Saving a D2 5U

[quote="Mike Meyer"]After just looking at our Israeli member "Itzik" wrestling with splitting a D2 I thought I better share my recent story of doing the same job, I posted this over on ACME so some of you may have already read this, but some will have not. A year ago I bought this D2 5U (S/N16586) from a nice ACMOC member here in Australia, but as it was 2,000 miles away I'd never seen it in the flesh relying simply on a few photo's and his obvious integrity to help decide to buy it, we knew it had been driven into a shed 20 or so years ago, but was last used on a shrimp farm, so maybe I was being a little bit optimistic in hoping the steering clutches would be free still.😖mokin: It is a tropical rain forest area where the D2 lived it's entire life, sugar cane and banana's being the main crops grown, close to the ocean near Cairns if any of you folks know where that town is, and the annual rainfall is about 40 or 50 feet a year, that's feet, not inches.

I have another great friend in the area called Joe who I rate one of Australia's best Bush Mechanics, he started driving Cats as a 8 year old 62 years ago on a new Fifteen his Dad had bought, and he still works 7 days a week either fixing other peoples tractors and trucks, or contract sugar cane planting and spraying with his own purpose built machines, or simply contracting with his D8H, and it was to Joes shed I had the D2 taken, and to where I then flew and spent 2 weeks working on the D2. Joe has split a lot of Cats in his time, hundreds, from D2 to D8, so has the brains and experience, and tools to get the job done, I called him "The Boss" for 2 weeks and we worked from 6.30am till 6pm 7 days a week, and when not working on my D2 we rebuilt the gearbox on a D6C and rebuilt it's track frames, and worked on a D2 3J that Joe was fitting a electric starter and generator to.

Splitting the tractor took a long time as everything was rusted solid, this is the second D2 I've split to fit new steering clutches to, and this was a shocker because the clutch packs were a solid mass of rusted steel no liquid would penetrate, not even the Citric Acid solution I'd asked Joe to fill the entire back end of the tractor with about 6 weeks before I knew I was heading up his way. You will see from the photo's how bad a D2 clutch pack can get, and I'd had the brains to line up spare brake drums, new bimetallic clutch plates and springs, along with brake bands, linings, seals, bearings and gaskets, so we were not held up too much waiting for parts to arrive. As we got on top of the major repair work I got busy stripping old paint and rusty oily crud so I could begin painting the hard to reach area's, and one thing led to another, as it does when working on old Cats, and the entire tractor got a coat of Highway Yellow.

The first photo shows the tractor on Day One as we split the tracks off, and you will see the evolution as work progressed including replacing a broken track frame spring, till finally sitting next to Joe's D8, once I get the decals and new seat fitted, plus a new radiator core and another coat of paint I think she will be a beauty, this is my first wide gauge crawler and I think the wide bug has bitten.[/quote]



Mike, Wow! Nice story and alot of hard work. Great job, Mike. Scott

Mike, NICE JOB, your lucky to have had help that knowledgeable. I'll bet your still going to take her out and get her dirty!! Say hello to your family.
Regards Dennie

Hi Mike,
Looks good!!!! Still find it hard to believe the "old boy" works barefoot amongst that equipment.......and still has all his toes!!!!

Mike, I think given your excellent, well-described prose when writing about the things you love, you should submit this or one of your other efforts documented here to the magazine for an upcoming issue. Given your abilities and those you seek assistance from, the colorful nature of your environs would make some good reading. Note the request for stories in one of the "stickies" above. Sorry to put you on the spot, Mate, but you are good at what you do.

AS I have said before---


Mike--you should become a published author and write a book about your adventures!!

Hi Mike,
Looks good!!!! Still find it hard to believe the "old boy" works barefoot amongst that equipment.......and still has all his toes!!!!

[quote="Old Magnet"]Hi Mike,
Looks good!!!! Still find it hard to believe the "old boy" works barefoot amongst that equipment.......and still has all his toes!!!![/quote] Yes, every day as we were gas axing rusted parts or arc welding and molten steel would be falling all around us, I'd say, "now Boss, tell me again how you got through life with all ten toes, you must step on red hot steel every day?", Joe would reply, "I'm not the Boss, your'e the Boss, your'e the fella paying the bill, anyways, you just gotta watch where you put your feet, that's all"!😆 I said to him one day, "Hey Joe, when you are clearing 100 foot high rain forest with that D8, what happens when a deadly Taipan snake comes flying out of the falling branches and lands in the cockpit with you trying to take a bite out of those pretty toes?" "Well, I always carry a 2 foot long sugar cane knife in my Cats Mike, and as soon as the mongrel snakes hits the plates I grab me knife and off with his head"! All this while negotiating often near vertical hills too step for the D8H to reverse up under it's own traction.

I added a few more schnapps of Joe in his day to day Workplace Safety Gear, I'm sure the Cat. Inc. Lawyers and Insurers will faint when they see Joe heating up a bearing reading for fitting to my D2, on his toy, the D8H, he has a D7 too, and working on a D2 3J fitting aftermarket 24 volt electric starter and alternator.
regards
Mike

Looks like he may have mastered the use of feet as hands!!!!! Very useful.

In my starter stuff there is a one off conversion where the 42MT starter instead of that 40MT is adapted without hacking up the pony clutch housing and still fits inside the engine side covers

[quote="Old Magnet"]Looks like he may have mastered the use of feet as hands!!!!! Very useful.

In my starter stuff there is a one off conversion where the 42MT starter instead of that 40MT is adapted without hacking up the pony clutch housing and still fits inside the engine side covers[/quote]

That's interesting, because I know it cost $500 just to have the local Engineer (Joe's brother Mick) come over, measure everything and cut the hole, you have to remember Joe doesn't own a computer or cell phone, and has never heard of ACMOC, so a lot of times like fitting a starter to a D2 it's a matter of starting from scratch, he doesn't have access to the wealth of experience you folks can offer.
regards
Mike