977L track loader help

looking at a 977L track loader,ser 11k4312. anyone know year and weight? good and bad?
also the tracks look good, and sprockets look good,measured 5 pins and got 32 1/8. thanks for any help

Don't have any reference books showing serial number ranges, I have to believe these are mid 70's, I was almost sure the nice one I ran over 20 years ago was a '77 model. I'd have sure loved to own that one. I'd venture to guess its close D7 size, I've hauled them before, I'd guess 15 ton for starters, it could be more. Fixed track frames, so they don't oscillate over uneven terrain, but I will say that from an operators stand point, which may not say an awful lot, they were seemingly a well proven model. Foot steer, good power and the bucket held enough that 3 heaped buckets would load a tandem dump, as I recall. Hopefully you can post some photos like the other one, that looked pretty decent too.

These are a tad heavy, narrow track shoes, best suited for level, and hard ground, working off a pile, demo work, but I was on one in the woods with a set of forks, stringing out ductile iron pipe ahead of the pipe crew, worked well for that too.

According to my book it would be a 1972 977K with a 3306 engine of 190 horsepower. The earlier 977K had the D333T engine of 170 horsepower. I don't know much about that series so I'm not much help there.
DWF

The last book I've got shows the 977 series from '60 to '82. The 977H was 53A prefix from 60 to 66, the 977K was a 46H prefix from 66 to 78, and the 977L with a 14X prefix was made from '78 to '82. My book doesn't show a 977L with a 14X prefix at all. In fact the current year model machines listed in the book were all the new rear engine machines. In other words I don't have anything showing exactly when yours was made, but according to the CAT Machinery Handbook, published by CAT, it would seem it would have to be after '82 since they list all models made before and none of them have an 11K prefix.

Weight wise the 14X 977L lists as weighing in at approximately 48,010 lbs and has 190 HP, so I'd say yours would have to be close to that.

Don't know where your located, but I've got a customer selling one right now that has had a lot of work done to it engine wise, along with a mostly new undercarriage(nearly $11,000 worth)about a year and a half ago. Too I just repacked both of the cylinders on the 4-in-one bucket. Me and/or my Dad have done all the work to it so I can tell you it's in pretty good shape. I think he's asking somewhere around $25,000 for it, which is way less than he has in it. If your interested let me know and I'll hook you up with him. My email is open.

i called the guy and talked to him and he said he is asking 18,500. he said he had just put 2 new batteries and starter, and fairly new exhaust,injector lines,blower,bucket teeth and rear ripper teeth (i think it had 3 rippers and had places for 2 more)and couple other things but forget what. he said the undercarriage is about 95%. he said it runs and operates good. from what i see on the ones for sale that seems like a decent price what yall think?

Sounds like a great price to me, especially if the undercarriage is as good as he says, and it also has a ripper on the back. That said, a machine can lookgood on the outside and still be junk on the inside. Just make sure you take it for a test drive long enough to get it hot because that's when the majority of transmission problems would tend to happen, if there are any.

977L's were very good machines but keep in mind that rippers can be harder on a machine. Good idea to have a Cat mechanic look it over and check it out for you. Money well spent.

Steve have been buying and selling heavy equipment here in Tennessee for years. This is just my opinion and take it for what it is worth to you. Overall the crawler loader market is very stale. Hydraulic excavators have all but stopped the sale of track loaders. Then the next negative in my mind is when a track loader comes up for auction if it does not have a 4&1 bucket it is hard to sell. Then third the 977 is just too big and heavy for lots of operations. If not on hard ground it will be stuck. Now for all the reasons mentioned and my knowledge of the current market I think the loader is over priced. Not many buyers out there going to pay that for a 25 year old 977. Just my experience