Bought my first Caterpillar

looks like a good size lesson to learn on 👍

Paul

Serial # starts with 14A?

if it has a winch , put a stump splitter on the back and would speed things up.

Yes it's a 14a, but I don't have the complete serial number. It's covered on the rear by the winch and it's painted over on the engine. I'll get it cleaned off soon.

The winch is a 8DL and has a drive shaft out the bottom. I'm not sure how to mount a splitter unless this winch were to be removed.

can you get a picture of winch from the back, does it a draw bar under the winch?

When you clean the paint off the engine tag, try some paint stripper. The tag is soft aluminum and many folks have at it with a pick/screwdriver/other sharp instrument, which results in the number being obliterated. Not sure what type of stripper would work on the paint that's typically on these machines but if you could try what you have, that'd be great to know what works, if anything...

[attachment=32582]20150912_130913.jpg[/attachment]

You can see the winch does not work since all the cable is not on the reel, it's on the list to fix.

We broke a fan belt, then when replacing we found the universal joints were shot on the front drive shaft. When removing the under shield 4 of the head snapped off, so now we're drilling the bolts out. The beauty of working on a classic, one project all ways grows into at least three or more.

I'm going to use carburetor cleaner to remove the paint, I'll try to get it done next weekend. There is a tag on the instrument panel that says it's an air force model with a serial number that must be coded with the air force. It's not like a Cat serial number. I'm sure there is a book out there somewhere that would decode it though.