The Death of a Giant

I don't know about your local scrapper, but here in the 'Zoo at least the owner on Kalamazoo Metal Recyclers is into old iron and has a heart. I have bought parts by the pound off vehicles waiting for the torch before. Fortunately Pat (the owner of KMR) knows the value of rare tractor parts, steel tractor wheels, hit & miss engines, etc. and will save all of that stuff.

Maybe you can make a deal with your scrapper, most of them only care about tonnage. You might try offering to trade other scrap pound for pound for the parts you need.👍

My D2 parts tractor was destined for the scrapper and the owner agreed to sell me parts off it first. I told him that I wanted the Pony motor, Diesel head, Radiator, Water pump, Clutch, Fenders, Seat tank, Hood, Air cleaner, Injector pump, Governor,..............well, I ended up buying the whole thing.😆😆

It is a shame.....a lot of good pieces there.
As you have found a lot of pieces get swapped around and that's probably where the series "H" came from.

Yea, the H had me scratching my head, this scrapper has no heart, it could be worth 500.00 to the right person but he'll cut it up for 50.00. I just about need the whole tractor, spare engine, radiater,ROPS, trans, one complete final and someone else needs the torque and front CCU. About the only thing not needed is the frame rails. this stuff doesn't grow on trees any more. Two of my best 83js were destined for the torch if I hadn't drove 1000 miles to pick them up. I'd rather not go that far for a D4D but maybe the cat salesmen around here were to busy selling 46As. I just found 2 videos on youtube where someone scraped a D8 46a with rippers and 983. The vids show them unloading them off the lowboys using 2 volvo loaders, using foreign machines to destroy our cats. I guess the only thing wrong with the 46a was it had a burned piston, this was in Louisville Kentucky. It makes me sick. Thats one thing on my bucket list is to aquire either a 46a or 66a and these guys sent one to China.

It isn't just the machines that are dieing off.....try and find someone to work on this old iron or even knows/cares anything about them. Sign of the times I guess.

It isn't just the machines that are dieing off.....try and find someone to work on this old iron or even knows/cares anything about them. Sign of the times I guess.

Thats why you devote so much time Old Magnet to help us keep these things going, when I go to the local cat shop needing info from the service department they don't even know what a 14a or 83j is. Now the parts guys are pretty good about helping but I have learned to take my parts book with me because its alot faster than the computer, can you believe that.

Hello D4D..., Hope you win out, as previously stated lots of parts left there yet you could make use of. As for the D8 series H decals, they are on the wrap around that was added with the canopy which I`m guessing was not original and came from a later model tractor.
Good Luck, Garry

What a shame to see a nice old CAT like this fall to the flame torch. I bet the ROPS alone is worth more than the owner will get from the scrap yard. I think we need an organization similar to Lab Rescue, which I am sure you dog lovers know of. Instead of taking in stray or unwanted dogs, however, CAT Rescue would take in abandoned or unwanted CATS.

I run a "shelter" for stray D2's and am currently trying to "rehome" some of them.😆😆