I haven't posted in a while, actually since I bought the 580 SE. Well a quick update. Before I bought it I had xgiaovannix12 check it out for me. He was at the time just someone I had been following here on the forum who seemed to have a really good knowledge of backhoes & it just so happened he was close to the machine & also to where I live. Well it checked out better then I had hoped for. John came with his father & gave it a good going over. I was so impressed with both that I asked John if he would work on the machine for me replacing hoses & seals & do a general 30 year old machine upgrade. I am not going to go into particulars but I lived with John & his Mom & Dad for 5 weekends while he worked on the machine & I helped & watched. In that time John repacked every hydro cylinder & we replaced about 20 hoses. The seat was removed totally reconditioned & recovered, we added a Thumb & a Quick Coupler. Due to a herd of mice in the overhead John had to rewired the entire cab electrical system & got all the lights & signals working along with all the switches & gauges. Including the fuel, transmission temp. & all the pressure gauges. Redid the hand & foot brakes. What is left to do is to replace all the filters, change all the fluids & oil de-grease it ,paint it & add new zerks. Johns Dad has been around heavy equipment all his life & since John was 10 has been teaching him. I truly feel that between the 2 of them there is nothing they don't know about the operation & repair of it & John is not above asking his dad about something when he gets stumped. As far as my experience over the past 5 weekends, priceless! I can't say enough good things about this young man other I would be proud to be his Father. I can,t tell you what great people his Mom & Dad are obviously, just to let a person they never new 4 months ago stay with them. And now I have two new friends. Pix to come soon
Sound like you hit pay dirt with this arrangement for assistance. Glad to hear it worked out for you. I had a 580 SE & sold it about 3 years ago. It was a nice machine.
More Pix when its finished. By the way the new tires should be mounted this week
Thanks for the Kind words Jerry. Tires are off and loaded on the trailer . More work to be done be back later tonight
You know the one thing I failed to mention besides putting me up for those nights I can tell you thanks to Maria, Johns mom I didn't loose any weight thanks to her great cooking. If it was not for her I probably would have lost 20 lbs. the way John worked me. Thanks You Maria!
Its almost done
So luckys machine is done and ready to be picked up thursday to be brought to its new home. It will be a great machine for many many more years.
Last picture of both machines together. Jerrys machine is back to work on his property now. Sharp looking machine and many more years of use.
Well I finally took time away from my new toy to let you all know what a great John did on it. The machine is probably as close to new as a 30 year old Case can be. Just about everything on the Hydraulic side of it has been replaced or redone and a few things on the Diesel side. Every cylinder was repacked all but 3 hoses were replaced a totally rebuilt hand break all new wiring in the cab & now all the lights ,gauges, tack & hour meter & windshield wipers work. New heat sending switches in the transmission the shuttle shift cleaned and adjusted all the oil & hydraulic fluid & filters changed. Transmission seals replaced all wheel bearings repacked & greased, new zerks & all greased up. All new paint & decals & new rear tires. New alternator & John would not let me leave with the machine until he replaced the Idler arm because it was making a funny noise & if I didn't do it now we would have to replace it later along with the fan belt that would have ripped because the idler would have tore it when it went. This young man is the most conscientious & knowledgeable mechanic as I have ever come across. His work ethic is second to none. I feel very lucky to have had him work on my machine. You can see the before & after pix but they don't even come close to telling the story. The heavy equipment industry would be a lot better off with people like him working on our machines. Thank You John.
Any time jerry go get some work done
The X Man has been pushing me to upload some pix so here are a few from some work I did over the weekend. The machine ran like a dream + loads of complements on how good it ran & looks