Those teeth (my guess) are from a starter Bendix gear that was smashed from all that slop in the main bearings. Very interesting watching to dismantle something I'll probably never even see. Thank you Matt

I have a feeling those mysterious gear teeth are from a previous catastrophic failure that wasn't cleared out before being replaced, or were left to make a speedy recovery in the field then forgotten about, before being parked.

BEFORE Diesel Creek I had NO idea what a pony moter was, and never even operated any piece of the sorts of equipment Matt is doing.(I'm a computer guy) NOW I own a tractor, bought a farm, and are fixing all sorts of duhdah's for whatever i need to get by, inspired by Matt and others like him. GREAT content !!

Hey Matt - I worked for a large Caterpillar company in Denver, CO in the early 70’s. (I am 81, now). I worked on a lot of D8 Cats. We changed out the pony motor as an assembly and never got the chance to tear one apart. Very interesting.

a small gear like that, my guess is that it came from a broken starter that since have been replaced.

I will never, ever need to know any of what Matt tried to teach me today, but strange as that is I could not stop watching this. The flywheel slop was epic. These episodes are why you have 3/4 of a million subscribers.

In all my years of rebuilding engines of all sizes, I've never came across one with that much wear that still ran. AMAZING! Thats why those old Cats just keep on going.

Regarding the grey/silver sludge, I didn't see that anyone suggested it is actually LEAD from leaded gasoline. We used to call it grey paint. I was an apprentice car mechanic in the 60s when leaded gas was the norm. The grey paint would get so thick in the oil pan it would plug up the oil pickup. When removing an oil pan with that in it, it felt as heavy as if half a crankshaft was there. With the age of that pony engine, it likely ran most of its life with leaded gas.

I believe the teeth were from a failed starter bendix that never was retrieved when they had the initial starter problem Matt. The size and number is similar to the teeth count on the bendix.

Wouldn't be hard to braze up that gear case. Worth saving. Doesn't have to be difficult. Prep the weld seem. It doesn't have to be huge. A 3/16 v is enough. Drill holes at each end of the crack. Build a nice big wood fire and get it all hot in some coals. Keep it in the coals while you heat up the joint and braze it up. Finnish by building up the fire a bit to bring it all up to an even heat. Cover it all with the coals and ashes when it dies down so it cools slow. Leave it till the next day. It sounds like a lot, but really isn't. Most of the effort is building a bonfire and watching it burn.

What I love about this channel is how you always steam clean or pressure wash an item before you start to video. That removes the blackened grease/oil sludge from the working surface and allows much better video content.

From an expert ‘ole cat skinner’ who has gone to the dozer home in the sky: after you start the Diesel engine, disengage the pony, but don’t kill it. Turn off the gas and let it run dry. That warms up the pony, drains the carb, and your pony cast iron warms evenly to fight dampness. I pulled down my D7-3t pony and found a shop that could weld up and grind the crankshaft back to spec. We had to bore the cylinders off center to get them round again. My 3T was dry clutch so the previous owner managed to beat on the bendix with the canvas-and-sheet metal links that break in the dry clutch. I found bendix parts from a 2U in a junk yard. Be thankful for your oil clutch and be assured it could be worse.

Love how you can drop a pony on your ‘new’ bench with a forklift and it doesn’t even flinch 👍

My take away from watching this is pure amazement with the engineers who designed and manufactured that whole assembly pre computers. I can't imagine the cost to make all the tooling to cast all those different pieces in an economical way. Mind blowing to me.

I agree with the mystery teeth coming from a previous starter catastrophic failure. I have never been in a position where my (and possibly my family's) next meal depended on me getting a piece of equipment operating so I could finish a job and get paid. The pressures of life and the mindset of someone who doesn't perform recommended oil changes and would also leave gear teeth inside a gear case is something I cannot relate to in any way. Matt has clearly established that neither the motor or the gear case received recommended maintenance and that the carnage occurred because of the wear on the engine main bearings which was due to oil that was filled with abrasive particles. Maintenance is not done for various reasons. I know/have known people that can always find money for beer and smokes but can never find money for oil changes. If every machine owner put maintenance high on the list of important things Matt wouldn't have a channel. Without so many mistreated machines we wouldn't have such entertaining videos illustrating the effects of that mistreatment.

I am an IT guy from Germany. So I could not be further removed from this topic, but yet still I love watching these videos. Keep up the good work of reviving old steel that others have left to die. Also very nice to see your channel frow over the years, almost at the 1 million mark now, great :D

Fascinating teardown! The crankshaft bearings on these ponies are commonly ruined by a leaky carburetor valve: if the fuel shutoff isn't used and a tank of gas drains into the oil, the oil becomes useless. Just a short runtime with ruined oil will trash the crankshaft bearings.

Matt, at around the 10 minute mark you explain why you save old junk like this, but there's a neat side-effect of what you and those of use who care about old stuff do: there's a "gap" generation around old equipment where the old codgers who worked with it every day start to retire and pass on and the new kids in the field have new, high-tech fancy stuff and don't need things like pony motors &c., so off they go to collectors or the scrapper. With luck it's to a collector, and with greater luck still it's to a collector that will use it and instruct others in its use--like you're doing right now in this video. When these things pass out of every day use and into the "antique" world, there's a risk that they themselves as well as the understanding of their use is going to disappear forever. Think about steam engines, and how a whole generation of teachers were mostly lost before the nerds picked it back up again. All it takes is a generation of folks going "I don't know WTF that does" to lose that real-world, practical knowledge of the thing. Great example is live steam, which in the UK is SO MUCH more robust than here in North America. Why? The Brits took forever to switch from coal, we didn't. And that switch just so happened to coincide with folks starting to wake up and realize that it's worth saving the old stuff, even if it's not "useful" in a conventional sense anymore. Like a CAT pony motor. :) Thanks for giving a hoot about the old iron, Matt--preservation and conservation is a gift to future generations. There's always "a million of them" out there... until there isn't. Good, old machines deserve to be saved and ought to be put to work. They might be the only things that actually last in our age of emissions equipment and computer-controlled common-rail injection. Cheers, and I hope you and your pod have a happy Easter weekend. 🐇🐇🐇

After rebuilding starters and alternators for the last 40 years that appears to be the remnants of an opinion that came apart from a previously installed starter

I own a tree service company and am from the city so naturally without much mechanical knowledge I would just send my trucks and machines to my mechanic, after watching your videos for the past year I always try taking a crack at it myself now, saved myself so much money and have learned so so much from your channel, thanks for the awesome content Matt, love and respect from southern Ontario, Canada!

Wild guess s those teeth were from a part that was replaced? Something stripped the teeth off, maybe the starter? They replaced the starter but didn't pull the whole thing open to gett he bad parts out

"new" forklift??? Did I miss that video? 🤔🤔🤔

A friend of mine, when he knows he is replacing parts that have cotter pins in them, he does not even bother with pulling the pins. He makes sure they allow his socket onto the nut and he spins them off with an impact or breaker bar. He doesn't care what kind of damage the pin may cause because, the part is being replaced. If he is not replacing the parts, then he will be careful and he uses a new pin every time. I tend to remove pins just to keep a running inventory of what came apart and what needs to go back together.

That pony motor was rebuilt 5 months before I was born. My parternal Grandfather ran those Cats back then, but in the other side of the country. He was about my age then too.😊

Semi SuperVillans knock it out of the park with their music !! LOVE the opening music!!

The gearbox assembly is toast, but what about doing a full rebuild on the motor unit? What about a colab with the other awesome KZfaq JimsAutomotiveMachineShop? Would be amazing to see that motor brought back to fresh!

20:16 Look at the flywheel teeth. That's where the "gravel" comes from. Thanks for sharing !

I'm so glad you posted a video today, because the 10th. of this month I was on my death bed, but I barely pulled through and it seems that each day now is a Blessing, but I'm still very weak and very limited mobility from this awful Flu I caught from my Grandson that he got at the Daycare. I hope I get to see more of your videos .

I had a cat12 grader with a 2 cyl boxer pony. Pony threw a rod, broke some pieces out of the bottom of one of the cylinders, so I left the bottom oil ring off on reassembly. CAT dealer didn't want to mess with it which they told me by offering a ridiculous amount of $$$ to even look at it. Also got into a contention between CAT and auto shop as to who broke the end housing getting it off the crank, but CAT made it good with another from their boneyard. New pistons, rings, rods and bearings and it ran like new. Thank goodness for their boneyard, I also needed a steering knuckle for that machine. Apparently it's common for the spindle to fatigue crack, because mine cracked through, and the first one they got me was also cracked in the same place. The first spindle failed a bright early new year's morning, then broke the spindle on my case 580B trying to get the CAT12 off the runway, all before noon. Which goes to show you don't do ANYTHING before eating your black-eyed peas New Year's morning!

I’m thinking those teeth are remains of an old starter or gear that failed at some point and was replaced. Just shrapnel that was left behind. 🤷‍♂️ I sure do enjoy watching these videos and appreciate you bringing us along. Thanks Matt.

Absolutely amazing! Thinking of the time when this dozer was built and the machinery they had to work with, it always amazes me with their final product. Today we have modern CNC equipment that can do amazing things but back then it was a lot of ingenuity, that can only be admired!! Keeping in mind this was only a small part of this dozer!!!

The gear teeth look like they may have come from an old starter Bendix that might have dynamited at some time. Most likely from the flywheel being as it is. Amazing that this engine still cranked over. Love the old iron, they are almost indestructible. No engineered obsolescence.

I have a difficult time imagining how the heck the design engineers come up with the designs to make these things work together.

The engineering that went into that motor alone must have been huge. Glad Matt took it apart for us mortals to see.

As a retired truck mechanic 32 yrs. I have never seen a crank with that much play in it. Hard to believe that it was running that way. Great vid, love your content.

Matt , the time and investment in your super heavy duty work bench sure has paid off! It handles the weight of that Pony motor like it was nothing at all.

Do not throw away the case, it is repairable with brazing. I worked at a place that had a Plymouth switcher locomotive using a D8 Cat engine for the prime mover. They had to rebuild the pony engine, It was made in 1948 or 49 and mounted to the side of the main engine casting for support and oil sump. I usually preferred to start the pony with the hand crank instead of the starter because it was easy to fire with the magnito. Yes, the exhaust of the pony went through the air intake for the diesel to be able to warm the diesel to get it to start. We could start the diesel in any kind of cold weather that no other diesel would start. Start the pony and put the transmission in low, engage the diesel flywheel with the compression release pulled so there is no compression and let the diesel roll for 5 to 10 minutes using the pony. Stop turning the diesel and change to high gear, re-engage the diesel flywheel, and spin the diesel slowly moving the compression release to get the diesel to fire. Once the diesel started pulling away from the pony then disengage the pony from the diesel flywheel and shut it down. The diesel was running on its own. That pony motor was a 6-volt system I believe. There may have been some gear teeth left in the case from the last repair that finally got caught and did the damage if the repairs were done in the field and in a hurry.

You know the old engineer saying: "Everything was fine until it exploded." 😁😁🤘🤘

Hello Matt, One of my most watched channels (after yours) is 'Squatch253'. He is a Caterpillar nut. He has rebuilt many pony engines from scratch always with great care and finesse. I know that He could help you to either repair or replace all things Caterpillar. He has always amazed me when it comes working on any project that he endeavors. Give him a shout. Sad to see the results of a neglected engine. Great video, Thanks.

I hope you have at least some experience of "hand cranking" engines ! The use of the starting handle is probably the first introduction to the workings of the motor car, that those of us born in the fifties had ! I got my practice in, on my father's Rover 14, in the " here, you have a go !" basis. Later I found that 4 cylinder motor motors were easier. In my twenties I was still at it with decrepit small lorries on building sites,and dump trucks etc. If you are not used to hand starting motors you have missed out on learning how to wheeze and cough properly, such fun...

We had a farm here, in California in the 60's and 70's. Also a John Deere 40. Someone told me that this pony motor, on a D8, was a John Deere 40 engine. I wonder at the truth of that!

That gearbox case looks like an ideal candidate for you to practice cold stitching on. Check out the guys from Tinkering with Tanks and see them repair a cast iron block. You never know when you might come across a really rare engine that you can't just swap out casings on. Love the content Matt

Matt, If you choose to weld that cast iron here's a tip. My Dad a fleet diesel mechanic who would be 102 ys now, would take an acetylene cast rod, strip a elecrtical 14 ga wire, wrap it in 1/4 inch wraps, drill both ends of crack, rose bud the cast then dip flux and weld one inch strips from each end till welded. This allows hot welded cast to be softer and more flexible. This is especially good for manifolds. Don't forget to bolt down a manifold so it doesn't warp. Hope this long winded story helps you some where along the way.

Drill both ends of crack with oh 5/16 drill bit. Then preheat case to 450 then weld with nickel rod then but case right back in oven still on 450 then over hours slowly bring temp down slow slow if to fast it will crack

Love the baby T-Rex shadow on the work bench around 10min mark

I had to re -shoe a caterpillar pony once , so many legs by the time i finished I had to start again 😅🍻

That babbitt bearing was probably a poured lead job which would explain why the metal in the bottom of the pan is so fine.

With out a doubt i was the one who did rebuild job on that pony motor back in the 70's. Thats crazy that you have it now.

Compare the shrapnel gear to a starter Bendix gear. At some point in its life it may have had an Old exploded starter from the crank bouncing around, The starter being replaced and you running it long enough to free the parts up from the sludge.

It's pretty awesome when you find metal that's the consistency and texture of CLAY under a gasket.. WOW 16:10

loosely assemble it back in the case for storage, protects and takes up less space than all the bits spread out.

You need to have that workshop crane installed. Look forward for the video 🙂

Even if the gear-case isn't salvageable, if I were you I'd keep it just to keep all other parts together in their proper places, while they are being stored for who-knows-how-long. I've got at least one small engine laying around that is beyond any reasonable help, but the parts on it are usable, so to keep them all together I left them on the block

I hear you on saving old parts. When I had my RV repair business, I saved old awning and appliance parts. Not everyone can afford new RVs and when old style awnings and appliances broke rather than having to buy a new awning or water heater, I kept them going with some new old parts! 😂

Hey Matt. I’m quite sure if you match those pieces up to some of the existing intact gears you will find the origin. My guess would be the starter drive. What I’m trying to say is that the pieces have been laying in there from some previous failure that you wouldn’t have any way of knowing about. There’s no telling how many starters have been on that pup over the years.

Old things are great, repair as long as possible and when no longer possible to repair, strip off every reusable part to keep other old things working.

I can just imagine the engineering meeting..." Hey Harry, we need a pony motor that's the heaviest thing known to man."

I've never seen an in-line pony motor. All the ones I ever worked on were horizontal twins. We had them in dozers and a crane. Those were, of course, old machines as I left that place some 35 years ago. They had no oil pan and shared the cooling system with the main engine. Getting them started was always fun in below zero weather, but the main would be all warmed up when started. We had them on D-4s, D-6s, and D-8s. The crane was the same. The operators would never shut the gas off, and the cylinders would get washed out with gas, and the compression would suffer.

Thank you for putting the diesel creek sound track back on

DC: sees silver paste "oh, its probably ok" Every Mechanic on the Planet: nope, nope she's pretty well screwed.

i agree that you have the pieces of of a previously shattered bendix drive gear. I also thought I saw the snap ring that would retain the bendix drive on the shaft. My dad had a chevy when i was a teenager that liked to destroy it's starter in the same way.

It's pretty cool to see you do a video like this. When I first started watching your channel. You were tearing something along these lines. About a year or so. 😊

Previous starter gear teeth could be the broken parts. Also the spring that you pulled out looks like what would be found on the end of a starter to retract the gear.

Nice morning, Coffee and Diesel Creek with Matt.

My best guess is the original starter pinion gear split and dropped into the bottom of the motor. the wear and tare on the crank was just poor maintenance practices. I do not think there is a filter to the pony, just change the oil. Similar to old VW bugs. You might be surprised about how much it might cost to have the crank welded and ground.

I went to Ferris State College (university now) for heavy equipment service. Myself and two other guys got to do a complete rebuild on one of those Cat pony motors at the college. Those little brutes were quite a marvel. Heavy as can be and even 44 years ago parts were expensive and hard to get. But, we got er done and she ran great. The school also had a top notch automotive machine shop program so machining a crank was easy to get done.

Good times. Lunchtime in the UK with Diesel Creek. Epic.

Yup.... Matt's getting slick with his videos, has "new stuff", doesn't show us, until way later on....😂 It's ALL good, we know how you be with the auction..... awesome as always 👍💪

the heavy flywheel is part of the engine design instead of making a monster counterweighted crankshaft to smooth out the vibrations of the small engine and to smooth out the idle also assist in getting the two cylinder die sel engine running

Should consider reassembling the Pony motor with all the parts reattached before placing it in storage. That's just one way of reassuring that none of the parts go missing later when you really needs them, particularly those parts that you'll otherwise take for granted.

Have a beautiful Easter everyone!.

While we missed the "new forklift" vid, we can agree this teardown was well worth the wait! Great work, Matt.

Wow at the crankshaft bearing wear! Someone ran that without oil at some point in the past. As for the gear teeth you found in the housing, that would appear to be broken parts of a previous electric starter drive. Apparently it tossed around in the housing until it became jammed in an area which caused the housing to be broken.

If you were so inclined, to save that gearbox, you could give Steve a call at Proweld up near Williamsport Pa. They make welding rods. They make rods to fix cracks like that. They make a multitude of rods for everything. They showed me how to weld a cracked spreader casting and it's still working two years later.

Matt Squatch253 is the place to learn about these. Glad to see you saving these parts.

RIP Pony. Congratulations on 3/4 million subs Matt.

That gear case is repairable actually, if it is made of cast steel it will be easier to weld than if it is made of cast iron, but even cast iron is weldable if it is heavily pre heated to a couple of hundred degree's first and then covered and allowed to cool very slowly after welding. Years and years ago when I first started in the trade it was an accepted part of the job and we refurbished many a block / gearbox casing/ and rear axle this way, that block is also repairable in the same manner, weld up the webs on the crank and have them turned back to spec by a crank grinder and do the same for any out of spec rotating surfaces and the rebuilt engine will be as good as new........important since as you said they are getting rarer than hens teeth now........there will come a day there wont be anymore left at all and you will be glad you didnt bin it. once they are gone there isnt any way back.

Thanks Matt, I enjoyed your exploration of the pony motor. Add that to your knowledge, you already are a master of your craft!

You are absolutely right about those types of parts becoming more scarce. I worked at a Cat dealership and they had an entire used parts department that would search all over the country sometimes looking for a part. The pony motors are especially hard to find. Even good cores are rare.

It’s a amazing how cluttered the new massive shop is now! Soon it’ll be filled like his garage at the house! Time to build another shop Matt and get that one filled up. LOL LOL

I miss the Saturday videos, became a ritual for a while. BUT, YOU do what works for YOU! You're a busy man. I'm going to watch the videos no matter WHEN you post them!!!

So that's how Anti Seize is made. Not only did we get to see the pony autopsy, which is cool, never see one apart but also found the source of permitex greatest contribution to the mechanic industry

This is my go-to channel alongside Marty-T from New Zealand, Ants Pants from Estonia and Kris Harbor Natural Building from GB. Aways makes my day when these guys are dropping new content.

Nice way to showcase all your new toys! I have been watching for years. Happy for your success. Thanks for the in depth view of the pony motor starter system.

Hell yeah Matt, keep this stuff going , keep all that's salvageable , these analogue pieces are important, all this digital controlled crap is expensive and complicated to fix. Analogue can be fixed by anyone with tools , brains and experience

23.56 that looks like a hand cast babbit barring not a insert. i had to learn how to cast babbit baring in old mining equipment. It can be fun. sometimes in remote areas old repairman could not get barring inserts and would pour their own babbit barrings as replacements.

Thanks Matt for the tear down on the pony engine 👍 Old F-4 Shoe🇺🇸

I am thinking that those extra gear teeth came from an earlier repair. They fished out the broken gear and the easy to find chunks and put it back together. Leaving the small chunks for you to find later.

Great video as always love the sound track ❤👍🏻great watch on a Easter Sunday afternoon here in the uk 🇬🇧 keep them coming, Happy Easter Matt and everyone else 🙂👍🏻🇬🇧

who else does this each time a new video comes out I sit here scanning his work shop for new toys and etc .🙂

Cracked cast Iron can be repaired by a shop that has the facilities to preheat the cast iron for 12 or more hours, weld it up with cast iron rod while hot and return to the furnace for a 12 hour cool down.

That BYH (Big Yellow Hammer) is becoming a favorite, isn't it?

Love the New Intro Matt 0:02 Freaking Awesome @Diesel Creek

Having worked on some Diesel engines in the Oil Field, 16 cylinder , we used pony engines to fire them up. Personally with all the equipment you have I would salvage any and all usable parts. They could be used on some of you stuff if needed or used as trade items should the need arise down the line. Even as repair parts for some of your equipment also.

My grandfather bought a d7 at auction it's cleared a lot of land around the farm. I get it running every now and then just to keep everything moving. It's about due. Thanks for doing this! I've always wondered how pony motors works. It's always a sense of accomplishment getting it ruining

1:23 Is that a new forklift?

BELLEVUE HILL NSW AUSTRALIA HAPPY EASTER DC! 🐰🥚🍫

I really enjoyed the tear down of the "Pony Motor." It's really great seeing you use your newly built shop whilst you do this kind of work. Well done, Matt!

Another informative video Matt. You would make a fantastic instructor because you have a way of explaining how things work even to a mechanical novice like me. Keep up the good work.

Yay Sunday video, thanks Matt. Happy Easter man!