Greetings all, Well I have quite looking. I finaly settled on a JD 310c. Here is a 1,000 word picture. Lots of small items but overall it all works well. I thought a good deal for $10,000. David d
I think you did good with 10g's. Sweet!
4x4, e-hoe, cab, thumb, 4-n-1, and decent tires.... you did good.
thats nice man its a steel
great deal!!!....gave 8 grand for my 580c....very nice!!!
Holy CRAP!!! how many hours?
When we were discussing price I nearly fell from my chair when he said 1700 hours. Then I found out the hour meter doesnt work. I would guess 5,000 hours. In fact nothing electrical works except the key swithch to start and stop the machine. I today fixed the turbo. (patched actually) All the exhaust was going out the rusted off pipe. Fixed that and still little exhaust. I found the exhaust pipe completly full of bird or squirll nest. Now it sounds like it should with no smoke. Several of the cylinders will need packing soon. That brings me to a question about the extenda hoe ram. It works but leaks badly. What is involved in getting to that ram? Does it involve a heavy crane or hoist? Now back to the electrical, Nothing on the console works. No fuses have power. Pulled the console up some and all wire seemed okay. Not a jumbled up mess by some jackleg. Any ideas on where to look? Is there a master fuse or relay?? David d.
Yes, there is a master relay. It is under the side panel. Turn the key to either Accessory, or to On. You should be able to hear the relay solinoid engage loudly. I'd start your search by making sure that is working. Good buy when you get a little bit of the last owner out of it. John
Now there's the quote of the day! :notworthy
Yep , Maybe the old resident is gone. The 160 mile move took care of that. Thanks for the tip on the electrical. Without electrical there is no engine or machine monitoring. That is my next project, perhaps tomorrow.
let us know how it goes davidd
Nice machine I have just joined here and have a 1979 Ford 550.
The renovation continues. I took out the seat. And about 2 5 gallon bucket of dirt, leaves, trash and etc. It was just too nasty to work on. After the clean up I removed the side panel and after some investigation I found a relay that was not pulling in. I beleive it is the one that supplies power to the console. Hopefully it will solve that problem. The relay was stuck open.
The relay solved the power in the cab problem, or some of them. Still the hour meter nor the tach work. And the monitors (oil, temps, charging, etc.) do nothing. No warning lights of any kind. The fuses are all good and have power except the fuse labled "start relay". All wireing looks okay, not cut and rewired etc. Got the oil and filter changed. Next is the hyd oil and filter. The oil looks really crudy. I desperately need a owners manual and service manual. Any one have a spare or unused anymore? Davidd
You found gold being you have that thumb, extend arm, and them other options... Isn't it hard to find a unit thats at least decent to work with. I desperately tried so hard to find a good used one with a thumb having no luck, I would have needed to travel too far to find one driving up the cost to haul back home.... I bought the first decent backhoe I seen after looking at about 20 other units before mine, they were all complete and total junk, not worth owning even for free. One unconscious person didn't care who he would have hurt or even kill if someone who buys his unit and don't see that the boom is cracked about 3/4 of the way thru near the base, when questioned he said its been like that for a long time, nothing to worry about, I said yeah if your moving leaves around the yard... what an idiot, after looking at the machine for 30 minutes is when I seen it was cracked, I asked him when he was going to tell me about that... I think I got a fairly good deal at $15,500.00 delivered for an 1988 JD 310c, 4X2, 9K hours, new paint, over all in respectably decent condition, sound running engine. I needed to sink another 2K into it mainly because it needed many hyd lines and fluid & filter changes. Since then its been a solid running backhoe, I put on at least 600 hours with out anything serious going wrong. I believe the best way to buy a backhoe is to not need one, take your time looking....
That's a sharp older Deere. Always liked the way they looked. A/C?
Sharp ole deere does not have AC. It was a govt hoe. I guess they did not air cond their employes. I think the machine was a good deal for the price. I called the guy first and got there first. Once I checked out what I could, I pulled the trigger right away. So far I have found no surprises except the stopped up exhaust. It only ran decent because the short pipe between the turbo and exhaust had rusted away. The owner told me about the fwd drive shaft being removed. The yoke is missing and some bearings and seals. The yoke alone is about $400. The same thing in a auto is probably no more than $50. I found several good macines by looking on craigslist. But you have to check each city and nearly each day. They are just ads so watch out and buyer be ware. Davidd
Nice looking 310 and a good deal.The turbo was an option on those machines,which it should'nt have been.They were a little slow when naturally aspirated,but reliable machines.Believe the tach is powered off the back of the alternator,perhaps a wire is off there-just a thought.Loose fan belts will also affect the tach. Dominion
I got the same body type.... Don't you just love it when you get a new toy and clean and fix it up and put your finishing touches on it the way you want to work it... I need to know if I'm missing something with being able to access up all over on the engine, there is that small access panel on top to get at the radiator cap, air filter & alt belts, then the panels on each side let you get at the starter and oil filter.... So I'm wondering if this body type lets you unbolt the sheet metal fairly easy letting me get at everything. let me know how you make out. Because I have this habit that I like to go thru every little thing making sure its in good mechanical shape, or if its in need to be fixed or replaced I take care of it... So with out being able to reach in there easy its driving me nuts because I'm huge on preventive maintenance. How about you Davidd? how are you doing with getting in at the engine? The one thing I do like is the wiring for the most part is not all that bad to trace, and the instrument panel comes out nice... Keep us posted how your doing, especially me being I got pretty close to the same kind of backhoe.
I checked the back of the alternator. It looks like the alt. has been changed to a single post output. There is a 4 wire plug hanging there with not where to go. The alt. is outputing just fine. So most likely the plug with no where to go is the problem . I am not one to just hookup any wire to see if that will work. I might have to change out the alt. to get the tach and hour meter to work??? I am now trying to take the front drive train apart for repair and cant figure out how it comes apart. I am still looking for a manual without going to deere. On another matter, Is the oil in the hyd, reverser and rearend all the same such a AW-32? If so does it mix as the machine operates? David d.
Even if you spend $5k in parts, it looks like you got a good deal. Check ebay for a service manual. Even if you don´t find the manual for your machine listed, you´ll probably find a couple of vendors who can help you out.
I'll touch on both concerns, first I would take a wire right from the battery 12 volt post and touch it to the what would look like the power wire on the wire harness end going to no where, this way if things start to work and light up your that much further in fixing it... I figure at the worst putting straight 12 volt to them wires at worst you'll pop a fuse, of course don't hold the wire on there for a long time. I have the same machine as you do, I've learned a little about how the hydraulic fluid flows, AND NO!! don't fool your self thinking large amounts of hyd. fluids get mixed together between the rear axle, reverser and hydraulic fluid tank, they don't mix in large..... The one thing they do together is share a filter, so once you get use to looking at it you'll see all them hoses and where they go and see what I'm talking about... Its been a while so I forgot, so I'm guessing its something like this, like when your in the seat working the hoe arm the fluid in the reverser is not filtering, then when driving its the opposite, the reverser fluid is filtering and not the fluid in the hyd tank, unless your using the loader bucket... so how ever it does end up working they don't share fluid mixing by large, just a very tiny bit by sharing a filter, and if a case where one lacks fluid don't depend on the fluid coming from another source.... If your really stumped on something post back I'll look in the books I have for you... I'm not quite sure, but now that I'm thinking about it I forget if the rear axle fluid even gets filtered, but like I said I can't say for sure, I have the book I'll need to look again to see...
Thanks Joe59 The reason for asking about the oil thing. I checked the reverser oil (normal level) before changing the main hydralic oil and filter. I ran everthing a short while and had no problem. Actually a lot quiter as the main tank was a little low and probably picking up air thus making some noise. I then checked the reverser oil again and it was way up the dipstick. Like 4 to 6 inches too high. Should I just go ahead and change the reverser oil and refil to the proper dip stick level? Should all three be changed at the same time?
Yes, I'd say its a good idea to change all the fluid at the same time. I don't want to guess and say its okay to changed individually, but it might be okay once your up and running. Are you checking the reverser with it running? If I remember correct there is a hot and cold marking levels on the dip stick... Correct me if I didn't understand you correctly, did you say you checked the reverser fluid level before changing the hyd fluid in the storage tank, then after changing the hyd fluid in the tank the reverser level showed a lot higher with out adding or changing the reverser fluid levels? Also to note, I find it hard to find a flat surface each time I check fluids, so maybe for now until you get use to the machine you should get into the habit of checking the fluids with the backhoe in the same spot each time to get the correct readings. The reverser don't hold much hyd fluid, so I would not run it overfilled...
Joe 59 Quote:Correct me if I didn't understand you correctly, did you say you checked the reverser fluid level before changing the hyd fluid in the storage tank, then after changing the hyd fluid in the tank the reverser level showed a lot higher with out adding or changing the reverser fluid levels? That is exactly right. I can empty the reverser and refill to the proper level. But what caused it in the first place? and am I headed for a repeat? The markings on the dip stick is hot and cold. They are about an inch apart near the bottom of the stick. The fluid is up near the top. Actually about to overflow.
davidd, what I would do is drain the reverser, measure how much comes out let me know, my book says the reverser with the converter on the 310c takes 8 qt. dry, so I'll guess the converter will still hold, oh I don't know, maybe a quart? maybe two? So after you do that keep a record of that. Then go ahead and refill the reverser but add a quart at a time, and when you get close to touching the dip stick add 1/4 of a quart at a time, you might be up to 4 or 5 quarts, not sure so don't be afraid to keep checking, go slow adding just as it starts registering on the dip stick, now this is where it gets tricky because you most likely will be between hot and cold because running the engine for the time your doing this may not get it hot enought, also, once you get just enough fluid in there and its just touching the dip stick set the emerg brake and block the wheels, then with it idling shift the reverser forward and back just in idle and foot on the brake, this will pick up fluid and fill in clutch packs and what have you and just might lower the fluid level. doing this will make reading a correct fluid level on the dip stick, so even if the fluid seems hot it might not be up to the temp level to read properly, so keep the fluid a little low on the dip stick until the machine really gets hot, but be careful not to run the machine around and the fluid dips too low off the stick. Now with all that said I found its very important to add fluid very slowly always checking it, because its very easy to over fill it quickly, and perhaps in your case this may have happened with the prior owner... So keep track of what you take out and how much you put back in, remember that the system dry takes 8 quarts, so with out draining the converter you may not take anymore than 6 quarts, just guessing? Oh yeah, the drain plug on my converter was frozen in place and would have broken off instead of coming loose to drain the converter, so I'll guess your will be frozen in place as well, just leave it alone, just keep that in mind every time you figure in its time to change the reverser fluid... In my whole life I never seen them plugs come out, they are always frozen, and if you do get one to turn it gets destroyed, so I'm not sure if they were intended to ever come out.
I will drain and carefully refill in the next day or so. A good John Deere mech. that works on the county's equip is coming after work to look over the front end and drive. I will show him the overfilled reverser and ask him also. I sure appreciate jeye59 and all that have offered info about the sharp ole deere. Maybe I will be shoveling dirt soon. Actually pushing lots of trees. Davidd.
On the reverser level, don't forget that the reverser oil also fills the torque converter. If you are checking the machine with it not running, some oil that is normally in the torque above the level of the sump when running will be in the sump. My 310C is also high, but if you check it while idling after moving the machine, I think you will find that it is more in line where it should be. If you are going to change your reverser oil, there is also a rubber dust plug in the torque converter housing. Under that plug is a drain plug for the torque converter. That plug spins, of course, and if the engine stops in the right place, you will have access to the drain. Otherwise, spin the engine until you can get to the plug.
I am putting the reverser oil thing on the back burner for a few days. I now have the front end paritialy disassembled for repair and can not move the machine even tho I can crank and run. I will report back on the oil level after I get it rolling again. The front end is tough for me and may take a few days. David d.
I love the smooth sound of a Deere. This one's a 1989 & up for sale over 10,000 hours for 14,500. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwfg...t/438-deere-310c.html&feature=player_embedded
Tach signal comes from the alternator I have a '90 310C and had a similar problem with the RPM gauge reading zero. The engine RPM is reported from one of the terminals from the back of the alternators. If the alternator has been replaced with the incorrect type, then the gauge will read zero. Also note that when this signal is not received from the alternator, the hours meter also fails to advance. This means you really don't know how many hours the machine has on it. I was able to get a correct rebuilt alternator easily in CA. Dropped right in and worked fine.
Congradulation on your find, good luck and have fun. .
Nice backhoe, i just picked up a 310C OROP at an auction for 6k
Bucket Will a bucket from a 310A fit the 310C?