Cat D2 - my own personal least favorite job now is turning the pins and bushings - although doing bevel shaft bearings is only one notch above it lol 😂 The first drive will be well worth it though, when all the levers are adjusted well and you feel how smooth the clutches operate with everything in the back end being tight and right 👍

Sasquatch wrote:

Excellent progress! You’re quickly coming down to the finish line of one of the worst jobs a person could have to do to a Cat D2 - my own personal least favorite job now is turning the pins and bushings - although doing bevel shaft bearings is only one notch above it lol 😂 The first drive will be well worth it though, when all the levers are adjusted well and you feel how smooth the clutches operate with everything in the back end being tight and right 👍
 

Thanks Toby, I certainly appreciate your contributions and detailed help/knowledge. It's safe to say that your videos have inspired me, and I wouldn't have this little tractor nor would have undertaken this work with out them, so thank you!

And, to be honest, doing these bevel shaft bearings has taken much much more time and been far more difficult than I ever expected!

Today I got the seat and tank cleaned, lifted up and bolted in place:
   
I got the foot plates in place, fuel tank connected and the brakes adjusted:
   
And finally I got the pony running, fuel system bled and the main engine running!

Good to note and put in the archive's photos of those decals for correct placement on collector's tractors. Those are correctly placed on the machine from the factory.

Kurt wrote:

Mark, what are you using to clean the tractor as you go? The paint is exceptional.
 

Hello Kurt, nothing special, just a box store engine degreaser where there is oil/grease present. I'm going to give the whole tractor a wash with a car wash/wax to add some shine back once I'm finished. And you're right the paint is exceptionally good, very interesting to see the factory finish (which isn't that good in many areas!) quite a few runs and 'dry' bits where coverage isn't very good.

Today I hoped to have the tractor finished, but simply ran out of time as so often happens.
Started off cleaning the track frames, which I must say are in exceptionally good condition. There were several pounds of caked on grease/dirt mixture around each of the rollers and scraping it off the best I could took lots of time!
   
I then installed new pivot shaft seals with the lip facing outwards, as per the service manual:
 
Lifted the track frames in place:
 
And fitted the shims and retaining thrust washers with new fold over locks:
 

I then started cleaning the rear rollers (which were removed to take the track frames off). While the bushes and shafts were in exceptionally good condition, three of the four bellows seals had split apart at the bellows. This also made it a real bear of a job to reassemble the caps back on the rollers without everything falling apart and I had to wire the caps to the rollers to hold everything in pace while installing them on the track frames. It looks like a project for next Christmas holidays will be to install new seals on all of the rollers!
 
Last of all I got the LH track looped over (all by hand, which is heavy work!) and the master pin hammered in place:
   

Finally, after a long day of work I got her finished!
First thing this morning I got the tin work all clean:
 
And I noticed this silver paint brushed around the the underside of the exhaust opening, I can only presume it was from the silver paint brushed on the manifold from factory!
 
Tractor off blocks and tracks adjusted:
 
Just under 1 1/2" of thread clear on the adjusting screws with the tracks adjusted correctly!
 
Lifting the drawbar in place with a new ACMOC wear shoe: