I recently noticed that the left hand top loader pivot plate has completely ripped out, there are a few marks around the left, is this a known problem? How do I attach photo's?
Willie has am easy to read and understand guide here . ----> HeavyEquipmentForums
Dunno, I've had two. Never heard of such a problem. Willie
I have tried to get to the advanced page but unsuccessful, whether I click the reply button at the top or bottom, have resized photo's ready
Case 580K front bucket pivot ripped out Seems I can post pictures with Windows, not Android Top picture right pivot, bottom picture left pivot
Are you doing some kind of working with the bucket puts most of the load on the left side, like miles of ditch cleaning? Otherwise it's just a welding failure when they put the pin boss in the arm; it happens.
I don't do a lot of work with it, I am semi-retired, I imagine the problem may have been from doing grading, I don't use it much as a loader, most of the use is with the back actor or back hoe as you say in thd US
Not a simple fix either, as that is the fuel tank. I'd bet shock load from bulldozing caused it. Maybe a bad weld. Neither of mine did that. Willie
Case puts the loader arms on the fuel tank? Somehow I don't think that's a good idea or true. But what do I know. I'm a Ford guy and Ford doesn't do stuff like that....
You caught me in a bald face lie. Willie
I'm not 100% sure but I think Ford used to use the loader towers for the hydraulic fluid.....
Unfortunately you are correct, the chassis is the diesel tank, the level rising to behind that plate. What I hope to do is to get the plate back in position, it should fit in the hole, drain the fuel then run a hose into the fuel filler and fill the tank with mig welding argon/CO2 gas. Being heavier than air it should displace the air inside and restrict combustion. Well that is the theory, we will see!
Yes, that will work. Additionally you could rinse the tank with hot water to remove as much residue as possible, then fill it halfway with cold water. You are going to grind that plate back a bit so you have some room to weld, right? And do the other side while you're set up, see that cracked paint at the same spot on the weld? and isn't that a small diesel leak too?
Left on the one I had was hydraulic fluid and fuel was on the right. I think the other side looks good. Prying out a stump or something with the corned of the bucket may have created this problem. The break looks clean so getting back in place and welding it up shouldn't be to difficult. I think Co2 is a good idea but then what do I know ).
Billrog, don't you see the wet spot? I'll bet that's what it is. That looks like fatigue to me, that loader flexed a few thousand times too many. Any idea of hours on this and it's previous use?
There is no wet spot there as I only ever fill the digger quarter full, it has never got that high since I owned it, however losing the plate on the other side is likely to have caused stress flexing and the lines around part of the edge may be the start of a fissure so I will get a bead of weld around that side as well.
Am I the only one that sees the wet spot at 8 o clock on the first picture? If there's not a wet spot, use some kind of solvent to check for a crack, spray it on, let it dry and dust it to see if it sucks any out of the crack.
I have checked and it is quite dry, as I said the chassis is the fuel tank and normally the level is contained witnin the lower chassis members, two feet below the level of the hole. It may just be a bad photo, there is a bit of mould around there. By the way before I bought the digger 6 years ago it was used on a 1000 hectare (2250 acre) arable farm owned by a department senator, I don't know what it was used for. It has done 9300 hours. I have used it for digging a 600 sq metre pond, digging and clearing ditches, pulling rocks from the fields, levelling ground and moving tree trunks.
If there is any confusion for anyone reading this thread, #13 is the diesel tank cap (left side) and #14 is the hydraulic.
My neighbor asked me to borrow my tractor. Before the 580K, a Utility farm tractor with loader. He had some boulders to move. 1/2 hour later I heard what sounded like a demolition derby. I walked down to witness him driving low gear, full throttle banging into a two ton boulder mostly buried in the lawn. My words were not pleasant. People do stupid things with machinery. We have to fix them. The weld won't be simple, the cheapest gas would be nitrogen, but if you have 25% it'll work fine. Remove the fuel fill cap. Remove the fuel plate at the bottom of the tank, and use it to bring in the gas. Fill around the hose with more fiberglass. I don't think argon is heavier than air.Put a wad of fiberglass insulation in the filler neck also to allow slow flow of shielding gas. It needs a lot of grooving out. The break is not in the weld, it's beside it. If you aren't a skilled welder, hire one. This weld is important. I'd treat it like a pipe weld. Grind a 90 degree angle groove, with a land equal to the diameter of your filler rod. Then grind a gap also equal to filler rod diameter. 6010 3/32 run reverse polarity would be my choice of first pass filler. After that I might MIG. Purists would say that's wrong, 7018 is better. It's critical that this be exactly in the correct place, and angle. Before any grinding, I'd suggest adding three bolted in place holders. To make these take two short pieces of 1/4" x 3/4" flat bar. Drill a hole in each. Bolt them tightly together. Repeat this twice more. Weld at three points around the break, one half of each to the frame, the other half to the broken out pin boss. Now you can grind the groove you need without losing the exact location it needs to be. After tacking it up, cut off these pieces. Good luck. You need it. Cleaning the gunk from the tank is near impossible. Do your best, then add another fuel filter ahead of the primer pump. You want it accessible cause it'll need to be changed often. Get good at it, you then have to do the other side. Willie
I doubt it's wet. It is on the right, the hydraulic tank. Fluid level is a foot lower than this crack. There's a little sight glass window to keep track of fluid level. Paint is gone, I'd be suspicious there's a crack, but no fluid at that level. Willie
Duct tape would be about as effective as putting a bead on top.
I don't care what y'all say, that first picture clearly shows uniformly faded paint, with one suspiciously glossy spot right in the center of where the paint is cracked from the root of the weld. Coincidentally right where it snapped off on the other side... I don't care if it's hydraulic oil, or what level the oil is, or even if it's not damp, that's all irrelevant. 9,000 hours of farm use could have been loading silage, manure and everything else most of it's running hours. I wouldn't worry about it being an inherent flaw that needs some newly engineered solution. And if it was mine, I would run a bead around the outside of that other side. UNLESS I was planning to run it another 9,000 hours Anybody know what the internal support is between those "pins"? The way it broke it seems that was mounted only to the plate, but the diagram shows a support in the middle, does that go THROUGH the tanks and is that broken off also?
Delmer looks like at 7 or 8 there is a faint crack from fatigue starting I'd definitely grind that out well and weld a few beads around it. I thought I'd looked closely but obviously hadn't.
Hello, This is very helpful. Despite the fact that over the years I have done quite a bit of welding and I may not be the brightest spark on the planet, I am not quite stupid enough to attempt this repair myself. I plan on getting a local agricultural welder to do the work for me, he has done quite a bit for me in the past to my satisfaction, I will attempt to translate your suggestions but he is French and I am English. I have removed quite a few boulders but not with the front bucket, I use the curl on the back actor and wiggle the rock, if I can get a millimetre of movement, I know I can get more and eventually the rock will come, if after digging all around and no wiggle I give up. I have never used the front bucket for that. It was a surprise when I saw the damage and I do not know what I must have done to cause it. I am not happy about putting water in the tank but I understand why, I wonder if I rig up a blower heater after the work is done to try and get the moisture out. Argon is 38% heavier than air and CO2 is about 48% heavier than air so my theory was that if the tank was emptied of diesel, then drain tap turned off and Argon/CO2 poured in from the top by a tube that went about halfway down, the air containing the worrying oxygen would rise to the top and exit leaving only inert gases inside, this may negate the need to fill with water and ensuing issues getting mixed with the diesel after refilling.
I have watched mechanics weld fuel tanks after connecting a hose to a running truck engine tailpipe and putting a continuous flow of exhaust into the tank they were welding. I dunno, maybe they were just lucky.
The argon CO2 is somewhat standard practice and perfectly acceptable. I suggested water because that's what I use many times. The sparks will drop into the sludge on the bottom and raise explosive fumes, if there's water then the sparks will be cool by the time they hit the bottom. You should be fine with inert gas, but to me the water is easy. You'll want to rinse the tank out anyway to get the grit and slag out. Welding the other side with inert gas over the oil is what I'd do, unless you're going to grind through the crack, which I don't think is needed here. I wouldn't worry one bit about what caused this, it wasn't you, it was the former life. Now you'll know to keep an eye on cracks though.
For years I treated diesel like it was non flammable. Use a cutting torch to cut not empty tanks in half, then bail the liquid out. Diesel, like everything else, only burns as a gas. Sparks, flame, and drops of liquid steel don't ignite the liquid. The moral of this story is that one night I was in the middle of cutting a 275 gallon tank with cutting torch. My son and his friend wanted into the garage. I had the tank on forks, and moved the tractor. A very small amount of diesel splashed on the gravel. The first subsequent sparks ignited it. On gravel it could vaporize enough to ignite. I had a driveway in flame! The extinguisher was close at hand thankfully. On another occasion I was decommissioning a 10,000 gallon tank. It had maybe 15 gallons of nasty sludge in it. I cut a 4' square hole in the end of the tank, allowing me to stand where I could look inside the tank. In a tank this big that much oil isn't very deep. I decided to burn it rather than risk spilling it. A pollution equivalent to heating your house a couple days. I splashed a bit up the wall of the tank, and lit it with the acetylene torch. It lit instantly, and gradually grew as the increasing heat vaporized even more. Ultimately flame blasted out 10 feet horizontal, then thirty feet vertical. It was 200 yards from the nearest neighbor, but I was sure I was going to be in terrible trouble. A few people came to see what was happening, but no firemen, or police ever came. Diesel is manageable but not fireproof. Be aware that you can purge the tank of air, but outside the tank, all bets are off. Willie
Oh well now things seem to be going from bad to worse. My agricultural welder has refused to do the work, he says it is too dangerous, so I have been looking at it again with a view to me possibly welding it myself but I am not happy about it and I have been looking at it more closely this morning and there are other issues. The diesel drain plug is quite large and well positioned at the very bottom all sides sloping down to it so I think that the tank should drain well. I think if I filled the tank with water, after the welding had been done I could empty the water and run hot air through for several hours from the drain hole out of the filler cap, but now the real problems arise. Ideally it would need the plate and pivot removed from the front forks, cleaned up, groove ground around the hole and edge of plate, tacked in place and then welded, unfortunately the left and right side of the forks are welded together in front so there is not enough gap to allow the separation of the plate and pivot shaft and reattaching the left hand fork after welding, so therefore the grinding and welding have to be done with the forks still attached which blocks access and makes the job very difficult. The next problem is how to get the plate lined up with the hole. I have been trying to do so by fiddling with the hydraulics and parking the digger on different slopes, even trying to push it into place by pushing against a big tree, as yet no luck. The only option I can see at the moment if I cannot get it in the hole, and it is a bodge that cannot be hidden, is to weld a flat plate over the hole and then weld the pivot plate assembly to that plate as close as possible to the original position. To be able to use the hydraulics and adjust the position of the plate I will need to connect an external fuel container to the engine.
I suppose if I could find someone with a digger or tractor with fore end loader I may be able to drift out the pivot shaft and lift the forks up to do the repair, it may need a bit of jiggling afterwards to get the forks lined up again when refitting the pivot shaft, has anyone had experience of doing that?
Block it up, and back the tractor away. If you have, or can rent an A frame hoist to hold the weight while the repair is made. I have more experience with repairing gas tanks than diesel. Water does not help. After a thorough flush with water I once tried to solder a leak in a Jeep gas tank with a propane torch. My father had already advised against that. It exploded internally. The tank was upside down, the blast came out the filler. It didn't tear the tank open but did significantly change it's shape. Another gas tank, a flat 5 gallon one forming the top of a Honda portable generator was flushed with water for hours. I then laid a strip of cloth as a fuse, and lit it. watching from a safe distance. there was a small bang, then a low flame maybe 1/2" tall burned for over an hour. Stick to the shielding gas idea. Don't be stingy with the gas. Your life may depend on it. Willie
The voice of experience at its best ! Thanks for sharing that Willie. Like I said at the end of my post about the exhaust pipe stunt to do the purge ---- I guess they were just lucky. And yeah, he needs to get the loader off and out of the way.
I don't think you're going to get that joint apart to grind it, it will have to be ground in place. To take the loader off, the loader arms have to be cut apart, or the other side bracket has to be cut out of the hydraulic tank, right? If something is bent, bend it back. If it won't line up using the machine, then you need to pull it in place. Use a come along, chain and ratchet binders, high lift jack, porta power, something along those lines. Even $7 2" ratchet straps will do it if you use enough of them. The water displaces air/oxygen and cools the sparks that would otherwise vaporize the fuel residue on the bottom of the tank. I never said it would flush the fuel out. That's the standard method of cutting open propane tanks with a cutting torch. Use whatever you feel most comfortable with. For me that would be inert gas on top of water.
It's always nice to have another piece of equipment around - or a heavy duty tripod with a chain falls to do the heavy lifting. Your's isn't the first machine to see this kind of abuse. I don't know the exact circumstances that led to these booger welds as they came installed when I got it but they sure aren't factory. Most likely an operator who wasn't the one paying for repairs. ATTACH]160157[/ATTACH] I thought I had some advise for you after looking at my C but the pivots on the K are different.
He could get a power hacksaw blade between the arms and the frame and saw the shaft to get the arms out of the way. Case 182650A1 Shafts new and used are available at many places on the internet. That is way I would do it.
Never mind that. I didn't realize that one pin goes through both loader arms, and the pivots, and both tanks. Maybe the OP didn't realize that either. So... Pull that pin/shaft out however it takes, grind the broken support and the plate it broke out of, put it all back together, tack and weld. Right?
Yes Delmer, Those pins are quite a piece of steel. My thinking is that there is sooo much strain on the side opposite of the break that it will be a real hassel to get the pin out. That is why I would sacrifice the pin and cut it between the frame and tanks. The pin could be bent anyway and a straight pin is a must have to realign those tank bushings. here is an example of the pin on eBay. ------> http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...RC0.H0.TRS0&_nkw=Case+182650A1+Shaft&_sacat=0 They are available way cheaper than that one.
If I'm not mistaken the pin passes through a tube. I can see a tube under the access lid I can't see the pin. Not sure how they seal preventing diesel in the hydraulic oil. Willie
I think the tube goes all the way thru the tanks. On my 680 the tube goes all the way thru the hydraulic tank. No bushings at the ends. It is just a very heavy walled tube.
Does that mean the tube is broken off also? Willie
I would think so. If you look at his photo of the broken side, it appears that there is a flange welded to the tube. That is exactly how the tube in my 680C is attached to the hydraulic tank. That is why I think there is a good probability that the pin could be bent on the opposite side. If the wall thickness of those tanks is very heavy I would look for the bend between the loader frame and the flange that is welded to the tank. If the tank wall is kinda thin, then the tank wall is just bent somewhat and the pin is OK. It will be interesting to hear what he finds when he gets it apart.
Here are a couple more pictures: The 4 inch tube goes from one side of the digger right across through the inner tank wall, and should be joined, I suppose, but no longer, to the back of the detached plate. Where it passes through the inner tank wall the weld seems intact and there is no sign of movement, there is no sign of damage or bending the the 4 inch tube. The wall of the tank seems to be made from 5 mm (3/16") plate. I may be some time in making more posts in the near future as it seems the repair could be very expensive and my finances are very limited at the moment, I cannot afford to just take it to an agricultural repair specialist. I would like to do as much as possible myself but the issues I have are finding something to support the forks which after the repair has been done can be adjusted to allow the refitting of the top assembly shaft (about 2" dia). I have not yet found a rentable A frame big enough around here. After that I need to find a proficient welder, who is prepared to come here and reconnect the plate. Around here most of the welders have 3 phase welders but we only have single phase. I have a 170 amp MIG welder but the circuit board has just died and that model is not being made anymore so a new board is not available. I will update when anything is worth mentioning. I thank the members for their very valuable input. Michael
I seldom rent. Iron is cheap compared to rent. three pieces of steel makes a tripod. Six with a cross bar makes a reusable hoist. A couple come alongs support the weight. Consider junk yard frames. With the equipment I have here available this would be a weeks fun in conquering a challenge. Without equipment, it looks like misery, with failure the likely prognosis. Sell it, or hire it fixed, (be very careful who you hire), or buy a used part. Consider cutting both tanks off, make the repair, and reinstall. Cleaning will be the nightmare, Willie
I looked at the parts diagram and the loader frame appears to be a single unit. If the opposite side is still intact, I'd be inclined to cut the shaft on both sides to get the loader arms free, blocked and back the machine away. From my limited experience, I think a repair gusset plate will be required on the side that has broken out. A good welder could place the broken out bearing piece into a plate fitted to the reservoir side shape. Set the plate on the side, run the new cross shaft through and tack in place. A full weld around would spread the load over a larger area. The cross tube should probably go right through but its a large enough diameter that a sleeve could be installed to seal off the fuel reservoir part if you can't weld to the end of it.
You and Willie are both right, that loader frame has to be removed. The reinforcing plate that you are suggesting HAS to be welded to the outside of the repair. The end to end dimension of the tube cannot be increased or the loader will not go back on.
We removed the (rear) bucket on the backhoe and then pulled the pins on the front loader bucket. It was a 4:1 so we had to disconnect hoses and cap 'em w some JIC plugs/caps. Then we drove the tractor carefully (we thought it could rear back due to no weight on front) to the work location (flat dirt, not concrete slab) and disconnected the loader arm rams and bucket rams etc and then drifted out that big hinge pin. Some 2x/4x teepee monkey carpentry and a rope come along and two men, we moved/dragged the loader arm. Once away from the tractor, it was be readily flopped around by one man. We got this assignment on two different Ks to fix the metal 'boss' in the loader arm, not the chassis such as this shows. If the loader arm is not aligned it can be corrected perfectly: the rosebud and spray bottle got it 'on the money' w no red hot metal. [Ref Lincoln manual of Arc Welding] We added a circular 1/4" plate to act like a psuedo stiffener and stitched it because that big circular weld repair isn't going to be a back gouged full pen and thus it would benefit from reduced stress/strain, and yes we back step welded it. Also preheated a little, peening a bit, rotary file starts and stops, etc. All done with 7018 from an oven. The pin was used to hold alignment during the welding and yes it drifted in a little stiffer but quite doable. From memory the plate steel being thinner than the boss added to the welding trickery as the arc tended to cut it away (sign of too hot) but the big metal wanted some more heat....prolly why the factory uses mig and why the welds in the pics in this thread show some bead sagging. Sagging doesnt concern me as much as undercut. Stringers likely better than weave when the QA requirements get tightened. Sometimes small rod can help with this and I mentioned a bit of preheat helps too as mentioned. **** Q: As to the non combustible atmosphere: do CO2 fire extinguishers accomplish this task?
I'd bet Co2 will work, but that'd be an expensive way to get it. I'd bet a big tank of CO2 isn't as prohibitive in cost as scrapping a tractor. Willie
In the US, the mobile weldors will have a diesel generator to power all the electrical welding machines; I'd think they'd do the same in Europe. Only an industrial location will have 3 phase, and they will probably have their own repair guys to weld something up. So the mobile guys have to be completely self sufficient. So call the mobile guys and see what they need from your site, probably access and that's it. I watched a mobile guy cut the worn drive sprocket teeth off a D8, and then MIG weld a new toothed ring onto the hub. All of this 5 miles from the nearest power pole, just his truck.
A bit of a delay as I had a lot of other things to do. I bought a couple of chain hoists, attached them to purlins in our garage, removed the inner circlips from the front pins of the lifting rams, tapped them through a bit, dropped the front bucket, supported the lifting rams by a rope across the bonnet, disconnected and blanked the other 4 hydraulic hoses, connected the hoists by ropes to the back end of the forks and took the weight of the forks. I then drifted out the lift ram pins. The big problem was getting the long rear pivot shaft out, it took ages. I then reversed the digger away from the forks, it was a very tight fit. So now I am hoping for advice again. It looks like your suggestions about the digger having had a hard life are proven on inspection it seems that the principal support for that pivot plate was not the weld around its outer edge but halfway in where it had been welded in the factory to the tube which runs from side to side and which it now elliptical, it seems that that weld was broken years ago and the plate was welded back just around the edge, and those welds seem to have had very poor penetration. The original weld to the inner tube must have been done at the factory, there is no way of accessing that space now to re-weld it, there is no play available on the pivot shaft so an external plate cannot be added. It may be possible to weld a plate inside, narrow enough to get in the hole but even then you would not be able to connect it to the pivot plate, therefore my plan is to rely on having the pivot plate professionally welded around the outside edge with correct penetration. Once welded I have big concerns about getting the forks back on. As I said the forks were on very tight, driving forward I am concerned about the forks slipping and smashing the lower windows, after that I am concerned about how to get the long pivot shaft back again, I can't see much chance of getting the fork bearing in line and sliding in from one side, even though there is a dimple in the end of the shaft, lining it up that way looks like a nightmare, is it possible to install it before driving the digger forward and then fit one side at a time? The bearings are quite long and I don't know if they could cope with the degree of twist necessary. Thanks, Michael
Photo's of fork removal, pivot plate hole and pivot plate.
Michael ... The only advice I can give is connect the hydraulic lifting rams first. Then you have a way of using the machine to move the loader "fork" in a controlled manner instead of driving into them. (and smashing your window)
Restore it to its design. Cut around the inner tube, and at the most convenient point, cut it off. This will expose the inner break, so it can get a proper repair. Some reinforcement would then be possible on the inner tube. Put it back in place, and weld all three places. It seems likely you'll have to do the other side at this time. Willie
If you're feeling lucky, you could try welding that inside joint with a bent welding rod and a mirror. Better than leaving it the way it is. Or like Willie says, cut the flange off the inner tube and weld the tube, then the flange around the tube. I still say the other side is showing a crack in the pics, weld that at least. Use a mirror to inspect the inside of the tube for cracks in the same location this side broke. Use a jack or winch to pull the tractor back into place if you're worried about the windows. That's the easy part. Sharpen the end of the pin if needed to help it aid in the alignment.
Mmmm, I see your point here however I wonder how it would work, I suppose the rams will have to be extended then juggling the load with the hoists may be diificult and I would have to insert the long pivot pin from one side which worries me
The only internal break is where the inner tube was welded to the pivot plate, because it is a closed box I can see no way of accessing that weld, the only possibility I could think would be to get the bearing removed from the pivot plate by a specialist engineer, welding outer and inner (the weld would have to be made about two inches deep through a hole of less than rwo inches in diameter) and then the hole would have to be line reamed to remove excess weld and then press refitting the bearing, all of that frankly is out of my league in engineering or financial terms.
My guess is that the through bolt was allowed to get loose, transferring the strain to somplace it didn't belong. Still uses a big long bolt all the way through the top pivot?
Pop the filler door. You have access from that side. A cut around that hub, and one through the cross tube allow you to mate the two halves of what passes through the tank. You can repair these two pieces on a table, then reintroduce the mated halves to the tank. One welds from outside, one from under the service door. It's a chore requiring skills you may not possess, so professional work might be too expensive. The project will make lots of sparks, grindings, and spatter. Protect your glass, paint etc. How you'll then clean the diesel tank, I have no perfect system. I believe there is a bolted on plate near the bottom to get in. It might be possible to stuff it with strips of cloth just below your weld, you could pull out later through the filler neck, though that too seems risky. Mechanics use cattle magnets in these tanks. I haven't seen the older style 3" long 3/4" diameter cylinder with rounded ends in years. Farmers feed them to cows. They stay in the first stomach, holding steel debris away from the intestines. Willie
Hells teeth Willie, I have no knowledge of anyone around here with your engineering skills! For me just cutting away the weld underneath where the crosstube joins the fuel tank, let alone welding it after repair along with the cut crosstube would be a nightmare, fuel filler and brake cylinder and pipes cluttering the area as well. I must be a wimp but I have used the digger for 6 years, it is clear that the weld from the tube to the back of the pivot plate has been broken for ages and the digger has been relying on a very poor weld around the outside edge, if I get the plate rewelded properly around the outside with good penetration I hope it will keep me going until I sell it and at 26 years old its value is dropping fast, but thank you very much for the benefit of your exceptional experience. Regards, Michael
Yes still long pivot shaft maybe 30" long, I think the damage was caused by idiot driving, the inner and outer welds breaking at the same time but the owner just did a very poor repair just welding the outside edge with very poor welds with negligible penetration.
Is there evidence of grease in the fuel tank? Maybe not. I'm no engineer, but I HATE doing things twice. Removing a 9" long piece of the cross tube would give adequate access to cut, then weld the inner bushing. Putting the cross tube back could be accomplished by cutting a slot 1/4 its circumference. Then 3/4 of the two pipe welds could be accomplished from above on the inside. I think you might make a repair only on one face. The engineer who designed it in the first place didn't think that was enough. We don't know what level of abuse the machine suffered, we do know with the tube intact, it didn't hold. Expecting it to hold with only one face supporting it seems questionable. Those without good conscience would effect a cosmetic repair, and sell the tractor. Willie
Question on this photo- FLUID RESERVOIRS . I just bought a 580SK and I am trying to learn enough about it to not screw it up. I see this photo, and I learning that both the fuel and the hydraulic oil are in the loader arms. I see that plainly on this picture. However, my machine has a third reservoir in the middle! What would that be for? It's a black plastic reservoir with a screw on cap. It smells like diesel..would it be connected with the main tank? The writing on the cross tube is gone so I cant tell what this is for. Thanks in advance! Ron
Brake fluid? Willie
storage reservoir on 580 Thanks....but this is a large reservoir...maybe several quarts to gallons. Cant tell for sure...yet.
I take your point Willie but without knowledge of someone with adequate skills or ability I have to find other options, I am not intrinsically a bodger. So I have an alternative suggestion. In its original configuration with the tube welded to the back of the plate and the outside edge welded to the side of the tank the twisting load is transferred to the tube and tank side, but if the plate was just welded to the side of the tank all of the load will be imposed upon the tank and none on the tube. What I propose is to buy a piece of steel billet and take it to an engineering works to make a bush to knock into the end of the tube, by doing this the load will be again imposed both on the tube and tank. Issues here are the elliptical deformity of the end of the tube but if I get the sizes right and with a little lead chamfer it may be worth a try, first though I need to find someone with an inside micrometer I can borrow.
An inside 'snap gauge' and a dial caliper will work just as well. Lots cheaper, at least in the USA, don't know about France. Then you'll be better tooled up for the next project. And since you're going to make a round plug and then wail on it with a 10 pound sledge hammer to go into an oval tube, the tolerances aren't going to be exactly 'tight'. You might want to measure the undamaged side to make your plug, I don't know exactly how to fudge measurements from the oval side to come up with the correct round one. But you already knew that....
Maybe have a block of steel the with of the inside of the tank machined. Cut the entire top off of the tank and weld it in after you have both sides set up with the cross rod in place. Should be do able with careful measuring before welding.
That again is well out of my abilities and if I could find someone to do it here, it would cost an arm and a leg. I am ordering a piece of 90mm dia steel billet, then having a 45mm hole machined in the centre and having the outside diameter reduced to about 87mm, (still not finalised) having a small chamfer on the leading edge. The fuel tank side is only 5 mm plate but the cross tube has 8 mm walls and I think here is where the majority of the load is imposed and I think it will be difficult to force it round again. When the bush is ready I plan on tapping it gently into the hole with the pivot shaft in place and starting walloping it in with a heavy tube around the pivot shaft. If it starts making progress I plan on putting the pivot plate on the shaft and using it as a drift until it is flush with the tank side, then grooving and welding around the plate. That is the plan, but we all know about what happens to the plans of mice and men!
I know little of mouse plans. Pinky & the brain? Men plans are subject to change. Good luck. Willie
Consider a small burr can stop a 50 ton press pushing a shaft through a pulley. I think you'd be better served by clearing the hole to the size of your billet. I say "clearing" since line boring seems out of your league. Perhaps a mandrel wrapped with abrasive cloth, spun by a drill motor might serve.