Greetings,

I ran across a 977K (SN: 11K839) for sale in my area (US\Tennessee). It has been sitting for several years and has issues, of course! It has a blown hydraulic line for the bucket tilt. The starter doesn't work but we got it started by bonding the solenoid to the hot on the starter. Its kind of crazy but it fires right up instantly without ether. Its got the D333C motor in it I believe. One of the tracks was sagging really bad and we got it tightened up. Then I started trying to just go forward and reverse with it. It wouldn't go in either direction very long and felt like it was lacking a lot of speed. At some points it wouldn't even move forward or reverse while in gear. So, I shut it down and pulled the magnetic filter group and the other big transmission filter. The magnetic filter group was completely clogged up with gunk. I got it cleaned out but the screen was blown apart, so, I just put the cover back on. I actually had the other big filter in my truck because its the same as my D7E, so I went ahead and swapped that out. After starting back up it felt a lot more responsive and slowly woke up in the forward and reverse gear ranges. I was able to go through 1-2-3 in forward and reverse and it was very responsive.

The next issue is that the left brake pedal goes nearly to the floor. It does brake to the left when the pedal is all the way depressed but it feels pretty weak. The right brake pedal has plenty of resistance and feels normal. It brakes great to the right after the pedal is about half way depressed. Now for the worst part.. Someone torched off both the left and right domed brake adjustment covers. I have no idea why someone would do this. Interestingly, I can see the brake adjuster on the left side and there isn't one visible on the right side. I tried adjusting the left side with a 9/16 socket to see if I could tighten the brakes but it doesn't move far without seizing up. I sprayed some penetraing oil on it but it never improved. Again, the brake adjuster on the right side isn't visible, even with the dome cover cut off. I can see in the bevel\brake compartment but not sure what could have happened to the adjsuter. Again, this right side actually brakes fine, just not sure how!

So... The guy is asking $6K and I told him that I can't pay that much due to the issues with the brakes. I think I can get the brake adjuster covers replaced but I think its going to need a brake job at some point soon. I don't have a shop to get into this kind of job myself, so that would be a big ticket item. 

So, I'm wondering what opinions are on price. I told the guy that I would be willing to take it on as a project but that I couldn't pay more than $3K. He declined and said he is going to try to get more for it. Please let me know your thoughts! questions!?

Also.. I am not good at judging undercarriage percentage but it look surprisingly good overall. The top roller surfaces are almost perfectly straight and the sprocket teeth look nearly perfect to me. This, with the way the engine starts and runs, is making me wonder if is a fairly low hour machine. I did look, at the hour meter but couldn't see through the screen.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!




 

I have some advice, but I am no expert. About 10 years ago I was considering buying a very nice looking 977k. I believe price was 6 or $7000. I went to florin tractor and spoke with Dana, who is an expert. He told me not to buy it because extremely difficult to find transmission parts. He said if I would use it for a business Making money, would be more realistic, but he was strongly encouraging me to pass on it. I instead purchased a 977 20A direct drive transmission machine. Dana suggested I look for A 977 20A , that is how I ended up buying my current machine. Like I said I am not all all very experienced with equipment parts purchasing and repair so I would suggest you wait on more experienced opinions.

That's actually the very same reason I bought my D7E (47A). Its a direct drive and it has a lot less go wrong with the transmission compared to a powershift. I didn't even know they made the 977 with a direct drive. I need to look into that.

20A was built from 1955 to 1960. It really is a d6 9u with caterpillar loader attachment. With oil clutch. And direct electric start.

Nice! Would you mind sharing a pic or two?

977 20A used to be a somewhat popular machine my area, northern California, for logging operations. Now almost all of them in this area have made the trip to China and back.

I will try to get pictures. I not close to this machine currently. I believe I may have older pictures on my phone I will try to post.

Any other opinions on value? A local scrapper in my area told me that machines this size are worth around $3K. I based my offer price on this because I may get into this project machine and run into something that is cost-prohibitive to overcome. Should I consider offering a little more because the engine runs so well? I don't want to lose out on a potentially good machine but don't want to lose money on it either. Any opinions are appreciated.

Not up on my D7 track information, so check and see if it is the same track your D7 is running. Being older than your D7 it could be different. Next question is the $3000 scrap value the whole tractor as is, or is that the cut up price. My experience is they quit the cut up price and hope you bring it whole, and then start deducting.

I would think your in the right price range. But of course you got it running and moving, without costing the owner anything. So you may have to wait for it to not start right up when the next guy looks at it. If there is another.