Should I buy it?

[bradleydavidgood]

 

[bradleydavidgood]

 

[bradleydavidgood]

 

[bradleydavidgood]

 

[Mark EC.IN]

I spent another day with the Barn Doctor working at the TD340.

So far I've spent mostly hours and not much on materials, and I've gained lots of experience and knowledge of this type of equipment. And I've enjoyed it thoroughly.

And I've enjoyed working with the Amish Maguyver, he's quite a character, and makes use of everything and is a decent problem solver.

So I'm enjoying the work and the company and gaining knowledge and experience well worth my time.

I showed up this time with 3 fan belts of different sizes because the OG was broken, 3 buckets of hydraulic fluid, a bucket of engine oil, and some fuel hose fittings from amazon.

The only thing I think I used so far was the fittings. Haven't opened any of the fluids, so they can be donated to my favorite farm if we don't get the diesel running.

In that last day I think what we accomplished was to exhaust every idea that he and I had to start this thing.

And I drained the hydraulic fluid and saw the status of that. A lot of water at first, then a lot of fluid in very good condition, and then some clumpy stuff and sediment.

I've also been watching videos and know about the hydraulic fluid filter, and engine filter.

My theory is that the fuel injection pump is frozen. I've heard that 3 times from either Amish mechanics we talked to or videos or some forum post somewhere.

The Doctor is going to try to get a mechanic friend/family or 2 to look at it and see what they think.

I told him if they don't get it running, and they also suspect the fuel injection pump, that I'd vote for taking the lid off that and since we sucked the fuel out of it, fill it with ATF and let it sit for a couple of days, then turn it over, maybe suck the ATF back out, try starting it again. And if that doesn't work, maybe even add some acetone to the ATF. If a rebuild is necessary, any rubber, seals, diaphragms are going to be replaced anyway so why not try it.

I've researched the oil and hydraulic filter and the kit to rebuild the fuel injection pump.

I also found a video on how to rebuild the pump and the pump manual, or a similar pump manual. I haven't gone thru those in detail but as my goal lately is to learn mechanics and take on challenging jobs I think this is a great opportunity even if I fail.

I'm ordering the filters and the rebuild kit all for $97.

If the doctor can't get it running with the mechanics, I'm going to offer that if we can get it off and onto my bench at home, I'll be willing to take a stab at rebuilding it. I will let him know that I could fail, and/or ruin it, but I'll carefully save and document all the parts and youtube short video all of it along the way.

But I don't think he will pay $500-1500 for a shop to rebuild it anyway, so I may be his last hope to get that thing running. I'm certainly not going to spend that money.

But a $50 for a rebuild kit, yes, I'm glad to try that just to learn.

Then if we get it running, then I'll dump in my new fluids and the filters, and that's another $200 or whatever it is, and again, I'm good with that, just for the experience and chance that it may perform.

I have some videos from the 2nd day I'll post later, gotta go for now.

Thanks for your help!

If the day comes when you move some dirt, make sure to start a new thread so it catches our attention.

Just my opinion, but I can see a thread like this one going on for months, and some might not follow along.

Starting a new thread would get us back on track.

 

[bradleydavidgood]

The 80 replies was a “squirrelish” number I just shot out there. I bet in 3 days to maybe a week you would have been pretty well informed about the glow plugs and their use as well as many other items you came to face head on. Although it turns out that the glow plugs would have been of zero use if the IJP wasn’t pumping fuel to the injectors. Best of luck. Seems that getting the guy to get it running didn’t happen. Hope you’re working on a different price now?

I work better if I dive in and put my eyes and hands on something first, and then research needed things I've seen and observed. Talking on the internet for days doesn't work for me. Especially on something that I have no experience with.

We have not talked about price at all again, and I don't want to, until I see it run and move and listen to it, and see it move dirt. Why would we discuss it before then?

 

[bradleydavidgood]

As once said a LONG TIME AGO , THERE IS A SUCKER BORN EVERY MIN. Me , would i buy it , Nope myself even knowing drozers and I H stuff inside and out i would never go down that rabbit hole . 99% of the time when it comes to Cheap and that one is NOT cheap you will have four to five times the price you paid just to get it to move . Case in point here , I had a young guy years back who bought a Case 580 B back hoe off a guy south of me who lied thru his teeth to this guy on the condition . This hoe had the hyd reverser , it would move forward for maybe 15 min then nothing but reverse it worked fine . this new owner begged me to fix it . I tried to tell him that i do not like working on industrial and if i did he was not going to like what it was going to cost . i went against my better judgement and took on the job , the 580 B is nothing more then and old 580 with a out hose on it a pain to SPLIT a nightmare just getting to what ya had to remove to make the split . We ate up HOURS on this . Get it split the reverser out and on the stand and start into it . OH neat Case does not support parts anymore and none could be found and no after market . The part guy at the Case store did some digging and came up with a unit that ya could MAKE work BUT this was for a industrial tractor with a PTO and a thru shaft and to make it work ya had to install four soft plugs that were NOT available anymore , the unit was priced at now get this 8575 yep 8 thousand five hundred and seventyfive buck U S three grand more then he paid for it . he said get it , so i got the last one they had . Now to make it work i had to have plus made to PRESS in and Stay against 300 PSI pressure by a machine shop more money . I made it work and handed him the biggest repair bill i ever handed to someone . What he had in that 580 B he could have jumped five model's newer that would have lasted him a long time . later on i got involved in putting a J D 440 dozer back together that came in KIT form and one running only to find out the Manual reverser was Toast . all the work of putting the engine back together rewiring replacing J D gauges in putting light on J D light only to find out the reverser is toast . A old friend asked me to go check out a 850 J D B he was thinking about buying , when he told me who the seller was i told him he was looking at total scrap but went anyway . The seller showed me that it fired right up and it moved , fine now where is some DIRT i want to run it . So we put it in the dirt and i showed no mercy and got it up to operating temp fast when the problems raised there ugly heads , she was slowing down and pulling left requiring constant right pressure on the right steering pedal trans pressure was dropping . Ok we are done here i have seen enough she is junk it needs new hydro motors and pumps , engine is ok the chain is 3/4 wore out and needs new pins and bushing and new sprockets and we have not even looked at the bottom rollers . On that 340 as soon as i saw the amount of adjustment left on the track tentioner told me all i needed to know of undercarriage , IF you can even find chains for it and new sprockets and with out needling new bottom rollers and the ft idlers are still good bearing and seal wise your looking at somewhere around 3500 to 5 grand . and a track that is going to come off in uneven ground while making a turn or on a side hill . BTDT not fun at all..

This does not apply because I'm not buying it unless it moves and does everything that it is supposed to do for hours. But thanks for the story.

 

[bradleydavidgood]

If the day comes when you move some dirt, make sure to start a new thread so it catches our attention.

Just my opinion, but I can see a thread like this one going on for months, and some might not follow along.

Starting a new thread would get us back on track.

If people don't want to follow along that is fine with me. I think it would be good to continue with this thread and see it thru so that anyone else looking at one like this can see how it ends up.

 

[the tractior vet]

This does not apply because I'm not buying it unless it moves and does everything that it is supposed to do for hours. But thanks for the story.

Well it seem like your not having much luck at the moment . and who ever is helping you are not that versed in indirect injection diesels . Siimple way to see what your dealing with before dropping one dime is first make surre ya have fuel going to the pump thru the filters as they are , next then to see if ya have fuel getting to the injectors by cracking the lines at EACH injector and cranking the engine over at wide open throttle . IF no joy then the plunger in the pump is stuck .Now as for me even with way over 60 years of working in all kinds of engines in all forms of work from engine machining down to fuel systems i do not just dig into and injection pump now as i do not have the Stuff to do the job right and TEST my handy work before i replace the pump back on the engine , I pay the price to the person who has the equipment to make sure it is right . I don't care how many U TUBE VIDEO'S you watch you are kidding yourself thinking your and expert on injection pumps . Also that OLD D 166 needed to be GLOW PLUGGED even when it is over a 100 degrees out side , and shooting it with either due to the high compression can cause damage . i see just by the pictures even IF it does run i see and endless money pit . The amount of track adjustment left tells me that the pin's and bushing in the track chain are all but toast and the amount of rail left is about half gone then factor in ware on rollers and idlers and you posted no picture of the sprockets i can only guess by experience that they are about wore out . And since you have never had to deal with a throwen track let me enlighten you , they are a bear to get back on and even harder when ya have OLD manual track adjuster that are froze up then factor in that OH wait i did not get the org. track adjuster wrench that it came with when new that was made for just this to tighten or loosen the tracks as 99% of the time ya just can't use a NORMAL wrench . BUT say ya do get it running and moving lets take a look at what it can do . It can move normal dirt and it can clear light brush and trees up to maybe 6 inches but since it does not have a ROPS and brush sweeps it is not advised when your not a well skilled operator , ya can dig out rocks up to the and about the same weight size as it is . What it will NOT DO is deal with shale and sand rock . (1) it is not heavy enough . IF it had the ripper on the back you could scratch it a couple inches then scrape the LOOSE . I started my working life in construction during what we called DIRT Season that ran for us April thru end of Nov. i ran equipment that varied on each job site , during the winter months we worked on the equipment , during dirt season i also did field repairs when a machine went down . That 340 was designed for the small time excavator and farmer to move light dirt and brush it falls into the under 4 ton class and barely even into a D 2 Cat size even smaller then a T D 6 jus5t a little faster and newer features like the reverser that give you a faster reverse in all gears , don't rememebr the percent faster and better hyd. and on some a six way blade great to grading . The blade on that one is just a blade i did not notice if it is the old angle dozer that is in todays world pretty much worthless to do what you want to do as to do what you want to do now you have to find and OLD GOAT that knew how to do these types of jobs with a straight blade . How to get the cut ya want from a fixed blade on uneven ground , this is where a six way or tilt blade comes into play in today's world . For me to do what you want to do with out seeing the job given what i know with the proper dozer , six way blade and a ripper on a 18-20000 lb 85-100 hp machine four days at max and maybe even as little as a day . IF your dead set on a Dozer then dig into the piggy bank a little deeper and go hunting a ( yea your going to hate me for this one ) a John Deere 450 C , no A NO B only a C . if ya have deeper pockets then a John Deere 650 G direct drive power shift . That sap sucker will move dirt . Takes some getting use to with the direct drive as when you hook it into gear be ready to work as she is going and it puts all it's power straight thru no torque converter and you can stall it dead. I maybe I H all the way thru till it comes to I H track machines and i have run a bunch and had many out on demo's same as Case they are not to bad for like excavating but just to jerky not smooth . when i worked construction the company at the time had every make and model and you got to see what worked and what broke down most often and what kept on working The I H and A/C stuff was always breaking down and the Cat's just kept on working with far less break downs . I started just as the old was being replaced by all new since we were gearing up for new job contracts . I got one of the first new dozer and got to work on part of I 75 . my first away job

 

[ss55]

I work better if I dive in and put my eyes and hands on something first, and then research needed things I've seen and observed. Talking on the internet for days doesn't work for me. Especially on something that I have no experience with.

We have not talked about price at all again, and I don't want to, until I see it run and move and listen to it, and see it move dirt. Why would we discuss it before then?

You have a very patient seller.

 

[Jim.ME]

You have a very patient seller.

The seller may be thinking that if Bradley decides he doesn't want it after it is running and moving; the seller has a running, moving dozer to sell at a minimal cost of getting it that way to advertise.

 

[bradleydavidgood]

Well it seem like your not having much luck at the moment . and who ever is helping you are not that versed in indirect injection diesels . Siimple way to see what your dealing with before dropping one dime is first make surre ya have fuel going to the pump thru the filters as they are , next then to see if ya have fuel getting to the injectors by cracking the lines at EACH injector and cranking the engine over at wide open throttle . IF no joy then the plunger in the pump is stuck .Now as for me even with way over 60 years of working in all kinds of engines in all forms of work from engine machining down to fuel systems i do not just dig into and injection pump now as i do not have the Stuff to do the job right and TEST my handy work before i replace the pump back on the engine , I pay the price to the person who has the equipment to make sure it is right . I don't care how many U TUBE VIDEO'S you watch you are kidding yourself thinking your and expert on injection pumps . Also that OLD D 166 needed to be GLOW PLUGGED even when it is over a 100 degrees out side , and shooting it with either due to the high compression can cause damage . i see just by the pictures even IF it does run i see and endless money pit . The amount of track adjustment left tells me that the pin's and bushing in the track chain are all but toast and the amount of rail left is about half gone then factor in ware on rollers and idlers and you posted no picture of the sprockets i can only guess by experience that they are about wore out . And since you have never had to deal with a throwen track let me enlighten you , they are a bear to get back on and even harder when ya have OLD manual track adjuster that are froze up then factor in that OH wait i did not get the org. track adjuster wrench that it came with when new that was made for just this to tighten or loosen the tracks as 99% of the time ya just can't use a NORMAL wrench . BUT say ya do get it running and moving lets take a look at what it can do . It can move normal dirt and it can clear light brush and trees up to maybe 6 inches but since it does not have a ROPS and brush sweeps it is not advised when your not a well skilled operator , ya can dig out rocks up to the and about the same weight size as it is . What it will NOT DO is deal with shale and sand rock . (1) it is not heavy enough . IF it had the ripper on the back you could scratch it a couple inches then scrape the LOOSE . I started my working life in construction during what we called DIRT Season that ran for us April thru end of Nov. i ran equipment that varied on each job site , during the winter months we worked on the equipment , during dirt season i also did field repairs when a machine went down . That 340 was designed for the small time excavator and farmer to move light dirt and brush it falls into the under 4 ton class and barely even into a D 2 Cat size even smaller then a T D 6 jus5t a little faster and newer features like the reverser that give you a faster reverse in all gears , don't rememebr the percent faster and better hyd. and on some a six way blade great to grading . The blade on that one is just a blade i did not notice if it is the old angle dozer that is in todays world pretty much worthless to do what you want to do as to do what you want to do now you have to find and OLD GOAT that knew how to do these types of jobs with a straight blade . How to get the cut ya want from a fixed blade on uneven ground , this is where a six way or tilt blade comes into play in today's world . For me to do what you want to do with out seeing the job given what i know with the proper dozer , six way blade and a ripper on a 18-20000 lb 85-100 hp machine four days at max and maybe even as little as a day . IF your dead set on a Dozer then dig into the piggy bank a little deeper and go hunting a ( yea your going to hate me for this one ) a John Deere 450 C , no A NO B only a C . if ya have deeper pockets then a John Deere 650 G direct drive power shift . That sap sucker will move dirt . Takes some getting use to with the direct drive as when you hook it into gear be ready to work as she is going and it puts all it's power straight thru no torque converter and you can stall it dead. I maybe I H all the way thru till it comes to I H track machines and i have run a bunch and had many out on demo's same as Case they are not to bad for like excavating but just to jerky not smooth . when i worked construction the company at the time had every make and model and you got to see what worked and what broke down most often and what kept on working The I H and A/C stuff was always breaking down and the Cat's just kept on working with far less break downs . I started just as the old was being replaced by all new since we were gearing up for new job contracts . I got one of the first new dozer and got to work on part of I 75 . my first away job

He did crack the lines and fuel was not coming.
I never thought I was an expert so your accusation is unfounded. In fact, I don't know anything about diesels at all. This is my first one.
Someone already told us about the glow plugs and the starter fluid, and we didn't do those together so that's not a concern.
There is no way I'm paying $1500 to some shop to rebuild this injection pump on this old thing. And I'm almost certain that the owner would never do that either.
That's why I'm willing to spend $25 on a rebuild kit and follow a video and give it a try, because I don't care if I fail or not, I'll learn something along the way that's worth way more than $25 to me and I gave the old dog a chance of survival. Who knows, maybe if I get it apart and halfway done you never know, a mechanic friend of his could show up and do the tricky part. I don't care. I'm up for the adventure. I don't care if it doesn't move right or does at this point. I'm enjoying it and spending low budget on it and documenting it for others. Fun stuff for me and I'm going to continue until I feel the next bill is too much and then it goes to scrap. No risk involved. No money pit could ever happen because I'm not going to put any big money into it. That would be silly.
I am not set on a dozer. I'm not sure what gave you that idea but I never said that.

 

[bradleydavidgood]

You have a very patient seller.

There are no other buyers and it has sat for 2 years or more and how many buyers would come help and invest a little money to get it going, and enjoy it too? Not many. I don't think he has any money to put into it. So patience? I don't think so. I think it's just the only opportunity.

 

[bradleydavidgood]

The seller may be thinking that if Bradley decides he doesn't want it after it is running and moving; the seller has a running, moving dozer to sell at a minimal cost of getting it that way to advertise.

Very possible, and I would be happy for him if I pass on it. I really like the guy and he is a friend of a friend and I would not be surprised if we do more together in the future. He has another dozer twice as big, I think it was a Cat. He showed it to me. Leaks like crazy and steers only one way! ha. And he's got a backhoe or two. Something I'm also interested in acquiring at some point in the next few years and learning how to use.