CAT 977 Sitting 37 Years Will It Run? - NNKH

hey guys and welcome to another will it run style video this one on a cat 977 that's been sitting for 37 years or at least that's what i'm told but by the looks of it i'd say that's fairly accurate i have very little confidence that it's even gonna run especially since i noticed there's no bucket over top the stack hopefully the motor's not locked up it was used for clearing and managing the land on this very property and crazy part is the owner actually went to prison for two years for filling in wetlands that's a story i'm told i guess we'll start with a walk-around tour and then kind of dive in uh only other thing i know is that somebody drained the diesel on it because they were planning on scrapping this i can't wait to clean this all off but we'll just do a quick tour caterpillar baby [Applause] okay that's not locked up neither is that looking good there's no key looks like left to preheat and right to start that is seized up unless maybe you have to push this little button in i'm not sure we're nowhere near that uh it doesn't have any batteries either let's look at this so so this had a bucket on it at some point they dry rod and then somebody to another one and that probably blew off i hope that doesn't mean that water was going in to the combustion chambers because that will be a serious bummer the controls here work very very cool to see this must be an air filter i assume on the bottom so rotted out so it's got a heister d6c winch on the back super heavy duty looking unit doesn't have a winch cable has a vine that's growing up through it this is the diesel tank then we pumped it out right right here we will have to make sure that's sealed up before we go throwing anything in it let's go ahead and do a smell test on this fuel there we go oh it's got a dipstick on it unless this is a hydraulic fluid now it's got to be the fuel so that's empty oh yeah that's diesel it smells like old heating oil as you guys are watching us what's your confidence level if this motor is going to work or not i've been having a bad feeling again as i was saying it might be locked up but uh you know drop a comment down below let me know what you guys are thinking or what minute you're at oh this is pressurized this must be the hydraulic fluid i'm assuming yep that's hydraulic oil these controls are loose oh this is looking great steel tracks are actually pretty decent shape nice sprockets are getting a little sharp seems like every other sprocket is sharp maybe that's normal i'm not sure i remember replacing one of those when i was a kid i did do some heavy equipment repairs as an apprentice [Music] young all right well this i don't even know how the system is working there but i imagine all that's going to be a problem you know starting it's one thing moving it is another with these old hydraulic hoses i'm sure that's pretty dangerous here's a look at the motor in line six probably uh turbo charged so that stack goes down and then yeah water would just no drain or anything on it where the water would kind of drain out when they haven't set up like this i always thought it'd be a great idea to have a t there that maybe just has a little weep hole so in case the flapper is bad or there's no bucket on there water doesn't go inside the turbo and this is wrapping up the full 360 walk around let's clean some stuff off now and go from there side note hoping to score this boat too maybe it's got a force 125 on it which i believe is pretty much the same as the the chrysler so i might be able to use that for parts since mine has some issues uh but you know this would be a fun a fun i don't know it would be fun [Applause] oh i got a nice yellow paint under there missing a cover here probably i don't know i don't know anything about these so you'll have to forgive me just threw this on the ground look at that taking the shackles off oh darn that one grew up into the witch and then it comes back out up here yeah that one's staying in there you have to get the winch working to get that out now that's looking a little better she had a little light and everything comes back to life oh yeah fuel oil pressure water temp amps converter temp converter oil pressure no moisture in these gauges stainless steel bezels glass very nice mouse nest back here oh that one's broken that cage is broken dark well next step big step is going to be finding out if the motor is locked up on this easy access to the dipper tube stick see what we go look at that we got nice black oil we're getting in here to crank the engine over it's going to be pretty tough and we got vines and wires intertwined there's a look at the starter and it's a big one that's looking to see if it had a pony motor uh camarada was telling me a lot of these have that in fact i think his might have that too he's got a similar unit to this you got to get underneath if there's any chance of getting to the crank bolt there's even a crank bolt can't get underneath up front or on the side and i guess that means of course it smells like diesel i'm sure it's been leaking oil and diesel forever i probably should have brought some cardboard might have to go get some huh i should have brought a socket for the drain plug too to see if there's water in there yeah would you look at that i guess i should have assumed there would be no engine access underneath the crawler it's got this massive skid plate luckily it's missing a few bolts but uh looks like three inch around the whole thing some of them are broken we'll go get some fluids in an impact on i can almost sneak out of here yeah that's easier see this is how i crack my phones all the time got it in my side pocket and i'm about to roll over the edge my lanky legs are having trouble getting through good way to get jammed up there we go oh yeah all right i think we're gonna leave the skid plate alone because this probably weighs a couple hundred pounds and it seems like a hazard just taking that down under here with the limited clearance we should really hand crank the engine first before putting batteries on we're gonna we're gonna just go with the battery method i do want to make sure that there's no water on the bottom of this oil pan though so this this could be a disaster but i'm gonna try to loosen this just to see and it's got oh yeah see water darn i was really hoping not to see that that's unfortunate that means this motor was getting water through the exhaust and down past the pistons and the motor the cylinders are probably rusted up so all right well let's get a pan to drain some of that water out luckily there's trash conveniently placed all over the place look down there's an oil pin can't beat that get this belt back here too what the heck is this off with some kind of big air compressor anybody know it's like brand new i might have to keep that for another project i don't know what i'll use it for but something [Music] [Music] not looking good there's one full pan luckily it's fully separated though so i don't have to worry about dumping this water anywhere this is clean stuff it's not like the least bit oily on my fingers there's some oil okay i'm gonna drain a little bit more out it's not bad it means it was all sitting on the bottom the problem there it is okay there we go now we got oil the problem with that is it's that means it all leaked past the cylinders like i was saying and that the engine's probably locked up i think many of you will naysay this but we're going to try and put a battery to this let's see we got the connections i assume it's a 24 volt starter it's going to tell us a couple things is the starter motor good and does the engine rotate without having to take off that skid plate you gotta remember i don't have any skin in the game here this this is off to the scrap yard so you know it's not a loss if i damage it only thing i got in the game is my time and my well-being that being said let's put a couple optimus in there i'm assuming that the crawler probably takes more like four batteries but you know these are each 800 crank amps probably end up destroying these since it's not what they're designed for oh yeah i'm not sure which battery cable is which got these two and then if i chase this one that's going down to here up this one this should be my positive i'm going with this is positive i have some new ends but try these out for now positive negative positive negative that should work let's find out spark test that's good 25 volts i'm not sure if there's like a ground control switch up here but i'm not getting the ground down [Music] this switch is stuck unless there's a certain technique where do those fat gauge cables go if they don't come in here oh there they are oh yeah that's the main key switch i don't even see that before no key of course let's try popping the switch out of here oh well this is coming off here goes nothing one of these should be the preheat okay that's probably that one and one should be the starter solenoid all right this guy right here should have a heavier duty wire but let's give it a go oh all right that's not good for my power probe for one but ah that sounded like the starter solenoid jennifer stopped by with little gussy hey buddy you want to help out these are crazy puppy [ __ ] winch what's that what is that i know buddy i know daddy's torturing you you gotta break his leg on there he looks terrified all right well appreciate you guys visiting we got both cables on the positive terminal of the starter let's let's give it a little jam here and see what happens oh all right that that just melted a hole into the positive cable so that was a lot of juice i mean we're not hitting anything down there and that's it so it might just be a locked up starter drawing like a ton of juice there it goes you heard the starter whoo that tape got some juice but since the solenoid is not going the fork doesn't engage the gear however we know the starter spins so that's good now check this out the switch actually does work i thought it was locked up but you got to push it in and then rotate okay excellent however we're not getting power to the switch itself we'll just we'll just send some power to it i'm a little worried too that if there's water in the cylinders it could hydro lock and bend the rod but let's oh i did hear that engine rotate a little bit we got a much better battery connection now let's give that one more go oh okay all right that was not a good stop that that almost sounded like a hydro lock i suppose oh geez let's try bumping it over a little bit what the heck what do you got to lose right they can do bend the rod in this thing and be all right okay well that shows these optima batteries are tough as nails because that is a ton of juice smoking these connections a little bit but yeah we're gonna have to pull probably some injectors um i think we got we got water in there disconnect this madness for now here's the injectors there's water in there i mean the only other thing i can think is popping the valve cover off and running the valve lash down on the bunch that's crazy though i'm sure that's i don't know if that even work i don't know what the inside of this engine looks like okay about a week later or so and finally got another chance to take a peek at this i'd like to find out if it's hydro locked or if it's had weak batteries look at this just notice this massive repair on the arm let's try and drop that skid plate down get a breaker bar on the crankshaft so yeah good luck getting that out of there i can't even budget i mean this thing's gotta weigh 400 pounds [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] it might not look that heavy but it is heavy it's about maybe half inch plate steel 7 16 i'm not sure okay now i got plenty of space let's take a look at that crank bolt and there it is what's that little inch and a quarter 30 mil 32 mil maybe just reach in and grab a big one you know a 30 mil well it's actually a little bit less but i don't have standard sockets let's find out what we got okay so that turns a little bit and then doesn't move anymore let's go reverse and i know you guys are thinking man pull the injectors and spray lube in there yeah i probably should do that but you know we're just just going for it here so okay oh we got a good amount of rotation going counterclockwise beautiful yes this is great oh i don't hear any rust in the cylinders either i don't hear any noise it sounds just phenomenal oh all right get a little tight okay we hit a tight spot again so that's either water or a big rust ring in the cylinders i'm guessing or i don't know engine damage who knows oh see now i just let it sit and then i was able to rotate a little bit more that tells me definitely flew it in the cylinders because it probably weeped past the rings and now we're rotating again let me see which way this engine rotates actually the cuts in there it looks like this spins counterclockwise because that would pull unless it's a blower except if it's spun clockwise that would pull air from inside the engine compartment and push it across the radiator suppose that would actually make sense with how there's always dust in front of these things maybe one of you guys know oh yeah we're getting nice rotation now holy smokes it's so easy too all right i've gone three revolutions both ways whatever water was in there it's definitely out now and we uh we got to get some batteries on here get cranking don't know if i had the time today i'm gonna check in with the wifey big crack in the spring just reaching down to get my phone here and on the back the wife has spoke first ride on the sea ray this year take gus out for a little spin evening cruise what's up buddy you got your little life vest on yeah ready for some river adventures your water dog tossed five gallons into sea ray and she is she fired right up and we'll see if it uh breaks down at all or gives it gives us any trouble first ride 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machine to this i'm like what's your batteries look like he's got massive ones in there but clearly the optimus got the situation under control let's get some fuel going this tank looks like i'd love to just dump diesel in it and roll with it we'll see if it's a bunch of crud on the bottom it's not bad in there i think we're gonna just use the the fuel system go with it on the bottom we have a petcock that looks like it's off and then a drain valve oh all right so that was that actually looks like decent diesel coming out of there no no water yeah let's start with one gallon of diesel i happen to have kicking around that should be enough to get things going oh yeah that'll be fine let's fire this valve up and i got a copper line leading up front that comes in all the way up here on the bottom that looks like a little fuel straighter a water separator the good idea would be pulling this bowl off and also removing this lower screw on the filter check for any water but i don't want to lose the primer fuel system let's just let's just crank it up man we got to lose right this caterpillar is really on the chopping block and it's a time crunch at this point to get it moving or it's it's getting hauled out of here i don't know how they're gonna move it but this is the intake manifold there's coming right from the turbo the intake's running off the back and coming through here there's the air box maybe i'll try unbolting this that way we can cap this off if we have to this just needs the bottom half it's all rusted through and the top's still good on it though perfect a few last minute checks on the controls before we crank it um this seems to be neutraled out there same same on this one um these operate and are pushed fully forward ran this down i believe this is the throttle so we can just leave that right where it is it's in neutral i'll throw the safety on it's gonna pump that shifter this one's chained into place i don't know that one's just seized into place we'll assume those are okay and we've got the convenient shut off block if for some reason it starts and we'll shut off our foot pedals are locked up oh all right let's bring that back so that one works now this one works good too yeah loose connection here oh a lot of junk coming out of there i'm gonna give it a shot of ether only because we don't have that much juice left right some blaster starting fluid it's got lubricant built in not that you need it on an old diesel but [Music] i could be wrong there it is [Music] oh yeah baby he's happy all right let's shut her down and check the cooling system get some more diesel see if that oil got milky nope looks completely fine it's a good thing we drained that three gallons of water in the bottom or whatever it was because that would have been all just foamed up terribly you know there's still ice cold you know before we even mess with that cooling system i want to find out if this thing budges or moves at all because if it doesn't and we got bigger issues we like to soak these tracks some diesel or lubricant pb blast the whole thing let's let's try and move it i've messed with these controls a good amount can't get it to do anything i did want to check i was looking up these are fluid reservoirs it has a dipstick here let's see what that looks like some water on the stick that's got good clean just about an inch below the the full mark and one on the back i'm gonna come out okay [Music] that's also got fluid it smells like gear oil i mean there could be other impurities in there too but i did just notice this pin's on its way out still in the other side a little bit but yeah be careful looks like it's just missing the lock on it [Music] i'm the kind of guy that just keeps going without doing research i did call camerata because he's got a similar machine to this but uh he he said pretty much yeah if it's got that h pattern on there it should be just putting the gear and go as long as it's got oil and this is the range selector so i tried low neutral and high yeah it's going in the gear i can feel it i'm gonna go home get some hydraulic oil for this because while this was running we had no oil on the stick and it says right on there check with engine running uh you know it's been sitting a long time so that fluid level being low could have caused the pump to lose prime let's let's assume this is the fill over here you know what all i got on hand is motor oil so we're going to put that in the trans as that's what it smells like in there and it's got to be changed in the future either way this is the keeper little motor oil never heard of anything plus it's like what would that backs do right there it goes use eng type oil well that's perfect because that's all we got anyway sometimes things just work out all right and you gotta figure it definitely has leaks under there it's been leaking for 20 30 years i could see it leaking all out at least a gallon or so but i feel like if it was a gallon low it would still work so i don't know let's give that a go uh still no we gotta go get some more oil i meant to show this yesterday i like to display it in videos any chance i get but you see i'm parked on like the ever slightest hill right now and the other day when we were winching my battery actually got a little bit low from that because i had my key on charging the battery like i do right now too charging my gopro batteries so i just always like to show the advantages of manual we will throw this in first gear and i'm going to hold the clutch down let off the parking brake let her roll put the ignition on ah we're not rolling i gotta get a little push first because i can tell it's definitely a hill oh we might lose it put it in first get the key on snap off the clutch and there it is that tiny little hill was enough to get the motor running it's like a little baby hill there let's go get some more oil and diesel we got plenty of oil over here and some more diesel got a couple gallons here now i'm sure this thing takes like 30 weight or 50 weight but i'm just putting in what i got you know here's what it is we're still not at the full mark but on the stick and now we're up to the full mark that was like four gallons i just put in gave this girl a break for a while and um thinking a few things the oil was so low it took over four gallons to get it up to level so maybe since it was low it's all aerated now and that's why it's not working uh maybe try revving it up a bunch hadn't really tried that since we filled it but i'm gonna give it a few more goes hopefully we can get it rolling did you guys just see that i revved it up and it budged some all right before we go let's let's let's check the water level because i've ran this quite a bit now i don't want to you know destroy the engine let's see if we got cooling water i'll just clean this off best we can get the leatherman saw blade made in usa and they have a lifetime warranty which they honor i've sent this in several times i'm sure it's still got some water in the block even if this rad is empty that'd be awesome if it's just fall over the top ah all right well that's nothing after that gallon i do keep some more water under the hood though well i had to go get a bucket of creek water but got her up to level it's about two gallons low or so and that's not bad we'll get some fresh coal in there in the future hydraulic hose blew out in my face this one right here that could have been so much worse but yeah you never use a machine like this with these old driver out of the hoses did get a little showered in hydraulic oil yeah right there all right so we need one of those this is the one line that you wouldn't want to blow out like that one's actually in better shape uh but that's just right next to the operator luckily it came out this way that could have been yeah i can't say enough that could have been really bad let's uh let's fix that leak get the [ __ ] off the ground now all right there it goes don't think i'm gonna get one of those today that worked since i got these chained down i was able to apply load on this ram without putting pressure through that other line and we are off the ground unfortunately i can't dump what's in here [Music] [Music] she has driven out of her grave oh yeah it's got some roots growing under it we're built into the tracks i gotta get a seat for room these batteries are butts getting stabbed that's a little better my next question is does it steer oh there we go i got to stop in here now that's moving too and it's broken oh from all these roots you can island it still moves just fine unlike before we just had to just had to throw this thing up [Music] [Music] a little bit [Music] uh oh we got a little cooling system leak more like a big one i wonder what that is probably a water pump something just blew out that's what you get when you wake something up like this but we made some good progress i know what you're probably thinking at this point is great you got gotta run in now what where are you gonna go from here it needs a lot of time energy and money to get it functional i also don't even have a property large enough to utilize a machine of this size however i know just the guy that's gonna welcome a machine of this vintage onto their property with open arms and then hopefully we can get some more tlc put into it get a running tip top and save it from the scrap yard that is the idea so uh she's got a long travel down the highway and i should probably get some of this mud off of here that i unfortunately put on the other day because you can't have that blowing off in the highway and cut these off and maybe i'll just drive it back and forth get that off of there empty out the bucket too bad we can't tip that then we'll shovel it and then get her on down the road [Applause] so so need to worry about pressuring the line when you have a hole in it but otherwise always make sure to relieve the pressure in any hydraulic hoses before you take them off or lines for that matter [Music] you don't even have to take off both clamps just loosen the other side and then slide the hose up let's see if i can get a hose i made tomorrow morning before we roll out [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] we got john here four weekend trucking beautiful western star definitely check him out if you ever need any equipment delivered he's up in greenville new york [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] thank you uh-oh she's starting to run a little rough uh-oh i hope he didn't run out of fuel i still got a little bit down there i wonder if the got all jostled when it's right up here on the low boy just stirred everything up we might have to bleed out these these uh fuel injectors and such we're gonna need some more diesel and then we'll figure out how to bleed this system there might be some diesel underneath the table here let's go tank [Music] with all the joslin down the highway this little fuel outlet might have got clogged up let's check that too before we go any further there's our problem we have zero flow just for the record this is why you never start something up and and expect you're gonna be on your way and go oh yeah look at that and we got some darkness coming out come on bring on the fresh diesel [Music] i took the drain screw off the bottom of this fuel filter let's see if there's any water i really should have checked that before nothing coming out right now and if i remove the airlock screw on the top look at that okay we got looks like diesel coming out of there all right that's great let's do a quick test and wow that is pretty bad looking put a touch on this paper see if we got water mixed with diesel or what we got oh what happened flint's gone all right so yeah that's diesel it's just really dirty diesel if it had water in it you'd hear it crackling popping right now that's all i wanted to see is that there wasn't any water on the bottom this has got a lower water separator too a little basket style let's see what the inside of that looks like all right mud holy smokes look how much mud is in that and i know i already said it but this is why you don't just start an engine up and go i mean luckily we have a fuel filter so that it's probably extremely clogged up but let's get this cleaned out of here and then we'll be back in business hopefully this is true mad max here not the proper way at all it kills me to see all this dirt in the fuel system should have just done it right to begin with but in the name of will it run i enjoy doing it this way so we can display what actually occurs when you're negligent if you don't know how to manually prime the system then you improvise i just had fuel shooting out of there we did just pressurize the tank a little bit push that through did end up putting another five gallons in here too but just didn't have enough head to prime it okay so again for right-hand turn you gotta throw it neutral reverse it and then give her yank and throw it back and forward i'm gonna let her cool down for a second check the water level still leaking so that's a good sign i'll throw a couple more gallons in though [Music] oh [Music] all right the man the myth the legend camerata and his sidekick he's showing up so what do you think you're gonna work your magic on this machine or what sure now it's running and it's here let's uh finish fixing this thing up and put it to work that would be cool to see this running again definitely gonna be a part two on this one and we're gonna put some tlc much needed love maybe a paint job they're talking paint job but i don't i don't think i like that idea because you you couldn't buy this paint job if you wanted to i mean it's just beautiful but we'll we'll get this pin retainer in unsees that get the new hydraulic hose on fix the steering issue maybe get a cable on there we'll see you guys in uh part two on the cat 977. there's a cat dealer local too so this is can you find a serial number on it because they want that every time the serial number is probably a metal tag i mean what's all these hanging on so you got one over here too this guy that don't look like a serial number sometimes it's in the back maybe hidden by this winch [Music] put a rock behind it so it doesn't roll off but we should put it next to it'd be cool to line them all up

Channel: NoNonsenseKnowHow

Views: 2,298,300

Keywords: NNKH, NoNonsenseKnowHow, mechanic, No Nonsense Know How, will it run, will it drive, heavy equipment, sitting, abandoned, sitting for 30 years, cat 977, crawler loader, will it run diesel, diesel, chevy, letdig18, andrew camarata, camarata property maintenance, caterpillar, heavy equipment will it run, will it run?, driving, dozer, hamiltonville farm, will it start, marty t, dozer sat, bruce wilson, heavydsparks, sparks motors, tractor, farming, earth moving, old cat, old, wetlands

Id: JaPeNR3EVVA

Length: 49min 16sec (2956 seconds)

Published: Sat May 28 2022