Need some advice about 3t d7 caterpillar pony motor

[devan6706]

I need some advice about my grandfathers 3t d7 caterpillar. well we have 2 3t d7 caterpillars. one is out front of the house and hasnt ran for at least 20 years and has many missing parts. And the other 3t is stuck out in a little gully and hasnt ran in about 3 years. the deal is that there is no pony motor on the cat thats stuck out in the gully and we need to get it back to the house. should i try pulling the old pony motor off the cat in front of the house and try rebuilding it or just find a direct starter or what?i also might need to find a carburetor for the pony. We don't know anybody that has a running cat on our side of the creek and we don't want to spend a lot of money lowboying another cat out there to pull it out. So there isn't much choice right now. My plan right now is to pull the pony off the cat out front, rebuild it, then stick it on the other 3t hopefully doing this before the summer weather comes along. I also need to check a lot of things on the 3t in the gully, oil and fuel condition, gear oil, basically see if the whole main engine is still in reasonable shape to get it back home. So any advice on how to approach this problem would help very very much. Thanks

[Old Magnet]

Well, you might consider this:
If the motor is tuckered out and needs the help from the exhaust heat from the pony to get it going than go with the pony motor.
If the engine and compression is good than you have the option to go direct electric start although the 3T is not the easiest to convert because there is no commercially available starter adapter.

[STEPHEN]

How about finding someone to pull it back to a spot that has good access to tools, electricity, compressed air and lifting apparatus. Sure, you can fix it in the bush, but why? unless you have to.

[Old 3T lover]

If you have something big enough to pull it out of the gully, then you have something big enough to pull it off to crank it. Get it home and then worry about the pony/electric starter problem.

[Mike Mc]

Devan, much easier to work on something at your shop than out in the field. Most likely it will take a D8 to pull the D7 out of a hole. Since I'm going to have my D8 at the Woodland show the first weekend of July you might be able to talk me into coming up there before or after the show and drag it up to your shop. Maybe we'll be able to get it fired up by pull starting it. :thumb:

Here is the D8 you'll be looking for, the kids are playing on it in Santa Margarita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kHHtRUVucw

If you make it to the show keep an eye out for my truck and tractor or call me
Mike
661.331.2996