New to me TD-8E, Logging & Homesteading

[mike_belben]

AMS Construction Parts - Dresser TD8E Bulldozer Parts

[treemuncher]

Check out https://www.facebook.com/billsrd38225/ for IH dozer parts. No relation to me but they are the known "Go-to" for IH dozer parts in my neck of the woods. Lots of these dozers still available in my area.

The suction strainer is likely a basic design or slightly modified unit. Don't sweat it. Check out Baileys Hydraulics and Burdens Surplus Center for tank suction strainers. You can always modify an off the shelf unit to work for your unit if that is what it takes - that's what lathes are for. Hydac also sells a wide range of different size hydraulic filters and there are other brands that can be found with a good search approach. Ditch the dealership are start looking in the back door for what works and is much cheaper that factory. I do it all of the time and save a ton of money this way. If your mentality with equipment is "it has to be a factory part", life is going to be rough. Adapt, modify, make it work and get back to work is what will keep you going long before waiting on a parts counter clown.

O-rings are available in any big city. You just need to find who deals in hydraulic seals and they will have a huge selection of o-rings as well. Or, any rubber/gasket supply house should also have o-rings. Signal Industrial Products in TN is one supplier and my last big o-ring order came out of somewhere in PA. You better get used to measuring what you have and learn to use (and be creative with) search engines on the net. Nothing keeps me down forever but then again, I rarely ask a dealer for parts. I run a lot of specialty stuff and it's faster to get much of it done on my own unless I need specialty sensors.

If you don't have a set of calipers and know how to use them, the time to start is NOW. Harbor Freight is good enough when it comes to these kinds of parts/tool needs. I keep a set in every truck.

[Tacotodd]

USMC saying, Improvise Adapt Overcome! You can do it, we all can do it. Heck, my very first vehicle to drive (in High School no less, 1989-90) was a 1974 IH 100 4X4 that I had to be creative about finding parts for. If it wasn't for dad and a very helpful parts guy at the time, I'd have been driving a Yugo.

[Koot Kraftsman]

I'm completely use to getting creative and doing what needs to be done when it comes to parts and repairs.  I was a machinist for the first 20 years of my career before I became a mechanical engineer, Lathes, Mills and drills were my life for many years.  I'm retired now but that kind of knowledge and experience doesn't just disappear.  However, one thing I've learned through the years is that if I'm not under time constraints, I will make every attempt to put the correct parts in machinery and equipment that is suppose to be in there, things just last longer with the right parts, it's that simple.  doing what it takes to get a machine back in business and making you money is a completely different story but even then, when you "make due" with what you've got, it;s all good, until it's not and you typically end up going back in more than once to fix the same thing which ends up creating more down time than there would have been if you just repaired it properly the first time. I have the o-rings coming, will get a hose made up outta the best option I can at my implements shop and if a strainer doesn't fall into my lap or I can't find a good alternative, the existing one will get cleaned and repaired best I can and get put back in.  the machine will be back in service soon enough.  

[tacks Y]

Not sure of seal between trans and rear end? Rear end and torque converter? If so should both run hy-tran.

Forgive me for my naive ignorance when it comes to nomenclature of this machine.  Until 5 minutes ago (literally), I did not have a service manual. By "rear end" I'm talking about the planetary gear between the steering clutches (behind the transmission). Since the torque converter is between the engine and the trans, I'm curious how you thought I was talking about a seal "between the torque converter and rear end"??  I haven't dug into the books yet but am I right in assuming the planetary gear is between the clutches?  This is not only my first powershift trans but also my first wet steering clutch machine so the machine's guts are still foreign to me.

Not sure if I am right but I call that whole piece you sit over w/clutches the rear end or trans. And the side sections final drives. So not sure where you are leaking?? I have had my finals off and now one leaks from trans a little. Not a bad job except for removing the track.

[Koot Kraftsman]

I've seen the guts of quite a bit of machinery and tend to use generic terms until I get to know them well enough.  What I've typically seen in old crawlers is that from the engine, you have something, whether it's geared with a clutch or a torque converter, power travels through one of those two components back to the transmission and then from there to what I call the rear end, although different from an automobile, it essentially performs the same task as the 3rd member on a car or truck by converting power from one linear axis to a perpendicular axis which in this case is steering clutches then the final drives which turn the sprocket.  In a lot of equipment, the rear end or "3rd member" is also what is transmitting power to a PTO, winch drive or other power shaft for implements. The problem I've found when discussing this topic with others is that a lot of owners look at the transmission and rear end as the same component when most often I see them almost always having at least separate compartments but some share the same fluid.  I've never understood why anyone would engineer the transmission to drink from the same trough as the rear end gearing, the transmission oil is too thin for rear gears and gear oil is typically way dirtier and more contaminated for a transmission.  The best explanation I can come up with for using the same oil in the trans and the rear end is that since the two compartments are typically butted up together (unlike a vehicle where power is transmitted through a drive shaft), if they used different fluid, there would need to be a seal there and when it failed you would then be contaminating oil in the compartment with the least amount of pressure and losing oil in the other. This is another reason I take filtration so seriously, especially if you just get the machine or you are not the operator and you don't know how the operator uses/abuses the machine.  Got my parts and tech manuals now, so time for me to do some reading.

Thank you all for helping me out on this machine!

[backwoodsdave]

Ok so I'm looking at the photos of the strainer you've pulled from the transmission and obviously I can't see the complete strainer but two separate photos, I'm assuming one end, the end with the threaded hole, has become unglued and is still attached to the cover plate, if not, someone had left an old strainer end plate on the cover, it threads onto the stud on the cover itself, and yes you'll be money ahead by changing the short section of suction hose, mine was sucking air in a hard push and the machine would stop.

[Koot Kraftsman]

Yes, if the top portion that is currently stuck to the cover is supposed to be glued to be a part of the strainer it has separated.  I assumed the way I found it was the way it was designed but threading the strainer onto the cover stud and then installing into the trans makes more sense.  Since I haven't put my eyes on a new strainer, it never dawned on me to think in that direction.  Heading up to NAPA today since I'll be driving right by it and if I don't get lucky with them, I've got a line on one through RPM's forum.