Washing steering clutches and brakes on d47u

A variety of reasons have prompted me to get my old d47u toolbar dozer back into more or less running shape.

After draining out gallons of water/oil out of the steering clutch housings and following the washing procedure given in the manuals, things sort of worked, but still not very well. Initially, I had to really stomp hard on the brake with the steering clutch disengaged to get it to turn. Pulling off the inspection panels, I could still see lots of oil and grease in the housing, so I made a trip to Harbor Freight and picked up a bilge pump, hooked it up to a couple of hoses, put the suction end in a 5 gal pail of diesel and used a brass garden nozzle to spray around the inside of the housing. It'd go through the 5 gals in a couple of minutes so I'd pour it back into the bucket and run it through again. After running 25 gal of diesel through each side, things were looking pretty clean. I let it drain for a week and then used a couple cans of brake cleaner to dry out the linings a little more. After adjusting the steering clutches and brakes for proper clearance, things worked pretty well. Very light effort on the brakes now.

So that's fixed; I wish the undercarraige were that easy.

If the weather's decent, the blade should go on tomorrow.