Cat Classic Parts vs. Standard Cat Parts

When I got my 955, i was referred to a local fellow who worked for the CAT dealer. he came out to the house one evening and he told me the that if i needed to order parts to make sure i used the term "classic". he also said that the desk clerks don't always offer this.

the difference is that he said they were the exact same part and came from the same shelf.

so far I have managed to get everything i need through this forum, so i haven't tested the dealer yet.

rod

Cat was loosing sales to the aftermarket suppliers so they started selling the aftermarket parts as "classic" parts. Usually they charge a little more than a similar aftermarket part. Hopefully you are paying for quality control and the good parts go to Cat; the balance to everyone else. We've used lots of them and had no major problems. I thought the warranty was the same. If you are buying something that's heat treated, don't expect the same quality as the original. An important issue when dealing with finals and transmissions as tolerances and heat treatment of gears shafts and bearings determines longevity. However, its hard to spend 20K on gears and another 5K on bearings when you're working on something that gets 20 hrs of use a year.

Mike, from your message, it appears that Cat is not the manufacturer of the classic parts. Since others manufacture the parts, the Cat quality control isn't there. Or am I wrong? gwh

Here is what Cat has to say.

http://www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=48662&x=7

Mike, from your message, it appears that Cat is not the manufacturer of the classic parts. Since others manufacture the parts, the Cat quality control isn't there. Or am I wrong? gwh

I can tell you from my experience that they're not the same part as what Cat makes. I got an alternator pulley for my 120G motor grader in Classic and drove 65 miles to put it on and the damned thing wasn't even machined right. There was a ridge in the hole that wouldn't let it go on the shaft. I had to go all the way back and buy the Cat pulley for $240 dollars (somewhere in that neighborhood) cause I had waited a day for $49 Classic pulley to come in and didn't want to wait another day just to gamble on another one. And I didn't have any way to machine the ridge out of the other one.

I bought a Classic muffler for a 627 scraper and it weighed about half as much as the Cat muffler, but was about a third of the price. I can tell it's not going to last very long, made the wrong choice on that one.

On the other hand, I bought a Classic crankshaft for a 3304 that was about $1000 when Cat wanted $4000 for their new one and I didn't have any trouble with it in four busy years of work. I compared it to the Cat crank before I bought it though.

Classic just isn't the same as the Cat part, and was never intended to be. There's a use for them, but overall it would have to be light use in most cases. Some pieces, like the muffler aren't even as good as other aftermarket brands that are priced similarly.

They are aftermarket blessed by Peoria. I would always recomend good used Cat Parts but NEVER Classic Parts. Most are like the alt pully mentioned above. Even if they cover them with warrenty, you still need to do the job over and over untill you get a good one.
Later Bob

Reminds me of the typical junk yard guarantee....If it doesn't work bring it back and we'll give you another one....that doesn't work either.