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Astro van cat conversion

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

OK FOLKS
Sniffing around the cat and looking at the carnage that is two of the wheels.

12 inch with 5 on 5-1/2 bolt pattern....wasssssup with this odd duck

I need to replace two of the steel wheels...the lug nuts look to have come loose and the holes are trash.

ANY suppliers for the steel wheels ??????
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

Well...Not much going on today.

Gotta take the P O'S trailer back Saturday... so the trailer is in the way of moving the cat.

Decided to crawl into the cab and take a seat.

Made some SNOWCAT noises :thumbup:

Soon as the trailer is gone I plan on moving the cat over in front of the shop door to make getting air and tools easier without all the walking.

The better I'm feeling after this crud gets better...the more excited I am getting about wrenching on the cat.....

Can't wait to get all the extra junk pruned off and start cleaning out the tub.

A good washing out with the big Landa hot washer should make things way easier to work on...

The 8 inches of pine needles and muck in the belly is nasty....
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

Spent a while looking at the ghastly mess that was once the front axle.

Here are the pix

The LH front wheel is tilted in at the top enough that it is very noticeable.

Axles have to be narrowed up a total of 26"...

I am going to just cut the axle off inboard of the inner rubber flex suspension and replace the entire center section.

I ran a long straight edge down the main frame rails andd they look great

Does not appear to be any issues with the hydraulic track adjuster .

The end flanges on the axle may need a bit of welding....but nothing really terrible


I am thinking that the plan should be to get the frame narrowed and and all the other axles cut off and welded back together...and then fit the front axle back in so it slips into the frame tube easily..

:hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer:

Yanking that axle out and getting it into a press would have made pretty short work of the bend..

Even using a 4 foot chunk of railroad iron to strong back the beast and a 20 ton hydraulic jack....would have been far better than this train wreck....

I am just real happy that the main side frames were not hurt....
 

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Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

Now with the Previous owners trailer out of the way and lovely weather this afternoon I decided to grab the Scat Trak and a chain and see if kitty would cooperate and move easily around in front of the garage door so I can get air and tools to things easily and not need to walk all day long.

Grabbed hold of the Packer and reefed on it and the Scat was able to give me good steerage...I think we were at the limit of lift on the Scat though....felt like it was standing on tippy toes a time or two...

Walked it right around by the door..

A am pleased......
 

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Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

Looking at these 12 inch wheels with the 5 on 5.5 pattern.

Who's dumb idea was this ????

This locks you in to buying SNOW CAT special wheels....

I hate proprietary stuff.

I am fondling the one hub that was off the machine.....A trip to the lathe and trim the center pilot a tad and drill 5 new holes 5 on 4.5 and use standard 12 inch wheels.....

I gotta think on this one.

I need 4 wheels.
2 are trashed ( loose nuts and all wobbled out)

2 others have rim damage...maybe usable with a bit of massaging with a 5 pounder.....

Fatsquatch modded wheels for his 2100.....I am inclined to mod the hubs and use off the shelf wheels.

There is nothing about these factory wheels that make them super strong or otherwise BETTER than any other steel wheel.

PARTS SALES IS THE DEAL....

you gotta go to the specialty parts supplier NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAY
 

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

junk all those 5 0n 5.5 wheels for the aluminum mono rail wheels the steel wheels were prone to cracking out around the bolts I lost 2 wheels the first winter I had mine I lost a few more the following winter I have replaced mine with the aluminum wheels and once I start the undercarriage rebuild this summer my front wheels will be replaced with 3700 wheels and the larger 3700 bearings, because once I fixed the broken wheel problem bearing failures started to happen.
 

Pontoon Princess

Cattitute
GOLD Site Supporter
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

Looking at these 12 inch wheels with the 5 on 5.5 pattern.

Who's dumb idea was this ????

This locks you in to buying SNOW CAT special wheels....

I hate proprietary stuff.

I am fondling the one hub that was off the machine.....A trip to the lathe and trim the center pilot a tad and drill 5 new holes 5 on 4.5 and use standard 12 inch wheels.....

I gotta think on this one.

I need 4 wheels.
2 are trashed ( loose nuts and all wobbled out)

2 others have rim damage...maybe usable with a bit of massaging with a 5 pounder.....

Fatsquatch modded wheels for his 2100.....I am inclined to mod the hubs and use off the shelf wheels.

There is nothing about these factory wheels that make them super strong or otherwise BETTER than any other steel wheel.

PARTS SALES IS THE DEAL....

you gotta go to the specialty parts supplier NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAY

absolutely positive you will way a better wheel for way less money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

I do believe I agree on the monorail wheels being far better.

But for now I need to get this beast at least so it will move with the van on top.

Whats likely gonna happen is this....
I do have some of the steel wheels I can get that are still good...they well get me operational....

TODAY WAS DEMOLITION DAY.

Ripped the rear groomer lift off the cat and hauled it out to the scrap pile.....

Ripped all the hoses out of the rear area.

Cleared out all the crud that had accumulated on top of the diffy.

Got the rear U joint unhooked and the shaft out of the way.

The tranny dip stick was left open...so the auto tranny is likely junk.

Real hard to turn either way..

With the watery crap that I found in the diffy I was very nervous about the diffy.. (Couple pints was all)


Butttttttttttttttttttttt...good news...I got a ratchet and a socket on the pinion nut and the unit turns fairly free..

I can spin each axle and the other one rotates the opposite...so the planetary gears are rotating.

Gonna have to rip this beast apart, clean it and at least install new bearings.

Weather is closing in and by nightfall RAIN and cold again.

So I crammed a 50 gallon barrel lid up over the diffy to keep water off the diffy top.

I did uncover a 1/8" pipe nipple open to the weather on top of the diffy....
May well have been the entry point of the water.

But I feel much better knowing the gear box will spin fairly easy

I would really like to know the history on this cat....well maybe not.

Everything I touched was/had been hacked badly by folks with little mechanical skill it would seem....


Once upon a time this old snow warrior shed a drive shaft.....the X member just ahead of the pinion yoke is all beat to rat crap....I mean there is signs of serious carnage.....

Who ever was driving at the time likely needed a change of shorts when that bad boy came loose.

The u joint that in it now is badly brinelled on both journals....lots of grease in them.... just worn out...


And those are some herky joints 1410 series they look like to me


Anyway...was a productive day....

So way cool to actually be working on MY CAT...:thumbup::thumbup:
 

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Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

when you pull the top take some pics of the compensator gears and text me the pic I will tell you how bad they look I found mine worn out but still working im in the process of building a new one for mine. also what id the r&p ratio.

Don 907 434 0692
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Re: An introduction/hello and my project.

I can do that.

One thing I did notice was there was nothing on the magnetic plug in the bottom....

That has to be a good sign....

I have no info on where this cat came from or what it was being used for....nothing on any maintenance

Came to me without the engine, hood or radiator

Was a V8 cat though....has the modified front tub area for the V8.

Just not much to write home to mom about..

But its a good candidate for what I want.....ONLY 30 MILES AWAY....BEST PART
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Hey troops

I asked Doc to change the title on my build thread...

So it will reflect a more real time name for the thread.
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
THANKS JIM.

MEEEEEEEEE TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

After such a looooong time of not really being able to do much other than dream about this due to LACKACAT I had reached the point of just giving up the idea.

Every machine that was remotely within my $$$$$ range was usually in the thousands of miles away...one way.

We are simply not set up any more to be able to do the big road trip thing...

To be honest, I would rather have had a Spryte to work with...buttttttttttttttttttttt I am not gonna complain too loud.

When Andy (Previous owner) text me and said "I think I have what you are looking for" I was like a little kid at Christmas time.

At 68 YO I don't really get all Ga Ga over stuff any more......I made an exception this time :thumbup:

Now I have to keep a tight reign on going goofy on buying this and that goodies for the cat and stay focused on getting the frame narrowed up and making repairs that must be done to make a sound reliable foundation.

Narrow the tub, frame and axles
Service all the wheel bearings.
Get a total of 8 steel wheels that are usable. (I need 3---4 ?)
Get the OC12 apart and see what it needs (Bearings and seals for sure)
There wasn't any metal on the magnet....a good thing

Next dry day get the top off the OC12 AND TAKE A PEEK

Then I can start getting the location figured out as to where the Van will physically sit on the cat frame.....

The plan is to notch the tub and add square tube cross members that will extend beyond the sides of the tub and then add two channel rails, one on each side to allow the van to be driven onto the frame.

Once the van is on top of the cat chassis....remove the wheels/tires and lower the Van as close as is possible to the Cat.

Fabricate 4 brackets that will bolt to the hubs and then to the chassis....securing the van.

4 Links will be added , one each wheel house area to secure the frame of the van to the cat frame and stop the van suspension from moving/flexing.

This will assure the cat suspension does the work and also to keep the cat frame from trying to twist.. (The box construction of the van will make this plan an easy one...)

The drop box position will be a tedious item to locate, but my preliminary measurements are still looking good..

I have seen a full sized Chevy van on a 2100 frame, so the Astro being a bunch shorter will allow a bit more latitude on fore and aft location.

Big deal is to get the drive shaft set up with decent angles and the ability to get the shaft into the chassis after the van is mounted.

The current plan is to cut 4 strategically located round ports (18" or maybe a bit more) in the tub...two up by the rear of the Astro's tranny tail shaft...and two back in the rear where the drop box will sit (Just ahead of the OC12_

The Astro's rear diffy needs to be close to a position by the connection to the drop box and the OC12 so as to keep the NEW drive shaft assembly in the sweet spot as far as angle go.

I chose to use a drive shaft from an S10 extended cab.....as it is a two piece shaft with the rear shaft having two double cardan u joints...one on each end, with a center carrier bearing and then the short front shaft that slips into the tranny....

The "Double Double" rear shaft will readily allow a bunch of rule breaking as far as shaft angles goes.

The angles should not be a real issue, but it definitely would be a no go with a single cardan joint shaft..

The factory shaft and joints in the 2100 were nearly flat and this did not allow for any couple in the joint ....As seen by all the brinelling on the joint I removed.....Trunnions were bad all in just two spots....shows that they did not rotate when the shaft turned...

Not a deal breaker....but I would prefer to have some couple in the joints, especially with the CV Joints.


Next comes the air controls for the steering

Two air brake chambers probably type 20
Two relay valves with quick release
Two double check valves to allow for foot pedal braking
Treadle valve bolted to the floor by the factory pedal arm and actuated by the pedal.

A double compressor electric air system mounted up front in the tub where the engine used to sit.

An extra battery up in the front tub to assist with things

Maybe a winch on the front CAUSE IT WILL LOOK COOL.

Nylon air tubing to feed the controls at the steering wheel area.

There we have it.

If money were not a factor this could be accomplished in a fairly short time

Sounds simple enough.

OH

THE TRACKS

I have sourced top quality belting of the same spec as many cats run

Two belts on each side 12" wide each belt 287" long.

I have decided to build custom grousers for the beast

And the cat is born......

The van has all the creature comforts, lighting and the fully functional power plant assembly....not much to do there.

Will need to deactivate the ABS system to keep it from complaining when the drive shaft turns and the wheel sensors don't

Unhook the Driver air bag as the air steering control panel attaches to the wheel.... Do not want that bomb alive under all the steering controls....


Pretty much how it's going to go

No doubt there will be subtle changes here and there....and some of the great folks here will say something that will be an AH HA COOL THING and we will give it a whirl....

Wave my Harry Potter wand and zooooop poof....Van cat... :thumbup:

In actuality this is not going to be all that difficult, just time consuming...

Ah....not much wiring....Just a bit for the air compressors....

Later I would like to add two overhead tubes to mount LED LIGHT BARS and such.

And depending on how things go...maybe scare up a nicer van at some point...

Ah yesssss....fun stuff

In the mean time, a lot of ripping and removing and cleaning up the old Packer...
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Well now...
Another chapter in the saga closes.

We took the other fellas trailer back to his house and dropped it off....without incident...

NOW we have a place to park the Suburban again...:smile::smile:

Weather is nasty today..
Snowing and miserable outside too....

Does not look like any weather to wrench on the cat this weekend.

Andy (Seller) told me today that he had looked in the hole in the diffy when he popped the plug out before we took it home....he said there was a puddle of crap in the bottom of the diffy, but the ring looked fine (Used a bright high intensity light)

If the teeth on the ring were not in any water things may be better than I thought.....

I am anxious to get the top off the diffy and see wassssup.

If I do not see anything really ugly we may be able to just flush the box with some ATF and spin the thing with a big drill motor to churn things up good and then drain them.

Possibly be able to at least get the Cat built and then after the initial build go ahead and tear the OC12 apart and check it over real well and replace bearings and such as needed.

Now...for you old hands at this game.

The 2100 has a pump that circulates the diffy oil through a cooler...do the smaller cats like a Spryte use a cooler on the diffy ??????

We shall see where we go with this...
 

PJL

Well-known member
Yes they do. The LMC1200 I use does not have hydraulics but it does pump the diff oil through a filter and a cooler.
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
OK
Thanks for the reply.

Will need to set up a pump off the drop box drive and run a filter and a cooler system.

Not a big deal....just want to plan for it while things are still in a state of flux.

I may be able to use what is on the cat now and just relocate stuff and power the pump directly off of the drop box front spline'd stub.

I was thinking bout running an air pump off that drive, but the two electric pumps should be fine.....

There is plenty of room in the belly, especially after the original tranny and drive shaft come out..

I will be getting the cab tilted up here soon WEATHER PERMITING

I can see the large hoses that come off the OC12 lower fittings and head forward...
Just too much crap in the belly that's covering stuff right now.

With the cab up I can get at all the stuff needed.

If the filter and pump are good we can reuse them...new filter cartridge and off we go.....


Likely mount a cooler in the belly and maybe run an electric fan on it with a temp switch...
 

olympicorange

Active member
…….. S/R,.. you definitely have your work cut out for you. to say a ton of labor hours , would be an under statement . commendable comes to mind. i'm intrigued in the loading & unloading process of the van. and the timeframe in which it will take to make it happen. whats the gameplan for loading ramps? slide in & out , like an equip. trailer. wondering how much the Cat will ''fulcrum'' , while driving on & off...… etc. not having to remove the wheels & tires , would be a real time saver, in the equation. like a small removable deck section under each wheel, or a ''porta-power'' operated lift/sub-frame support for the rear axle, clamp/ bracket the van frame to cat, prior to lifting rear axle, ( compressing suspension into place, etc.). and securing van to cat , at the same time, etc..... cool project.....:smile:
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
I will try to answer your questions in order..

Load and unloading

The plan is to use our BIG TEX TRAILER
Back the van onto the trailer
Locate the trailer behind the cat
Insert a pair of short channels to bridge across to the cat from the ramps on the Tex

Block the rear frame of the cat with plain old wood cribbing to stop the FULCRUM
Drive the van slowly down the channel rails (Added to the cat frame as a permanent part)

Locate the van fore/aft

Remove the blocking and go park the trailer.

TIRES WHEELS

These need to come off to lower the C/G and to get the van in a position to keep the drive shaft angle in the sweet spot.
I want the van chassis right down so it just clears the top tub rail of the 2100

4 black HDPE (Plastic) covers will fit in the wheel openings to dress things up.

The first time around will take some time I'm sure due to measuring and getting things dialed in..

After things are located and all the bracketry is drilled and such, things should go fairly quick for a load and unload.

I have the sketches taking shape for the brackets at each wheel hub.

Basically a large angle fabrication 3/16" x 18" x 12" sheet metal (12" foot) with some stiffeners welded in.

The wheel hub bolt circle will be cut in the brackets for the lugs to attache the bracket to the hub/cat

Likely I will weld some locating "keys" on the cat frame pad to allow the brackets to be easily aligned on subsequent mountings.

A note

The channels welded to the cat frame will be set so the vans track width/tires will just roll in the channel to put the van in a near perfect side to side location.

I have not decided on what to use...steel channel or aluminum ?????
The only thing these do is allow easy roll on/off of the van.

Just need to be strong enough to hold the van while loading/unloading

Suspension securing

The "Tie links" will consist of a square tube with a round seamless heavy wall tube welded across each end (1-1/2" bore)

4 companion mounts that will weld/bolt to the vans sub frame (Depending on what location is available when we get there)

These will likely end up being rectangle tube cut to form a deep channel and have a 9/16" hole drilled through.

See the piccy of the bushings

Standard GM Square body 4X4 SPRING BUSHINGS (OFF THE SHELF TECH) :thumbup:


The links will be assembled using a jig to make sure all 4 links are identical so any one will fit any corner.

The suspension on the van will be in the neutral position when the links are attached....(Ease of assembly)


All the while I have been waiting for a cat I have explored many ideas and grabbed a few things i WAS PRETTY SURE would be of use......

Found the bushings at a garage sale cheap :clap:

Now they will have a job....

I want this thing to go together just like legos....and not take a rocket scientist to make it happen.

All the air lines are a different color
All fittings will be quick connect type.

The lines in the van will lay along the LH side on the floor...around the drivers seat and up to the operator station and plug in.

In the back of the van along the floor on the LH side there will be corresponding through hull fittings that will receive the matching quick connects both inside and under the van.

Toss in the tubes. plug and play ....pretty much once the assembly has been fabricated the next time it will require very few tools to hook up and go cat'n

A very small amount of tools.

Literally a handful of wrenches is all...

3/4" socket and ratchet
3/4" end wrench (Fasten the mounting brackets to the cat)
Lug wrench


13/16" socket
13/16" end wrench (Link bolts)

Zip ties and side cutters (Fasten the operator station to the steering wheel)
Fastens at 3 places...located at two points at the lower part of the wheel for stability.

Small crescent wrench and possibly a 1/2 and 7/16 wrench to connect auxiliary battery up front in the tub

PLUG AND PLAY CAT.....

This may seem a daunting task....but is actually very simple.

When you look at it in it's entirety, yes...the scope can seem overwhelming, but break things down into small sections and it gets simple really quick....


Ahhhhhh yesssss

When you can get the ideas on paper and have dimensions to work with
(Real world stuff) a lot can be accomplished without getting dirty.

Then it can be taken out and the steel can be cut, fit and made to do what ya want...

IS THIS ALL GOING TO BE PERFECT??? LIKELY NOT...WILL CHANGES BE MADE....PROBABLY A CERTAINTY THERE....

But the basic plan is looking real viable at this point.

Back before I had a real cat to go touchy feely the ideas were sketchy and had a lot of room left to guessing....

Now when I am sitting here sucking coffee and designing....I can go down and look at something and run a tape across it.....then have real time data as to IF IT WILL WORK....

Pix

The operator station.

Valves, hand rest (Will end up black)

Station just anchors to wheel with 3 large zip ties (Sort of hinky...but fast and does not damage the wheel) FAST OFF..SNIP SNIP SNIP

This design allowed ME TO NOT TEAR UP THE STEERING CONTROLS OF THE VAN.

All controls stay and are functional.

Wipers, signals, head lamp dimmer, shifter.....

Wheel station mount will end up with a link connected to the drivers seat pedestal to keep the wheel stable at level position (Stop unnecessary stress on the power steering system in the van)

JUST LIKE LEGOS :smile::smile:


I have the basic plan done for the operator station but the exact size and layout of the connection manifold that will fasten on to the right of the right joy stick on the open section of panel.

The 3 large holes....lighten the piece and to allow access to the horn pad on the wheel (Works great with left thumb)

This entire assembly gets painted black after its done so it blends into the scenery.....

The operator station took form on paper over the course of a week or so....then after I was happy with the idea it was an afternoons work to cut the aluminum and get it to the point it is now.

I scared up the valves (spring return N/C 3 PORT) AIR SUPPLY....EXHAUST... CONTROL

Again...just like legos

All off the shelf stuff too.....
 

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Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
I saw that one a couple years ago.

It is on a 3700 cat

I spent a couple hours on the phone chatting with the fella who put it together.

The Astro is a shell only. (The engine tossed a rod out the side...so was pretty much junk)

The cat has the original AC diesel engine and the hydro pump system.

He sold it to a guy on the east coast IIRC.

A 3700 would be sweet, but repairs on the Sunstrand swash pumps and the hydro motors can be real expensive if they go bad.......

I am happy to have the pile of junk I have......:clap:


YESSSSSSSSSSSSS...The little Blue Astro got me to thinking, and I love the little Astro's anyway.....beyond the yuppy soccer Mom stigma...they are a handy comfy little ride.

Outta make a sweet cab for a cat.....

Here are the other pix of the Blue van cat
 

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Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
oooooooooooook

I got the top off the OC12 (Suspense was killing me to see inside)

Better than it could have been....but more work than I wanted.

The Bad

It has had water in it and it made a mess.

Goopy sloppy rusty yuck.....

The GOOD

The ring and pinion are not hurt....some surface etching (Black) but not gonna hurt anything.

The box has been into not that many hours ago of actual time me thinks.
Brake drums look good with no scoring from rivets getting into the drum.

Equalizer gears do not show hardly any wear on the teeth.

No broken ring gear teeth.

Did find 3 or four teeth that are chipped at the outer edge...The edges are razor sharp.... (I have seen this on other gear sets.

I will use a die grinder and a small stone and lightly radius the outer edges of the teeth to remove the stress riser...and stop any more chips.

Chips are tiny, so no worries.

Ratio of the R&P IS 5.44 (9 PINION AND 49 RING TEETH)

The pictures make things look far uglier than they look to the eye.

Tear it apart.
Wash it up.

Buff all the parts with a wire wheel and rewash.

Replace the carrier and pinion bearings....good for a lot of running...

This is about the same as the crawler tractor I rebuilt years ago...except a lot bigger...

Got some pictures of the trailer near the cat today..
Son in law heading off to get hay for the horses (A dry day today)

The Big Tex could hold two of these cats (without blade) and have room to spare...

About 14000 pounds for two cats..... we have had more than that on that trailer.


The trailer will be a sweet rampemup to roll the van off onto the cat...


Here are the pix
 

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Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Thinking about the OC12 and reading here and a few other places about what oil to use

NON hydraulic equipment, transport only

Seems that a TO-4 30w TRACTOR FLUID pops up a lot in different writings.

I can get that material at my local NAPA store for about $70 for a 5 gallon pail..

Does this oil sound like a good choice for the OC12 ????

There seems to be the FORD CHEVY DODGE thing with what oil to use in these boxes.

We are not extremely cold here...not even.

The specs on the TO-4 sounds good for use with wet brakes, clutches and such as well as gears.....

What say ye troops ?????
 

KickerM

Active member
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I used Cat TO-4 fluid in mine, worked great, and stands up well to brake steering.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Sounds great.

That solves that issue.

I am going to plan on a cooler for the beast.

Likely smaller than what the 2100 had, but good enough to take the heat off.

The coolers on the machine are pretty well trashed...and likely contaminated.

There is a nice looking filter in the cooler circuit....possibly be able to clean it up and use it with a fresh filter ?????? we will see

Looking at the OC12.
As soon as we get another shot of decent weather that bad boy is coming off the cat and will get the axle tubes off and get the center section in the machine shop and start ripping it apart.

That will give me a lot of needed work to take care of until we get good outdoor weather to work on the chassis.....

All the gears, pins, bushings and such are going to need to be tended to A LOT...

But once the parts are cleaned up it can go back together and then occupy a corner until needed.

I have to shorten the axles and tubes 13" per side... so that can be done as well...

Great crappy weather work.....
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Spent some time on the phone with the guys at Dutchman axle up in Idaho this afternoon talking about getting the axles in the 2100 shortened and re-spline'd

I need to get one of those bad boys out and check the diameter to make sure it stays the same all the way down most the the length.

And the spine count..

Square cut splines cost a bit more to do than the V type splines.

The rough estimate to cut the shafts by 13" and re-cut the splines was $200 for the pair..

They also want me to ship them the gear the spline goes into to be sure the new splines fit properly....Yeah that would be nice eh ?????


The weather looks good for tomorrow, so will likely get a shaft, maybe both out to get a look at them...

They need to be out anyway to get going on disassembling the diffy...

Probably should yank the drain plugs out of the drop boxes and HOPE these are not full of water....
There is a seal between the case and the drop boxes.....butttttttttttttttttttt....ya never know.


Once the axles are shortened the axle tubes can be cut and then sleeved/welded...All good to go..

The current plan is to narrow the main frame up and then bolt the OC12 back in and attach the axle tubes, and then weld the splices.

The brackets where the tubes bolt to the frame rails are pretty sorry looking.

I am thinking at present that new pads a tad heavier with fresh holes that are not wallowed out and bosses to lengthen the amount of area the bolts go through may be a good idea.

The pads on the axles are wretched looking....
A great time to fix all this stuff.......

I am almost temped to build a saddle that the axles tube sits in with a key way/key to secure the tube and the u bolts to fasten the entire assembly to the frame rails.

This area always seems to be one that needs fixing, especially on the big cats with the wide tracks...

While the build is getting off to a good start these mods might be a real game saver down the road a bit....
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Looking at the gear ratio data on the OC12 and the drop box ratios in the 2100

Thiokol published the spec sheet showing 12.2 mph at 4000 RPM WITH THE C6 Auto tranny

This calculates out to a 6.14 R&P with the 2.44 drop boxes.

My cat has 5.44 R&P and at present (I counted the teeth) I have no idea what the Drop boxes are.

At this late date GAWD only knows who bolted in what or why.

Probably the diify crashed and the owners at the time used whatever they could find and tossed it in.

Having the higher ratio is certainly a plus for my application.

I am hoping it has the 1.83 drop gears too, but we will not know until I split the cases open.

Today the job is to get an axle out and see if the shaft diameter is such that we can have them cut off and the splines re-cut.

If the diameter is the same back at least 13" we are golden. If not then we may have to fall back 30 and punt .....

I will post pics after I get the beast out......
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Got the axle out.

YUCKY YUCKY YUCKY..

Bearing broken in two.

The retainer ring (Wedding ring) was a tad too big and had been rubbing on the inner weld in the axle tube.

Chips likely jammed the bearing causing the bearing to break.

Axle looks fine.

Bearing slid right off after I cut the wedding ring and warmed it up a tad.

Seal is intact and the numbers are readable.....


New direction

Too expensive to replace the axle shafts and so..

Gonna leave it wide at 92" center of wheels
36" tracks....and be 10'-6" wide.

Just permit the haul....far easier and cheaper than paying up the ying yang for narrower shaft...

I will not have to chop the frame and axles...just repair the front one that is bent and call it a day.


This change will make my life far easier.....

Getting into the wide cat will be easy too....climb up the tracks and walk down and climb in.....

PIX
 

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Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
GAWD YES

A bunch...a big bunch.

Clean up the tub and axles...repair the front axle

Clean and reassemble the OC12 and drop boxes.

I am still at a bit of a loss as to what took out the outer bearing.

That thing was a 5 alarm train wreck......

The snap ring groove was busted off the outer edge, the outer race was busted and missing a piece....

I have not found the piece yet....

Large enough that I do not see it having crawled up the axle tube to the drop box..

Can anyone tell me where to find the retainer ring (Wedding ring) that holds the bearing on the shaft ?????????


The 5210 bearing with the snap ring are easily, as are the seals.
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
Weather was still nice this morning, so I got after removing the other axle shaft.

No real carnage....other than water and goopy old oil.

The one thing I did notice was the seal in the bearing retainer flange is sticking out about 3/16-1/4" and has been chewing on the inside of the axle bolt flange... Or maybe I should say the flange has been chewing on the seal.

Wrong seal, or somebody just did not install it correctly ????
I will know more after the stuff is apart.

I did not take the time to remove the retainer and the bearing this morning, so we shall see wassssssup later.


Shaft out and all wiped clean of the crap and in the shop now.

Looking at the mounting plates where the axle tube bolts to the frame.....pretty sketchy.

I am doing some sketching on a better design that will be less prone to cracking and breaking than what is there.

I need to fabricate some jigs to position the axle in its proper place (Seems OK now as measurements are good on both sides) and then cut all the trash off the frame and the axle tubes.....then relocate the new parts and weld it up....

We shall see what I can come up with that will work well
 
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