All those levers

Last fall, a nice gentleman built me a pond. He's in his mid 60's, only 1 arm (lost in a corn picker clear to the shoulder in the 70's) and about 5 years to retirement. He's not anxious to put lots of cash into his equipment, so, he had a few (lots, actually) problems getting machines on-site and running. Once he did finally get going, all was smooth.

I watched for days (I was fascinated, and he knew it) with the whole operation. As kind of a payback for the delays, and just because he knew how excited I was, he offered to let me "play around" on his D7. In the end, I was a little intimidated once in the seat (actually scared as a little girl) by his "baby", and so I let a friend of mine who's run heavy equipment for years actually push some dirt around and build a mud hole below the dam for crawdads, ducks and such.

Long way about it, but, I'm really curious as to what all the levers actually do, because I spent a total of maybe 3 mins driving at which time, I decided to hand over the reigns. This old girl was something on the order of an early 60's model, diesel, pony motor start, with both pedals and levers. Looking back, I'm almost embarrassed to admit how intimidated I was, as I've driven many tractors and trucks over the years. As Bob put it, where I was, in the middle of my own 50 acres, on flat ground near a lil bitty stream, the most I'd have done was make a mess, and have to have him "dress it up".

Anyway, anyone bored (and knowledgable) enough to give this chicken a rundown on how that machine operated? He also had his D8, which also had levers, but he'd modified it so that all operations could be done with feet only...since he had only one arm, but stands about 6 foot 6.

Hope this helps.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

HOWEVER, if it's under yer left foot, they musta built 'em differently for your part of the world than they did for mine - DownUnder - 'cos all the ones I've seen around here were under the operator's right foot.

Y'awl hava wunnerful dae. Bes' wishuz. Deas Plant.

The other thing that was a bit bothersome, the tracks were about shot, and he tolds us "...if it starts to 'clankin', straigthen her out, cause otherwise, she might throw a track..." Now, if that wasn't just something else for me to worry about! We ran her around for a total of about 1 hour. In the end, he wouldn't take nothing for it, even though we probably wasted more fuel than anything, and he laughed, and said he coulda probably done what we did in about 3.5 minutes. It was a hoot! One of these days, I'll just have to buy one of them old girls, and play on my own time...

I was slaving my little heart out one day on this grader when one of the labourers stopped me and climbed up on the platform with me. He said, "I just want to see what you have to do to make this thing work."

I carried on working with him standing on the footplate and after about 3 passes he indicated that he wanted to get off again. I stopped and he said, "Nah, too many levers for me," and went to get off. I stopped him and asked, "Tell me, you play a guitar, don't you?" He said, "Yeah, what's that got to do with anything?" I asked, "How many frets on your guitar keyboard?" "Damned if I know," he replied. (I didn't know either then but Ah studied some about it and I believe there is either 18 er 24, dependin' on ther geetarr.) I said, "Well, let me assure you that there are more frets on your guitar than there are levers here."

Early 60's Cat D7 - probably 'E' series - probably power-shift - so, I'll assume. Starting from the left, in front of the left arm rest (if it's still there) you have the power-shift control lever and its associated safety lever. The power-shift control is in a U-shaped slot with neutral right acroos the front, 3 speeds forward down the near side and 3 speeds reverse down the far side. The safety lever is either in a slot running between the legs of the U or in a slot down the front of the power-shift control housing. The safety lever locks the control lever in neutral.

In front of you on the console protruding from the dash, are the steering clutch controls which slide out of the console when operated, left for the left track and right for the --- heck, you can figure it out.

Under the steering clutch controls, rising from the floor, are the steering brakes which work in conjunction with the steering clutches, slowing or stopping a track to make turns sharper when the clutch is disengaged.

On the right side of the same console that the steering clutch controls are situated in, is the throttle lever. Right forward is the engine shut-off position. Pull it back until it clicks for start/idle and right back to wake up all the horses. AND the neighbours.

To the right of the seat, rising up from the floor plate, is the blade control lever. Forward-back movement lowers or raises the blade and sideways movement operates the blade tilt cylinder - if fitted.

If the machine is equipped with a ripper, the control for that will be another lever rising from the floor plate further to the right and behind the blade control lever. To you raises and away from you lowers the ripper.

There is also a small lever at the right front of the seat to lock the steering brakes when parking or floating the machine. Depress one or both pedals and push this lever forward/down to lock. Depress any locked pedals and raise the lever to unlock.

Under the dash, on the firewall, there is a decompression lever with 2 positions, 'Start' and 'Run'. To start, move this lever to 'Start', turn on the pilot motor ignition switch on the dash panel to the right of the throttle lever, and press the pilot motor starter button under the starter pinion control to the left of the steering clutch control console. (It sometimes to helps to ensure that the battery isolation swith is turned on.)

When/if the pilot motor starts, let it run for a short while to warm up and circulate the oil. Then push the starter pinion control in firmly for a couple seconds to stop the pinion fron turning and pull it firmly out until it clicks into position. At this stage, the diesel engine should be turning over. Allow the diesel engine to turn over for a while to warm up the intake air and circulate the engine oil. When you think the diesel engine is ready to start, move the decompression lever from 'Start' to 'Run' and open the diesel throttle. You should be greeted with some smoke from the diesel exhaust and a low, machine-shaking rumbling sound from somewhere in front of you. The smoke should quickly clear, leaving you with one of the sweetest rumblings from a diesel engine that God ever let anybody listen to. (Try to remember in all your excitement to turn off the pilot motor.)

Hope this helps.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.