another 450 question

[JD430C]

hi all, got my 450s home yesterday. was wondering if the late Bs came with wet steering clutches. i searched jdparts.com but didnt see anything on the wet clutches. i was told the 450 with 6way was a B, but it has wet clutches so could it be a B or is it a C? serial number tag is missing.
thanks

andrew

[Uncle]

From all I have seen, wet clutches started on the 450C and not on any B's.

[Tigerhaze]

I think someone on here previously had stated that there were a very few (late serial number) B's that had wet clutches- but since I don't know that for sure I won't swear to it.

I'll try to find the post that stated it- it may have been on another crawler site I go to so it may take me a little bit to find it.

[Tigerhaze]

It didn't take me nearly as long as I thought- Digitup was the poster that stated it. I have provided a link to the two relevant threads below:

http://www.jdcrawlers.com/messageboard/ ... t+clutches

http://www.jdcrawlers.com/messageboard/ ... 31&start=0

Digitup is really knowledgeable about those 450s; you may want to ask him directly.

[digitup]

We had a choice of the last of the Bs or the first of the Cs Dad took a B and the only difference was a turbo.The engine was even turbo built but natural aspired 4-239.See if it is a 239 or a 219 in it and what serial number is on the tractor.Digitup.

[JD430C]

hi, i had a jd friend come over, and he told me it had a turbo. we took the rest of the motor apart cause he needed the crank, and the bearings had june of 74 stamped on them. there is no tag on the motor or the crawler. the loader crawler has a 219 with the turbo and i just bought another 219 with turbo. digitup, u sure they put 239s in them? my friend has worked on these for years and has several books on them and he said they didnt use the 239s in them.

andrew

[digitup]

Ours was one of the last Bs . I turbo kited it myself it was probably a 4-219 in that dozer .That was a hell of a long time ago!.We over size turbo ed the 450C a couple of years after with a 15% larger turbo .It had a lot of lag at first but when the turbo cought up it pushed like crazy,Digitup.

[digitup]

I met up with the Deere industrial sales man of that time and asked him about the wet clutch Bs and he said that all of them went north and all were 4-219 s. The reason for the switch over was that Cat went wet earlier that year and Deere was loosing sales big time in the north where sealed dry clutches were taking a winter s#@t kicking .Deere had this technology earlier and was loosing to Cat after 85% of the market share to loose footing now would be a disaster so they used the early 450C transmission and rear ends but finished with the 4-219s for power plants.He said that there was only a small amount made and he sold two of them[and he sold a lot of those dozer's in South Western Ontario]He always referred to our dozer as the last B he sold I have asked him to get on line with us as he would be a good information source .The wet clutches were also installed early in the Deere skidders as well before model change occurred.I know the cold weather plays hell on dry clutches and housings with condensation on them .Digitup.