What is the purpose of the two blades on the bucket linkage?
More than likely, to act as a thumb to better grip things.
Could be mounting ears for some kind of aux lines but I cant imagine what. First Ive seen. Pic is a little small so its hard to tell.
Never seen that before. Is this picture an E model?
Maybe some sort of a stop or indicator?
I have noticed those before but never paid attention to what purpose they serve. Those things started showing up when Cat went to the higher degree of bucket rotation (with the D model). If I had to venture a guess (which is what I am doing) I would say that they are "travel limiters" or stops. They will interfere with the dipper to prevent the bucket from rolling back too far. If it went too far it can cause damage to the piston (curl cylinder). It is also possible that the linkage may become disadvantaged or even stuck if it goes too far. My .02.
I think DGODGR is on the right track. Try uncurling the bucket, see if the rod bottoms out in the cylinder, or those ears hit the stick. You can be sure Cat stuck those on there for some reason, leaving parts off increases the potential profit margin.
I have also seen this before. I dont see what part of the stick they would his though for it to limit the travel.
I don't own this Cat. I have just been looking at those earns in photos online. Some don't have them but you can see the empty bolt holes. I'm disappointed. We all run backhoes and nobody knows what these are.:cool2
When I looked at the OP's pic, I must have been asleep. Now that I see where they are mounted, I am totally off track. Don't mind me.
I am assuming they are stops to prevent the operator from jamming back the hydraulic cylinder.
They are bucket stops but they are mounted upside down. They should contact the bucket ear when the bucket is curled in.
You would have thought the engineers at Cat would have just mounted the curl cylinder far enough up the stick so a bucket won't hit the stick. That would be cheaper than drilling 8 holes, making two plates, 4 bolts, and the labor to install it. Deon, you going to flip them around and see?
Lee-online, Is this a guess. I've seen a couple dozen of these in photos and never seen any mounted the other way. Also, if those devices are for that purpose, then why are they only mounded on about 2% of the hoes? Sorry to say I really don't believe your explanation.
I got it! Lee-online is right. They call it........ 177-4903 STOP GP-BUCKET S/N FDP7199-18399 AN ATTACHMENT
OK. Then Lee is correct. Sorry I doubted you Lee. The photo shows it installed the correct way. Next question. When would one install them correctly to limit the curl?
They are bucket stops alright. They're there so you can use a "C" series bucket on your "D" series machine. You flip 'em around with the "C" bucket since they didn't have as much rotation.
Well I would never have thought of that! Come to think of it I have never seen them on a machine down here in Australia. I thought the holes may have been for securing/routing extra hydraulic lines etc.
Now you know the rest of the story.
Bucket Stops You are correct, but they are only used if you have older 'yellow' buckets on the newer D or E-Series machines - to keep the older buckets from hitting the stick when curled fully in. To use them you would relocate them like in the print you attached. Cat changed the bucket pin locations on the newer 'black' buckets to get greater bucket rotation on the new machines with only 1 pin hole.
What?!! I don't get any credit for my post. I guess I'll just go pout