Caterpillar 12 grader

Chester - I don't know the bloke with the restored Caterpillar Speed Patrol .. and I've lost the article that was written about it.
The article was in the December 2007 Westrac magazine, called TracTion Magazine. The link to the PDF copy of the magazine has disappeared off the 'net, and I lost the computer copy I had, when I fried a hard drive.
OzFarm may recall the blokes name.

Original article link .. www.westrac.com.au/Documents/TracTionInd...y-Issue1-Dec2007.pdf

Below is some W&J historical info, from a 1973 W&J magazine called "Track", that I scanned ..

The number on the fuel pump is just a P/N for the entire pump, called the "fuel pump group".

wuntak

ozfamin haz a job remembering wot ozfamin did yesterday

Ron

I found this
engine number US 7

then below 2S5556

these stamped letters and numbers were found on a tag alongside pilot motor on lh side of engine

Chester - Excellent! The "US7" stamp indicates it served with the U.S. Seventh Fleet, which was General Macarthurs Pacific force, set up under his control, based in Brisbane, to belt the Japs back to Tokyo.

The U.S. Seventh Fleet was comprised largely of American forces, but I understand that some Australian units may have also fallen under MacArthurs Seventh Fleet command.
It was common for the Yanks and the Australians to serve together under American command, and the naval operations usually operated this way, because the Yanks basically had the majority of the ships and equipment.

www.ozatwar.com/usnavy/7thfleet.htm

The 2S5556 S/N is the S/N of the engine and the grader, and identifies as a very early W&J-built Caterpillar 12 grader.
The 2S prefix is listed in the Cat Serial/Product ID record book, as "miscellaneous" (industrial) engines.

This is the S/N prefix affixed to engines supplied to the W&J grader-building operations. Caterpillar allocated a special range of S/No's to these engines, that did not start at number 1.
The S/No's with the 2S prefix for the miscellaneous engines commenced at 2S5501 .. meaning that your engine was the 55th engine supplied to W&J for the graders.

It's interesting that the grader ended up with a "US7" stamp. This indicates it was either supplied as a new production grader to the Americans, on an American Navy order (quite possible) .. or it was transferred to American ownership from Australian Defence Forces ownership, or civil Australian Govt Ownership.

It was possibly returned to Australian Defence Forces ownership at the end of the War .. or it was just left behind by the Americans, and then transferred to Australian Govt ownership, in the deal that saw the Americans transfer ownership of all the American equipment left in Australia, to the Australian Govt, in 1946/1947.

The Australian Govt made a lot of money out of this deal, whereby they eventually negotiated the Yanks asking price, down to about 5% of the original value of the equipment.
The Australian Govt paid this figure to the Yanks .. all the Yank equipment left here was transferred to Australian Govt ownership .. and the whole lot was then transferred to the Commonwealth Disposals Commission, and sold as War Surplus, netting the Govt a very substantial profit, running into the many tens of millions of Australian pounds.
The sales profit in todays dollars would possibly be in the order of hundreds of billions of dollars.

ok thankyou Ron that s terrific info

so an early W and s cat 12 grader , so when trying to find parts what model should i refer to it as
?? as I have mentioned i need to find some parts for it

Chester, you'll find that the W&J-built Cat 12 graders are virtually identical to the U.S.-built Cat 12 graders of the same era, as they were built using the same Cat blueprints.
The only difference as I understand, is that some standard steel sections are different thickness and dimensions, as BHP steel was not produced to American steel standards, but to British steel standards.
Accordingly, there were quite a few differences in steel dimensions between Australian and American steel products.

However, there probably wouldn't be a lot of standard steel sections in the Cat 12, as Cat didn't normally use a lot of standard steel profiles.
The major difference is possibly in the main frame beams, and you would possibly have to put calipers over the sections to pick up the differences.

Your grader is virtually identical to the 9K series, and you can use the Cat 12, 9K series parts book, and the No 12 repair manual, as references, with no problems.

You'll be hard-pressed to get any parts from Cat, and even the Cat Classic Parts line will be extremely limited in the amount of parts available for your machine.
The average Cat parts man will give you a blank look if you ask about a Cat 12. He wouldn't know any models over 30 years old, and the Cat 12 would scarcely rate a mention in current Cat parts info.

There's a crowd called Florin Tractor in Sacramento, California .. and a bloke called John Park, who owns General Gear & Machine in Boise, Idaho, and who trades as Tractorparts.com.

These blokes will cheerfully supply you with reasonably-priced parts, as they deal in antique Cats and other brands, and have a good supply of NOS parts, some new aftermarket parts (clutch plates, etc) .. and both are also wreckers.

Tractorparts.com .. www.tractorparts.com/

Florin Tractor .. www.florintractor.com/default.htm

Ron

thankyou very much you are a real fountain of information

thankyou

Chester

I will get som ephotos happening

Ron
I found a Waugh and Stephenson brass plate with model 19 serial 525

I have asked Ianoz if he would be good enough to post pictures, I seem to get in a loop and go nowhere

cheers

Chester

Hi Chester , If you have emailed them down , we have not got them, as can't recieve or send emails at the moment .

Chester - You can email the pics to me if you like, I'll post them for you. Just left click on my username and then left click on "send to send an email to onetrack".

The W&J model number should be "12" .. perhaps the numbers have been damaged or not stamped clearly, making the "2" look like a "9".

Cheers - Ron.