D3 dozer stops moving

[N8sk8bus]

Hi everyone I’m new here, I have a cat d3, not sure of the year I think it’s a 1978, I’ve put about 20 hours on it since I bought it and today it started acting up, first it was getting hard to steer, a few minutes later it wouldnt steer at all, a few minutes after that it wouldn’t move at all forward or reverse, I stopped checked all the fluids, looked around the machine for anything wrong, started it up about 5 minutes later and everything worked fine for about 10 minutes until it started not working again, turned it off again for 30 seconds, restart, everything’s fine for another 10 minutes or so. I have manual I’ve been reading trying to get more familiar with the machine, any input would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks, Nate

 

[reganj]

First suggestion is to post serial number of the machine so the smart folk on here can give you some good pointers,
Also, do you know if any work has been done to it recently???
Have you checked all fluid levels??
The more info you provide, the better feedback you get.

 

[N8sk8bus]

Thanks for the reply, update I was working on it this afternoon, I pulled the trans filter out and cleaned it, it had a good amount of small residue and flakes in it, Also cleaned the hydro filter, it had some gunk in the bottom of the canister, added a quart of trans fluid, it looked low but I may not have put the dipstick all the way in when checking because now it’s a little high, either way I ran it for about 4 hours after pushing dirt the whole time and everything worked fine, I’ll will keep posted if it happens again, I’ll get the serial number too

 

[Welder Dave]

Trans. level is likely checked with engine running and oil warm. It should say on the dipstick. A little overfill won't hurt anything.