Hi Team,
with the chain, maybe they wanted to limit the lean wheel angle for certain reasons of operation, or the mechanism is so worn that at larger angles of lean it will just flop to full lean. There may still be shims under the cover of the lean wheel box worm drive that can be removed to put a "small" amount of crush, one or two thou, on the pinion to stop the system drifting. Too much crush will break the ears off the cover, in reality it should have 0.005" clearance but light crush may help a drifting system by acting as a brake for the pinion.

There should be a link between the lean wheel bar and the axle beam at the lean wheel rack.
This link stops the bar from spreading and allowing the rack to slip on the pinion gear teeth during high load conditions. If the link is missing/broken, or the link eyes and/or pins are worn the bar can spread and slip the teeth.

The lean wheel rack is adjustable for tooth clearance and if too great can allow the gear teeth to slip and the wheels fall to full lean. The adjustment is as little clearance as possible with no binding of the teeth in the unworn areas of the rack and pinion teeth.
This adjustment is the only one on the machine that needs shims fitted to take up wear, for all other shim adjustments, shims are removed from the linkages etc. --- sort of a trick question at Cat School.

A pic would help us to reason why the chain/s was/were fitted.
Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Eddie B.

Thanks Eddie, there is also a plate installed to keep it from going over too far in the same direction, I am sure someone installed these devices for some reason. I will try to get some pics up tomorrow to hopefully illustrate what in the world is going on.

According to the operators manual that lock pin on the wheel lean is for transporting the machine at high speeds. I guess they dont want you to accidently lean the wheels at wide open road gear?

Wide open top gear is ~21mph W/ A friend driving and me following in my truck I saw it get a little over 25 coasting down some hills. I did get bored roading it to my shop so I did lean them going 20 for something to do, there is alot of slack in that system (at least on my unit) so things were a little extra bouncy and the handling defiantly is harder but its not unmanageable.

<span style="font-family:Arial">Hi, Grader Dude.
Welcome to the realm of levelling machines, the 'Royalty' of operating. I can't think of a reason why there would be limiting chains on the lean wheel arrangements unless somebody had busted sumpin, 'cos they had their own built-in stops at the ends of the rack.

You can ackshully steer these jiggers with the lean wheels at full road speed pretty much anywhere you can drive them at that speed using the steering wheel. Give yourself 40 acres to play in and try it sometime.

Yer gottit right about ther 'old codger'. I met him at Brooks about 5 weeks ago. Good bloke but strap a 'pregnant belly' on him and he'd pass for Santa Claus. But, like I said, a good bloke. And he has certainly been pretty free when it comes to sharing his knowledge and experience on this BB. Thank you, O. G..

A LOTTA people call those old gear-controlled Cat graders 'knuckle busters'. Cain't figure out why meself. I once worked with a bloke who had been operating the same 17K series Cat 12E (The DowNunder equivalent of the U.S. 70D-71D.) for 9 years, 4 for the previous owner and 5 for himself after he bought it, and he was complaining about the controls getting 'hard'. I worked on it with him for about 1 1/2 hours on each of two consecutive nights and he said it was different machine the next day.

There are several places that you can adjust them for wear in the controls. If yer a real good kid and ask nicely, I'll even tellyer about it.

Happy blading.</span>

Old codger hmph!! Santy Claus. .sheesh! Just 'cuz my hair (and beard) turned white at an early age. .but at least I was wearing long pants with no "do lap" over the belt line like an Aussie I could mention It was good meeting ya Deas. .and hope to do it again someday.

Dude, I looked at my 12E yesterday and if the rack is badly worn, you could take out a shim or two to snug it up a bit. Also you might want to check for wear at the ends of the link that goes between the rack and the lean control bar as well as wear at the ends of that critter where it bolts to the spindles. I'll check my parts book when I go out to my shop a bit later. .

Im glad you guys saw my humor in that, ol codger I mean Ol Grump was replying quickly then the next thing I know hes gone for a few days,I wanted to be sure I hadnt scared him off.

Ol Grump I do not have any litature on that that thing so anything you can offer me is much appreciated. I like to be prepared and my fear on this stuff is that something will break in the middle of the night and I will not have access you you guys and there is a quick spec of picture in a manual that can get me back in the operators seat.

Deas, there is a damn good reason they call them nuckle busters, you are more then welcome to come on out if you want to know first hand er um knuckle. My controls do not kick to hard unless you are working it hard. I haven't found some dirt to play in yet but I lifted the front tires off the ground and I had to lean into those things pretty good in order to attempt to keep them from jumping out of gear, then to push them back in.

Hi, Grader Dude.
Unless I have TOTALLY misread this thread, I suspect that I may just know a little more than you or O.G. about these jiggers. After all, I did make my living on them for a few years and I figured, rightly or wrongly, that it might make it easier on me to make my living on them if I knew a little about them. F'rinstance, I can lift ANY wheel off the ground to change a flat with ONLY the grader controls - can be somewhat helpful when you are working 40 miles from any help.

Can you sidecut a 1 : 1 batter with the machine UP ON the batter. I can and have - without rolling it.

As I said earlier, I will happily post the adjustment details if you want them.

Your choice.

Hi, O. G..
Methinks 'tis better, considering how the rest of me is built, to have one 'dewlap' over-hanging my belt buckle than to have TWO of them hiding in my shirt.

Just my 0.02.

LOL! I knew at least one of those posts was gonna get a rise out of Deas!!!
and you nailed 'em both...
Two of 'em hiding in his shirt-I have to remember that!
Dude-when it comes to operating, Deas has BTDT...just do a search on his posts...

Dude, no worries about running me off as I'm pretty thick skinned with a fairly good sense of humor as Mr Plant can attest to. And he does have a much more intimate knowledge of these old critters than I do although when he lapses into Strine, you might need a translator He even had to translate for me a couple of times.

As far as books, a Parts Book, an Operators and Maintenance Manual, and a Serviceman's Repair Manual should just about cover it. You might put an ad in the "for sale or trade" section on this board for 'em and include the s/n of your machine, or watch Fleabay as sometimes they come up for sale. Until you do find 'em, anything I can scan in that you need, just holler.