D7 3T and 17A equalizer spring innovation

A recent post (D7D 17A Equalizer Spring Group by Inter674) prompted a very old memory that I hope some will find useful.
I was helping one of my father’s equipment operators performing maintenance on one of dad’s 3T series D7 tractors. He pointed to the equalizer spring and proudly said “See that main leaf, how it’s thicker than the other leafs? That was your father’s idea, to use a leaf from a D8 as a main leaf for the D7 3T and it works great!” he explained that equalizer spring leaf breakage had been a common occurrence before that innovation.
I don’t know what series D8 the spring leaf was from or which leaf it was from in the group (maybe the second leaf?) I know that all three of my father’s D7s had this modification until the equalizer bar was introduced.
Happy Dozin’ :cool2:
Craig

[quote="seiscat"]A recent post (D7D 17A Equalizer Spring Group by Inter674) prompted a very old memory that I hope some will find useful.
I was helping one of my father’s equipment operators performing maintenance on one of dad’s 3T series D7 tractors. He pointed to the equalizer spring and proudly said “See that main leaf, how it’s thicker than the other leafs? That was your father’s idea, to use a leaf from a D8 as a main leaf for the D7 3T and it works great!” he explained that equalizer spring leaf breakage had been a common occurrence before that innovation.
I don’t know what series D8 the spring leaf was from or which leaf it was from the group (maybe the second leaf?) I know that all three of my father’s D7s had this modification until the equalizer bar was introduced.
Happy Dozin’ :cool2:
Craig[/quote]Replace three 3T 17A springs with 2 D-8 springs(1H, 8R, 2U or 13A). You can trim ends to proper length.

Thanks for information.

Yes, I suspect that our 17A has had the main spring replaced with a D8 spring leaf/set and the 'jocky' spring has then been thrown away. The vertical supports for the jocky spring frame which appear to be designed to 'catch' the main spring and prevent it over extending have also been cut away - meaning it now bottoms out on the belly pan cut-outs.

I can confirm this with our local Catspert David T this week when I visit and check out the various 7' and 8's he has in his yard😊

But it makes sense that it has been deliberately modified given what you say re your father's experience.

I also know that this arrangement has been in place on our machine for at least 15 years during which it was used for very steep and heavy land clearing and extensive road cutting and dam building:madgrin:

The previous owner was a bit of a cowboy and according to his neighbour at one time Adam had the dozer perched atop a cliff face, threatening to go over. The neighbour said Adam was too scared to get back on so they managed to run out the winch cable using a smal farm tractor to a large tree and lean over the tracks and operate the winch controls. The first attempt failed as the large tree simply pulled over but on the second attempt using a larger tree nearby they managed to drag the 7 back to safety.

I also asked the neighbour why the roof canopy has a straight line depression in the middle, from from to back. Oh he said, Adam was winching a tree that weighed probably 50 tonnes under full power when the cable suddenly let go and the end fittings and cable lashed back over the roof creasing the 12mm thick steel plate.

Of course I found out all this info after I bought the machine which Adam described to me as 'it's not done much in the last 15 years I've had it':confused2: