Help! This 420 steers badly.

[maplebones]

I had a 420c years ago, but it had issues, the blow-by was killing me, and I let it go to someone who had the time and money to give it the attention it deserved. It was very handy around the farm and so now I'm looking for another one.

There's one nearby that the present owner aquired as a trade and has never used, so there's no way to find out much about it's history. It's been under cover, but it's only been started up a few times in the last 5 years. That's the story anyway. It looks pretty good, the sheet metals straight and has all the original gauges, knobs, etc, and the tracks and sprockets must have been replaced because they're about 90%. The hour meter's stuck at about 4200.

So far so good, so yesterday we fired her up without much trouble, dumped the sediment bowl a few times and I took it out for a test run. The engine clutch and brake are seized together, a common problem, but the engine seems ok...no smoke or blow-by and sounds good. I didn't work it too hard, but I was out for about half an hour and it crawled up some pretty good hills in 2nd gear without any complaint.

It steered fine at first, but I did notice it had much less free travel in the levers compared to my other one. After about half an hour of pushing some rocks around in the woods, the left steering clutch seemed to be getting weak and I had a hard time steering right and getting the thing back.

I opened up both steering clutch inspection covers, and noticed there was some oil leakage on the left side, but on both sides the locking bolt on the throw-out bearing was set at the very back of the slot [toward the drivers seat]. I loosened them, they're free, but they'll only move about 1/8 of an inch before contacting the clutch fingers. I remember their being much more free travel on my other one.

I'd appreciate any suggestions on what I'm looking at here. If the left clutch is oil soaked, it may have began slipping after it warmed up. Is the lack of clearance an indication that the clutchs are at the end of their life? The owner will let me play around with it, so I'd like to know if there's anything I can do to try and evaluate the clutches. I like the machine, but if I'm looking at $500+ per side and a lot of work, I'd sure like to know before i buy it.

Thanks a lot, Peter

[Lavoy]

You are going to need to replace both steering clutches, and fix whatever is causing the oil leak. I would be that you will find that in the end you will most likely rebuild both finals if the axle seal leaks.
If the crawler is nice shape otherwise, with that much undercarriage, it is still worth considering. If you do both clutches and maybe finals, you are probably done for a long time.
Lavoy

[maplebones]

Thanks Lavoy. It's not what I wanted to hear but it's what I suspected. I'm not sure the best way to go with this machine, but if I'm looking at others, am I right to assume that the clutch fingers move outwards as the facings wear ? If that's the case, then is the amount of clearance between the throw-out and the fingers an indication of clutch wear? Or is there another way to evaluate a steering clutch ? There's no way to see or measure them from what little I know.

As far as the final drive rebuild goes, I realize that you'd never go until you got in there, but if the gears and shafts were in reasonable shape, what range of money should I figure for that?

Thanks, Peter

[Lavoy]

You are correct on the finger height assumption, so the clutches in that crawler are shot. If there is oil in there, they are junk regardless of finger height.
If all the main hard parts of the final are good shape, and bearing kit with seals is $170.
Lavoy