In the H&R Recon and Rebuild shops, you’ll find technicians working with the entire spectrum of construction equipment parts from small electrical parts to intricate planetary parts to large transmission parts. And sometimes you’ll find a technician rebuilding a part so gigantic that even the individual parts that make up the part are so big they need to be broken down into smaller parts. That’s what you’ll find when you follow along with H&R parts technician, Matt, as he dismantles the front and back axle for a Caterpillar 988H wheel loader -- a big beast of a machine with big booming axles -- and rebuilds both for a customer.

Part 1: Disassembling the Differential

In the first part, follow along as our part technician breaks down the axle by removing each of the final drives and extracting the differential. After the differential and final drives are free, it's time to start disassembling those, as well. This will be his first time getting a good look inside of these parts and he’ll inspect gears, plates, and other worn parts to determine if they need to be replaced. For a part this big, the tech will need the use of overhead cranes, presses, and forklifts.

Part 2: Rebuilding the Differential

After a few days disassembling, the part technician is on to the fun part -- rebuilding. In this video, follow along as the technician begins combining original parts with replacement parts to rebuild the differential. He’ll need the overhead cranes again for moving this part around and to properly fit parts he’ll put our industrial parts oven to use. 

Part 3: Rebuilding the Axle

While another parts technician finishes up rebuilding the final drives, this tech starts the rebuild process for the axle. Due to their extreme size, even flipping the axles over or adjusting them into place is a job in itself, as you’ll see as the tech finishes up this project. And, in the end, you’ll see the moment it was all for -- two expertly rebuilt axles, painted, loaded, and headed to a customer.

The parts technicians at H&R take pride in every project they complete, but there’s something special when the project is as big as these Caterpillar 998H axles. Parts this big take planning, teamwork, and special knowledge and tools, but we know our customers come to us because we’re up to that challenge.

If you’re searching for your own part -- small, large, or extreme -- chat with our Parts Specialists and maybe the next video series will be on the story of a part that ends up on your machine.