I have an hd5 that I'm looking to sell it runs great but transmission is cracked.

LouSWPA wrote: Coke-in-MN wrote: Why I said ROPS ? is back then there was no such thing - brush guard or sun roof - yes but that pipe on the machine is all anchored on sheet steel not to the machine frame or solid structure.   ROPS needs to be designed to support the weight of the machine - and tested and certified.   Tracto-Motive made the loader version the G series loader for AC -until AC bought them out . All the other attachments were certified by AC to be used on the machine but not supplied by AC - so configuration of the dozers was a mix of companies supplying different designs from cable units to hydraulic.  Ya, I have looked more than once at putting a true ROPS on one of these, but there is just no practical place to put one, at least not w/o a whole lot of engineering. Like Coke says, just about all you will see is 'pipe on sheetmetal'...good for a parasol but not much else

A while back i asked about a ROPS here, and via the help I recieved and lots of my own research I discovered that Allis Chalmers did offer a factory ROPS for the HD6G. That was great news because it meant that it was an actual ROPS not a brush guard. Not a small feat of engineering I might add given the 13K lbs of that tractor.

I did locate a few after much much looking but they were too far away to be cost effective. However they may be closer to you. Assuming the same cage was offered for the HD5 I think thats a great solution.

What I am currently doing is trying to have one made locally that duplicates the construction and mounting points of the factory unit.

Search Leop and ROPs to find that post.

Edited by Leop - 11 Jul 2019 at 7:21pm

Just a note about that crack. I have been in a similar situation on a 1900's steam locomotive and 1948 Kenworth truck. Here are the two ideas I came up with.

When the crack is resonable can use a process called lock-n-stitch, so named by the manufacturer that invented it. I was very skeptical but when I tried it, it actualy worked! Here is a link to a two part video showing how it works.

https://youtu.be/Pq0wfU4ZaKk

I repaired a crack in a water passage of an engine block due to freezing. Engine was fully dressed and still in the truck. Neven seen a leak! This may also work for structural cracks as well. Contact manufacturer to inquire.

The second method worked for parts that were structuraly damaged. It was plain good old fashioned brazing. I was sckeptical here as well. They say brazing has a higher psi tensil strength than cast iron, and i think even cast steel. The person that convinced me of this is a very knowledgeable machinist on YouTube, Keith Fenner. Just search "keith fenner brazing" in the YouTube's search bar and see all his examples. He also explains why Nickel rod and other methods don't work well.

The only issue was preheating the huge casting My solution was to take it to a powder coating shop with a large oven.I the casting very slowly heated up to 500F. Then a forklift lifted the casting out and two portable welders were standing ready to weld it. After it was brazed (20 min or so) and ground clean back into the oven it went to cool off slowly. The shop even agreed to powder coat it for me before it went back in the oven.

Cost was regular powdercoat cost + 20min extra oven time cost + the cost of the portable weders. They hot boiled it for me and then walnut shell blasted it for (I paid extra for wallnuts over sand to avoid inadvertently introducing sand into the mechanism that went inside the casting) as well. That powder coat sure made it easy to clean the part after re-instalation onto the greasy grimy locomotive.

Just some thoughts that might help you. Note, both outside vendors were super helpfull after I explaind that I was trying to save somthing historically important, so i would mention that too.

No relation or compensation from any vendor or YouTube'er mentioned above.

Cheers,

Leo

Bringing it back to go with new post