ive never had a problem dealing with hastings deering of course they are not the only cat dealer in aus. the only issue we had was finding the correct part numbers before i got hold of a parts book. and yes d4 radiator caps are expensive try $150 each but cat is the only source we found and we needed one so it had to be paid.

I started searching for parts tonight,i'm sure Cat dealers have stopped stocking alot of parts for the older machinery only in the last 12 months.Classic parts doe'snt even show up on my local dealers website and the sis parts lookup doesn't even work now,i think you have to pay now,not that my old D7e was listed. I also used to look up parts from Cat and it would show up a replacement part number if the original is not listed but it seems they have stopped doing that now.
Anyway i can get the seals and gaskets for the pre chambers from Cat ,so thats something. Tillys of Queensland show the pre combustion chambers and the wrench is listed as you were saying Mike Meyer.I will email them hopefully with a reasonably quick reply.
I'm not sure if anyone knows a good place to get parts here in Western Australia for the older machinery.

I'll PM you the contact details of a good guy to talk to over in Perth, he used to contract with a bunch of D7 and 8 Cats, he used to be on here a lot helping people but got tired of dealing with the odd, foul mouthed know it all's that blow in the door every now and then.

I've been having trouble with parts searching with the Cat Dealers websites too, I use Cavpower, William Adams and Westrac NSW, depending on where I'm heading next.

Phone Tillys, it will save you waiting a week or more for them to reply to your email, they are all on sugar cane snooze time up there.......

yes they work on island time. and the old ill call you back as we're real busy right now and you never hear a word.

Thanks for your help with getting parts Mike and trainzkid88,it looks like Tillys might be the one for parts or maybe i should go into the dealer.I did need a new transmission hose a while back and and the part number did'nt show up on there website so i went into Westac Guildford to ask about one thinking i would have no luck at all. They could'nt have been more helpful,a young guy looked up the part number on his pc and i think it was an updated number and told me it would fit so i went with that.
I had to wait a week or so and was surprised when it fit perfect, so i definitely can't knock Westrac Cat for there service.
I'll be dropping the engine oil this weekend to find out how much water is really in there,last time i drove it it kept cool but the water pressure was up again.I let it cooldown and the radiator coolant level was seemed fine despite it leaking around the cap.Anyway a week later checked the coolant level and it was down ,and again the dipstip had moisture on it although it does'nt look like coolant, so will be keen to find the cause.

Did you get my PM with Ron's contact number, I suggest you have a chat with him before throwing time and money in 50 different directions, he knows that model well and I've told him you might call, he said he is happy to offer advise.

From my experience trying to save dead Cats over the years, the opinion of the guy who has actually worked on your model is worth the collective opinion of 100 guys who haven't.

Will do Neil, he is over on the ACME Forum every day keeping us on the straight and narrow, he came and checked this thread when I mentioned to him that he might get a call from a nice guy in need of help.
Regards
Mike

some of the old pn's need to be converted to the modern 6 or 7 digit numbers as the database doesnt add that for you. also the dealers may still have that info although the global parts site does not. and yes they guarantee fitment if they tell you the part number. when the dealer supplied the wrong filters for our machine they simply exchanged them it did help that dad was delivering parts to them as the company he works for had the contract to cart their freight.