D7 Cat

Gentlemen, Can anyone give me a ballpark figure to replace the torque converter on a 1965 cat D7 Thanks

It would be hard to give an estimate on the parts without having the serial number and doing some research.

As far as labor, if it's got a ROPS, and not a cab, your probably looking at about a day to day and a half to pull it, and another day to day and a half to put it back. If I were estimating I'd give it 4 days total to account for any unforeseen problems. At my current labor rate of $65 an hour, and figuring a 10 hour day, it would work out to $2600.

Mileage wise I charge $1.50 a mile, both ways, along with the travel time at the normal labor rate. Your guy might be different, but this ought to give you some idea on that too.

In the end I'd say in and out would probably be somewhere between $2500 and $3000, total, on the labor. Add on the parts, and you'd be close for a grand total.

NC Wayne

A son works for a major Cat dealer. One particular machine (don't remember which) has an horrendous repair time for the converter by the book as you supposedly have to take all the top hamper off.

They raise the machine and drop the converter out the bottom in much less time.

I've heard similar about big D's being repaired out in the scrub here. Raising can be as simple as two dirt mounds pushed up and parking the dozer on top.

How about a little background as to why you think you need to change the torque converter?

Actually i was asking for another guy .. asked him if he still has his dad's old D7 an he answered that he does but the converter was out and he guesses that was expensive I figure he will let it set with the rest of his dad's equip

70 years old now Wayne but a 65 would be a D7E. In MY DAY could swing one by 3:30 about any day I drove up to one. Have pulled many In a day IN THE FIELD with no auto crane. Chain around the ROPS with come-along. I suspect you are right with todays prices for labor and parts doubt if the old dozer is worth fixing. Back in those days reseal if you did not have any bad hard parts, just new seal rings, bearing and outer seal parts was around seven hundred bucks at the most.

I can see getting one out that fast, "back in the day". What I run into now days, that takes a bit longer, are bolts with the heads so corroded you can't get a socket on them, bolts so corroded they twist off, and so on, and so on. I'm sure you've been there and seen that too. Dad taught me early on, Never-Seize is your friend.....I just wish the factory used it too......LOL

I pulled the steering clutches, and put new brakes, on a D9G several years back in something like 3 days, in and out. Given that it was the middle of winter, I had incentive to get it done quick. Heck, it took nearly two hours to get the oil back in the housing. I had the 55 gallon drum hanging over the machine, with a valve in it, but it was so cold it ran like molasses.

On the other hand, I worked on an old D6 last summer. It took me nearly two days just to get everything apart, and the clutches/brakes out. In order to get the fuel tank off, of course, the ROPS had to come off. To do that I had to cut every bolt, and then use a sledge hammer to drive out every bolt. The bolts on the steering valve, and the clutch covers were so corroded that I was using sockets between 8mm and 1/2 inch, driven on, to get the 3/8 (9/16 head) bolts out. Then there were several more that simply had to be cut and taken out once the thing was apart. I've seen some rusty machines, but I think this one took the cake.

More than likely I could do this one a lot faster too, but I tend to err on the side of caution when giving an estimate. I'd rather have the customer expect more, and then be happy getting a lower bill, than upset because the bill more than I figured it would be, due to unforeseen circumstances. Thankfully I knew, and informed the customer what we were getting into on the D6, so no suprises there.