As a mechanic sometimes what you would think shouldn't be that hard to fix becomes a major PITA! When you finally get done you just want to go choke the $--t out of the guy that designed it like this. I've got a couple: 6-way blade dozers: what were they thinking when they desided to run the hyraulic lines for the tilt and angle cylinders through the frame that the lift cylinders pin to?? Its not too bad when its not freezing out...but come winter all that mud and dirt that gets in there freezes and its usually on the coldest windiest day that one of those lines blow. You spend more time thawing and digging dirt out than you do actually getting the line off, made up, and put back on. On some I've cut holes and reinforced around the hole so dirt will fall out and it makes it a little easier to clean. John Deere dozers: Why do they make the blade frame to tractor frame pins so you have to knock them out to the inside? Its not too bad if the grease lines still work and haven't filled the PIT OF DOOM ^^ full of grease. If you decide to take them out the other way you have to undo the track frames, jack the tractor up. Then you're stuck with the "how do i wanna go about doing this" if the pins are seized up in the bosses. I'm sure there's more that I could list if I thought about it but I'm just curious to see what all the other wrenches have to say
Run over and squash a Bobcat, any model Bobcat, with a Cat 785 haul truck...then start over from scratch. :Banghead
I'm glad you said that because I was thinking it too.
HAHAHA ATCO hit it on the head. I wanted to say that too but I didnt want to sound like I was complaining too much. I had to help my father reseal one of the spools on the control valve on a older 743. He's 62 years old and after spending a day on his knees and belly it was a little too much for him. Hell I'm 6'2" 230 lbs and for the hour it took me to get it back together it was almost too much for me.
i agree with you ATCO bobcat anything is always a pain to repair
Build D3 Cats so you can pull the starter without putting the machine up on twelve inch blocks and pulling the belly pan. Design wheel loaders so I don't have to pull the cab to work on the transmission. Do away with all the electronically controlled transmissions. They worked just fine without the digital crap and they don't need them to meet EPA regs. The same goes for electronically controlled hydraulics. I'll think of more as I read others and this old brain draws back just where and when I left chunks of skin.
Install, position, fit, orient, filters to where you can 1) put a drip cup/pan underneath it to control the mess, and 2) not drop the damn thing because you pencil headed design engineers located it in such a postion that even the Rubberband Man could not hold on to it and fumble it!
We lay blame on the wrong people in attacking the design engineer...... Here is a example. Someone in marketing decides their skidsteer needs a redesign to applease the customer and maintain market share but they want additional horsepower in a smaller framed skidsteer. They decide the overall dementions and look of the unit then send the consept drawings to engineering with directions to design engine/powertrain/hyd system to fit inside. When this happens you use every available inch of space to pack it all together resulting in a machine that cant be easily serviced or repaired. This is the process as explained to me by engineers at Deere and New Holland.
I understand Mo, perfectly. Just sayin...it's a filter, a part that gets removed from the machine like...frequently. LoL
Don't even start on vehicles, most auto designers need to be shot. Then you can add computer controlled anything to the list, diesels used to start and run and stay running unless you either ran out of fuel or plugged the filters, now we spend longer trying to figure out why the computer shut down a perfectly good running engine and what went wrong with the computer because nothing is wrong with engine. Then work on computer controlled shifting and and anything electronic controlled for shifting and anything continuity sensative for wires, theres a real nighmare to repair or replace. On a case 850 dozer they could have easily put the front cover on the back so you could work on it without taking the transmission out and get good access from the back instead of between the torque and the transmission. I'd third the bobcat thing, try the chaincase on those older skid steers where its in the middle instead of the outside so you can get at it easlily thats butt stupid in my opinion. I'm sure the list will get longer as I think back as well, and for the record all filters should be easy to get to and be screw on and simple for fuel or oil and not laying flat, upright so they don't dump everything all over the place when you take them off or have those stupid paper cartigages or worse those half metal half sediment bowl things that dump everything all over when you take them off, I'll pay the extra to discard the whole metal filter instead with less mess, and don't tuck the oil filter behind the exhaust manifold or turbo either, its hot back there and I always burn my fingers when we change them hot thats more of a truck thing but still. On a case dozer put the cross member a little further ahead or back so you don't have to remove the engine to change the oil pan. On deere dozers change the design so you don't have to dissassemble the enire machine to do tranny work, thats rediculous on the older 450 machines.
I'll throw a couple truck items out there. Wabco made an Air compressor that has the unloader valve built into the head requiring that you basically (for the cost) put a whole new head on it when the unloader starts to get a little sticky with carbon.($300) Bendix made one where you pull 3 bolts on the top and swap in new unloader valves in about 10 minutes for ($35) Someone made a design flaw and yet they get more $. And I hate that Jake Brake made there electric terminals just regular push on spades. So after they expand and contract a few hundred times they start to just slip off with each bump. Would eye terminals and bolts have been that expensive? But I do love computers haha
Well Muffler Bearing its funny you brought up Jake Brake and those push on spades. I talked to a Jake Brake Rep back in 82 griping about those and suggested the same thing. I was told no one ever complained to them about this problem. They were going to send me some modified parts to try and that was the last I ever heard from them. I left the world of trucks about that time and never followed up.
- Any inboard brake drum - Rear spark plugs on a Hemi Ram. - oh ya, add me to the Bobcat valve bank removal PITA
how about a hoe that can be greased without having to move it? remote fittings on all machines so you dont have to climb all over them. a safe way to clean windows on large loaders. interiors that don't rattle apart in a month. gimme a little time and i will think of more.
The list is too long ...Ah engineers the product of higher learnin ...I've just learned to drink heavily it eases my violent tendecies
I think all engineers should be requare to have a least 5 yr of mechaican on equipment before they get there degrees
I just replaced the rear window latch in a CAT 312. What an over engineered cluster ****. One lever for the operator works 3 different catches and another lever. Not only that, the front latch is an entirely different mechanism. There are two little levers on the sides of the window that are supposed to be tripped by by two plastic bumpers. Can't close the window without them. That part of the system has never worked. Have to work the levers with your fingers.
Deere has never had a great reputation for ease of working on either. My experience around deere crawlers has lead to much taking of the Lord's name in vain, busted knuckles, tools you can't get back without removing the belly pan, excessive consumption of adult beverages in my younger days and all of the other things associated with it. The stupidest thing I have ever seen is on deere 450 crawlers. Raise the cover on the hydraulic to add oil and the pivot is only a couple of inches behind the fill point. Only way to get oil in without spilling half of it is to fill with a hose and pump. Just like you have one with you all of the time. Change the starter? almost easier to pull the engine first.
It would be a good idea to let them designers and engineers be mechanic for 15 yrs before they get assigned to the drawing room.
The designers of all manufactured products go to every extreme to make a complicated product cheaper and easily assembled by unskilled labour. They give no consideration to the high cost of repairs and the highly skilled labour required to repair it. My favourite was the startup bypass solenoid valve on the hyd pump on the old JD backhoes. You needed to have a hand that looked like it was deformed just to be able to reach in and touch it. Glad I finally found it, turned out the little o-ring on it was a lot cheaper than a new pump.
Years back case had the best engineers design ever, on the 1830 skid steers in order to get the starter off you had to remove exhaust and or alternator, drain the antifreeze, remove the radiator and radiator hoses to get it out the back and do that to just about test the solinoid as well or even get near the starter, that coincided with a bad batch of soliniods case put out at the same time, which helped greatly to aid in the invention of new swear words, the record for solinoids on one machine in one month was 8 before we had a chat directely with the company rep,luckily it happened to be in the dead of winter and all repairs were done outside where ever it wouldn't start. I told my wife when we reached 20 times to remove the starter it was getting traded. The other problem with that machine was the hydraulic filter housing but since they mounted it directly over the alternator it would eventually drip oil onto the alternator and in order to get that out the above procedure needed to be preformed as well. This led to the conversation with the head honcho at engineering at the design level which if I recall I told him to shove his starter and alternator up his a** along with his skid steer, I saw shortly afterwards the new models had a design change to remedy those perticular problems and make maintance easier. The very next skd steer I owned was a bobcat 743b and those had the starter totally accessable from the back a few bolts and 10 minutes it was off and in your hand, I checked that specifically before I bought it, the only thing on the whole blankety blank machine that was easy access and in the 5800 hours I owned that machine from new I never had it off even once, go figure.
This says so much:
That's awesome! Funny you tackled that problem in '82 Motrack, I'm actually involved in a current design flaw, uh, argument?,.. investigation?..,,incident?..,well a cluster, with a large brake company right now, hopefully when it's all over I can share the story and some photos.
I'm heading to the truck show at Louievill this spring so maybe just for ****s and giggles we can stop by Jake Brake and see where my improved parts are that never arrived
Looks like I might have to do the same thing with our Thomas. I know there is a belly pan from doing the rear axle seals but I'm not sure if I can reach the lower starter bolt from there. Had to take the exhaust off and work over top of the radiator on a bad spool. I wonder if an engineer ever had to put a nut on with two fingers- blind.
Too many functions going through the computer! I worked on a Linkbelt 160 a while back. I think it was an X2. It wouldn't start and it was definately electrical. After hours of inspecting harnesses and looking for the cause a linkbelt tech asked me if the backing alarm had been replaced. It had been about 2 weeks before the machine quit running. Turns out the computer knew that it wasn't the original alarm (although it was the correct voltage) and had counted off logged errors until it decided it was time to shut it down. ***? A diode and a soldering gun fixed the problem . . . . but REALLY???
Not directly related to repairs but what about the S-series Bobcats with the windshield wiper switch mounted over your left shoulder where you can't reach it without stopping the machine and turning around in the seat. Or the fuel filler cap located on the wrong side of the door so it has to be opened completely to fuel up. I see they fixed both of those on the M-series. Imagine, putting the wiper switch where you can reach it.
that pic is very humourous. I am an engineer at Cat. I just joined this forum. I take these coments seriously. I'm a younger guy who works on his own cars and such. I'm also a machinist in my spare time. I understand your pain at least some. I do see things almost every day that make me want say ***? :Banghead I try hard not the be the cause of them! Everything looks so small and easy on a CAD computer screen. It's difficult, even impossible for most engineers to get enough exposure to the reality of a machine to really make them service freindly. Equally difficult to imagine all the creative ways people find to break them! We do try very hard. Honest feedback is very valuable. When things break, the Cat dealers have a form to fill out about how and why and comments about the details of the repair. Please fill out the forms accurately and completely. We actually have people digging through those databases trying to make life better for the mechanics by improving reliability and servicability. "part broke" and "repair was horrible" don't give them anyhting to go on as far as making improvements. Sincerely, Dan
Glad to see you on here, Dan. Hope we don't offend you. Stick around, I want to hear things from your side on a lot of this stuff. Mitch
I feel your pain, I am also an Civil Engineer. I have heard "well, it looked good on paper" so many times, it makes me sick lol I agree there are a lot of *** things on machines, but if 99 percent of the machine is great, then i can deal with the 1 percent. Tell cat to put the swing boom back on the 307!!!! Heres my complaint. We run bobcat. The 3 times i have ran cat skid loaders, with the hydraulic couple and un couple, 2 of the times i have dropped either a bucket or broom attachment searching for safety unlock and accidently hit the coupler release. Not knowing that I undone the couplers, I dump the attachment into the truck :Banghead:Banghead:Banghead:Banghead:Banghead
Asphalt/dirtman, the way to cure that is drop something more valuable in next time, it brings about situational awareness faster that way, if you'd ruin several thousands of dollars each time you learn quicker. I've known several guys who dumped their buckets into a running feed mixer and did an instant 15 grand in damage, they only ever did it once though. That's when you don't blame the engineer, you blame the salesman for selling such a feature to you in the first place because it was easier to hook and unhook without getting out.
haha, luckily my two were in a dump bed, not a feed mixer or crusher. ah, i got one, we had a bobcat that you could turn the lights on, shut the machine off, and the lights stay on and kill the battery. Happend many of times. Real pisser
I got a new gripe. What's up with a lot of truck manufacturers using all the same color wire in wiring harnesses? I've seen this on some equipment too, sometimes all red. I think the newer Grove RT cranes use yellow. They do try to help you out though....they print teeny tiny numbers on the wire so you can tell what wire goes where on the schematic.
I wished that the fine engineers at Komatsu, on their CD110 track truck would have had the body lift where the right joystick on the cab would go instead of putting it on the floor. Would make things alot nicer for your typical 'lazy operator' to be able to keep their feet on the pedals than have to take your right one off to dump.
3rdgendslwrench, wait until the little numbers get old enough and fall off or weathered and you can't read them anymore, that helps as well, the manufacturers must have got a deal on the same colored wire, have you run across the problem that the harness's are sprayed over and even the different colored wires are now all the same??? Sometimes you can clean it off and sometimes nothing takes the paint off until you have the color under it off too. I get a kick out of talking to the tech people that tell you when you ask how do I track them down when the little numbers are gone and their reply is with a continuity tester? The next question is if I had continutity I could test them how about trying to find a broken wire and no numers and all the same color wires? Thats when they say "oh I never thought of that" followed by "then you've got a problem then" and then nothing for an answer but silence.
This one really hit home. Our old Internationals are just like this, 40 wires in a harness and every one is black. But the little bitty numbers stamped on the wires to tell you which are which are mostly are worn off. A lot of the wiring is damaged on these trucks from people manhandling the harness and probing with testers to find which wire does what.
Ditto on the old IHs w/ black wires and fragile little numbers, but I got a better one. The track bolts on a cat 215c are too close to the grouser bars for anything but a thin 1/2" drive socket. I even bought a special thin wall 3/4 drive 15/16 socket, no dice. I did things like weld a 3/4 dr. socket to a 1/2" dr one, and other not very successful things for years, till I realized a die grinder w/ a carbide burr would take .050 off the edge of the grouser in a few seconds, then I could use the socket I wanted.
The CD110 is built in Japan, and all Japanese operators smoke.. ergo they like to keep that right hand free for smoking, LOL
OK thought of one to add to this old thread, Why do you usually see the A/c Compressor on the opposite side of the engine from the evaporator, and the Alternator on the opposite side of the engine from the batteries? I know there are exceptions, but that's just silly.
thanks for the explanation lantraxco, most old operators from the US I know just smoke thier cigarette and let the ash go all the way down to the filter and maybe flick it once ha ha
:BangheadMy JD 5425 (green) tractor has some great features. Ah, but the flaws. The fuel tank is a generous 30-something gallons ( Good!) but the tank is plastic. When they manufacture the tanks, I'm guessing they drill, ream, or otherwise do the final shaping on the various holes (fittings) in the tank. The black shavings plug the dinky in-line pre-filter that runs under the tractor--it's about the size of your typical lawn tractor filter. To change that filter, JD says to remove the fuel line and drain the tank first. Yeah, right. How 'bout some needle-nose vise grips with some rubber tubing over the jaws as a pinch valve. The darn filter is so small that most anything will plug it. When we first got the tractor, it ran great. . . until it didn't. Had it hauled to the dealer, and it took them half a day to realize that their was a pre-filter under the tractor--it wasn't shown in their service manuals nor in the owner's manual. When they figured it out, yes, it was fully plugged with black plastic shavings. My tank has a drain plug--yes, a plug, not a petcock. The owner's manual says "loosen to drain the water", but by the time you figure out it's not a hollow bolt with a drain feature, the plug bolt is out and the hole is spewing diesel fuel all over you. The real PITA: The fuel filter on this particular tractor has a drain (yeah, I know, most diesels do). The manual says "loosen and let drain until the all the water is out of the (clear) bowl". But the thing goes "glug, glug. glug". If you drain the fuel filter water/sediment bowl, you'll have to purge the air. First, loosen the screw on the filter. It's plastic with an o-ring, and it quickly comes apart. Only costs $ 0.99, but you don't happen to have an extra, do you, and you're 6o miles from the dealer. Pump the plunger on the filter until no more bubbles come out, then tighten the now shredded plastic bleed screw. Think you're done? Just getting started. Now you have to go to the other side of the tractor and loosen a flare nut on a fuel line, and then loosen a hex plug on the side of the fuel pump (this one is steel, and it _is_ hollow, like a banjo bolt. Yes, that's the factory prescribed procedure. Pump the plunger on the top of the fuel filter housing until no more bubbles come out of the bolt on the fuel pump. Hold the plunger down while you first tighten the bolt on the fuel pump, then tighten the nut on the fuel line flare fitting. Wait--how are you gonna do that? The fuel pump is on the other side of the tractor from the filter housing. How are you gonna hold the plunger down while you close the open fittings? So, this either takes two people or you have to live with some air in the system. This sure doesn't encourage frequent draining of the fuel tank or fuel filter.
As for ATCO's remarks about Bobcat being a pain to work on, I don't think it's that big of a deal. I haven't had any service issues to speak of so far, but for me, that's all easy--I'll just take the machine to ATCO . Better still, take it 3 miles up on the side of Windrock Mountain and call him up. . . .
At least on my Bobcat 773 (56hp Kubota), all the filters are a breeze to access, and the fuel air purge procedure is simply and foolproof. I can drain the fuel filter without getting air in the system--something my JD tractor won't do. Now for the case drain filters. . . where are those little buggers anyway? While I lose $80 worth of hydraulic oil when I change 'em? How 'bout it, ATCO? Where's your tutorial on that?
On bobcats the routine sevice is easy, they made it that way, the work starts when you go beyond the routine service and have to actually fix something, or worse yet pay the bill for some other sucker to fix it, the stuff is beyond miserable to get to let alone replace, the engineers must have had head up the *ss syndrone when they designed it or never gave it a though that it would ever need to be fixed or parts replaced, everything on the machines take three times longer than any other machine out there and more cussing than most vocabulary has words for and thats on a good day. They made service points easy to get to and do and operator comfort and visabilty for sales and operating purposes but it ends there. The best one on my bobcat 743B I had was there was a universal joint on the backside of the engine that drove the pumps if I recall correctly, in the manual to grease it they stated "remove the engine, grease joint and replace engine" yea right like thats going to happen, nobody could design something that didn't require the engine to be removed to grease? How about an access hole in the side somewhere to put a grease gun tip through and shoot some in ever now and again? How about the stupid center mounted gear case that when you needed to get the bearings out you dismanteled the enitre machine to do it since its all backwards and you have to tear everthing out of the inside of the machine to replace spockets and chains, or better yet no drain hole to drain the oil out of the center case, your supposed to suck it out, and thats long before I ever saw Atco's suck bucket! The best yet is to try and get those drive motors out when they sandwiched in the center case design and limited room to do it but the best is who was asleep at the switch when they passed out brains when they put the input lines to those motors towards the bottom of the housing where nobody can get to, why not closer to the top that would be more handy? I could go on for days about those machines and engineering and how bassackwards they did the simple things and even botched those up, but theres a hose in the back that drains the engine oil thats simple to do and the filter is like totally accessable as well, but they did forget to mention the grease jerk on the backside of the engine that needs to be geased about every couple thousand hours, that the saleman forgot to mention, and you really do want to do it because they couldn't afford the grease jerk on the splined shaft that holds it all together, that you need to lube up, if you don't it ruins the splines and you have to replace that as well when you finally get it jerked apart after it starts to vibrate and shimmy really bad from not being greased, but they saved that access hole and additional grease jerk on the splined shaft??? But the replacement part has the grease jerk in it, you just can't get to it to grease it, now thats engineering at its best, I even called the company to ask why they put a jerk on it at all and they told me that way you only have to pull the engine out part way to expose the jerk???? Part way is aparetnly a whole lot easier than the whole way and when I asked then when its part way out how do you get to it, the answer was simple since you have it part way out just finish removing the engine to gain access?
oh Bobcat, how about when that top mounted fan bearing shells and eats into the shroud it lives in. Isn't there some weird 90 degree corner on the shaft that drives that fan? I remember some odd drive system.
Not really a design flaw but hows about the lil fella that climbs in chain cases with his brand new Nicolson file and sharpens everything up for ya....gotta love them cuts ...NOT ..
Randy88, we lost a drive motor hose to the right side wheel motor on our 773 G. That wasted a day and a half, between fetching parts and finding time to fix it. And I don't remember (don't want to remember) but the hose probably cost $ 65 and the gallons of lost fluid another $ 75-90, all because of stupid or intentionally poor design. The hose was about 2" too short and rubbed against the top square edge of the center case. When I went to find the hoses, the Bobcat parts manager said, "Oh, yeah, that's a known problem. They have a hose guard kit to prevent that." Big help after the fact. The hose guards were cheap enough, just pieces of plastic that you zip-tie to the hose. We could have done the same with split pieces of any hose (heater hose, etc.) but you probably wouldn't have gotten them between the corner of the case and the hose. We skipped the OEM hose and had a hose made, just a little longer. For years all I ever rode was a 742B. The 773 G is light years ahead of the '42. Easy maintenance, belt drive instead of that shaft you can't grease that eventually breaks, and wider/longer track for more stability and less fore & aft pitching. The turbo w/ 56hp makes a difference, too. I have a leak somewhere, and I expect it's another hose about to give up.
A few favorites off the top of my head... My 1959 International B275 diesel.... who in their right mind designs a tractor that has the steering running THRU a tunnel welded in the middle of a fuel tank? Seriously, did someone really think this was a good idea at one time? Not to mention, this is a tractor known to have major steering problems on top of it all, mine also leaks diesel from one of those fancy welded seams somewhere down inside the tank. 1973-91 (and likely others) GMC/Chev one ton cab-and-chassis rear brake lines and bleeders... the backing plate is less than an inch from the leaf springs and cast spacers, meaning nothing but an ill-fitting wrench can get in there to open the bleeders, probably not a big deal if you like in the desert or something, but up here in the snow belt we get the many joys of road salt, in this case, bleeders and line fittings that rot away and no wrench, even fudging with metric sizes, can grip them tight enough to turn them. I six-point socket would work nicely, but oooops sorry not enough room for one of those, let alone a ratchet to turn it with! A little more space, even 1/4" would probably be enough. Nope. Alternatively, that big clunky cast iron spacer beside it (on one of my trucks at least) could have had an access hole cast in it so a socket and extension could be used. Nope. Instead, you get the joy of either a full brake teardown from the front (full floater axle and all) or dropping the axle housing, also fun on the snow-belt vehicles. My '96 Cadillac.... does everything have to go thru the computer? Including the radio?? I want to swap in a modern deck instead of the old tape player, but removing it sets off trouble codes in the guage cluster! The solution? An expensive wiring harness that moves the factory radio to the TRUNK and stays connected to the system, and installing the new deck as a stand-alone system. Idiots. All so I can have a message on the speedo that tells me when my tape player needs cleaning, and my seatbelt chime can come thru the speakers instead of the usual dinger thing. Oi. And my favorite beef, its not just engineers, ARCHITECTS drive me insane. Each should be forced to work a full year as a landscaper, for grass cutting and snow removal, before being allowed to design a building at all. Things that look nice should not take priority over whether they are servicable or not. Moves like placing handicap ramps jutting 30 feet out into open parking lots, randomly placed handicap spots in any place that would make sense to pile snow, or fancy scalloping on the side of the building that collects tons of snow and holds it overhead of people walking on a sidewalk below, just waiting to drop on them, or at minimum re-bury the sidewalk in snow again. Or cheaping out and not making the sidewalk 18" wider so instead to protect the building they install those stupid parking-space curb things... a ton of extra hand-shovelling work in the snow and a tripping hazard for the people walking there. Fire hydrants installed not where they would be easily accessible to use, but where you would commonly have small snow piles from bevelling entrances. Or designing a parking lot drain system to steeply slope all into the middle of the lot rather than around the outer edges--this creates many low spots where a snowplow can't reach all into the bottom to remove it all, large dips and holes to drive thru for customers, and my personal favorite, run-off from the snow piles you've carefully pushed to the edge of the parking lot.... so when its a nice sunny day and you get a little melt time and the temps drop below freezing again at night, you are greeted in the morning with that beautiful black ice skating rink! All this could be avoided with the drains being around the perimeter and sloping away from the building. Much easier grading too. I was on a team of electrical contractors once for a government job, they were renovating an office building. Building was square, of course. But the architect thought it would be really nice to have S-shaped sweeping hallways inside.... ie: rounded interior walls. Made for some strange shaped offices. Now, why did no one notice until afterwards, that their furniture is all 90* cornered? Square furniture on round walls is idiocy. Looked stupid and wasted a ton of space. There, that's my rant for today.
I've got a few, The oil filters on our 535 cat skidders are so close to the fame that once they get about 2000hrs on the motor mounts the filter hits the frame before the filter is free of the filter housing. or 416 tractor/backhoe you have to pull the engine to change the exhaust manifold gaskets. There are lots more just few that are buggin me right now
How come on the newer Cat excavators they dont put enough room in the flywheel excavators so that when the coupler starts going bad the material falls out? Instead it starts to pack in there, eventually pushing its way into the oil pan....plugging up the oil pump pick up tube. Then BAMM one minutes she's knockin or just LOCKED up?
According to CAT the coupler never fails, ergo no need to allow for debris damaging other components. Just ask 'em, LOL! Cheers, Lanway www.lantraxco.com
Yea...thats what the manual even says lol. Yet I've replaced one coupler on a 330C. Then on a 345C and a 330B I had to rebuild the engines when the couplers began to fail.
'05 Ram 2500 Chrysler's "Cab Forward" design. Should have been called engine backward.
330C travel motor's, not sure if its been metioned, but the piston which acts on the swash plate to alter between HI/LO speed is hardened but the bore in which is runs isnt so it wears out and theres only a steal piston ring to seal so when the bore wears to get bypass and them you get one track on high speed, one on no so high speed and the machine wont track straight!! took us acouple of days to work it out it was a travel motor fault only after we stripped the travel motor to see what was wrong inside we machined the bore out and fitted a hardened insert into the housing and matched it to a new piston, we had 4 other 330C's with the same issue and the local CAT dealer had 20 travel motor housings in the machine shop getting the same thing done
I don't even know where to begin with trucks. Anything built by Volvo/ Mack is a mechanic's nightmare. If you're going to build short hooded trucks with the engines under the dash, then make an access panel on the damn firewall that's easily removed. (Ever try to change the fuel line to the back of a 3406E or a DD60 or N14 in a Freightliner Century?) The Pete387 and KW T2000 aren't any better. Whoever thought a tranny cooler mounted to the top of said tranny with heater hoses going to it with no shut off valves should not be allowed to reproduce. They should stop trying to make trucks idiot proof, and make things more mechanical, and less computerized. Make high maintenance items such as filters, alternators, D2 governors accessible. The ADIS air drier was a massive brain fart for Bendix. You can't bypass them or do anything but replace them where the truck sits when (not if) it fails. Another dandy is a Kenworth with the exhaust above the trans with a Super 10. (The super 10 is a marvel all of its own) The flex pipe breaks, melts nylon air lines, and there you sit. I could go on for hours. I strongly agree that the engineers should have to work in the field to gain some perspective from the poor b*****d who has to fix this crap in the middle of the night in a snowstorm.
I think I know the one- it's the return line out of the back of the head? You have to do it blind with a couple of fingers. Did that on one of our C15 Kenworths.
I agree. just like doctors have to do an internship. Learn how it works and how to fix it before you can design it.
If I could redesign her, the brakes on her car would last longer than 15,000 miles. If I could redesign me, I'd have an eye on the end of my finger. I could see the dust on top of the fridge, the wax in my ear, and find that screw slot on those hidden hose clamps
We have mostly Deere equipment, older but reliable, who was the dumass that put batteries in front of STEEL oil coolers to rot them out.. Also never worked on a skidsteer before, have an 853 w isuzu diesel, put on an exhaust pipe, I am 6'3" and big, read 380, had to death wheel off the nuts to get it off, did they not know about never sieze at the factory, or nuts that nuts rust round.
Cars... Oil filters and batteries on new cars. Need i say anything more? 1997 Toyota Camry Vienta: The entire engine has to be lifted out to get to the back row of the block to change spark plugs. So many cars are made like this. :Banghead ointhead. Dad and I have so many more...:beatsme OOH on the subject of digital in cars: One bulb backwards made the computer say traction control fault, cruise control didn't work with the lights on AND the parking lights on the front lit up when we braked.:Banghead I feel for you all though on the big machines, they have just as many problems.
Howbout my Dodge, where you have to remove the battery and airbox to change a headlight bulb. I liked my 03 GMC, you could just pull 2 pins, and the headlight assembly would plop right out in your hands. AWESOME IDEA!! Unitized hubs on Dodge 4x4? There's a real winner, NOT!! Parking brake valves (MV3) in a Freightliner FLD series. It appears that they were installed into dash before the dash was installed into the cab. Nearly impossible to get out without breaking anything. Another engineering masterpiece is the push to connect fittings for nylon tubing. While they're great for quick assembly, they suck to get apart after a few years of dirt and corrosion, especially in a tight spot where you can only get 1 hand in there. Here's another jewel, Peterbilts with the batteries inside the cab! Had one blow up one time, what a mess. I'll think of a few more things that make life miserable later Steve
Man, those push-connect fittings suck donkey bleep s even inside the cab. I hate them!
I hate those dash ones! We never fixed that rattle behind ours lol. When we got water in the Magna's headlights we had to take the battery out to get to the headlight, only to find that it had bolts hidden behind the radiator. Got it fixed by mechanic when we got it serviced. Have to take the entire boot top out of the Vienta when we had to replace the bulb in the back window, and have to take out the entire boot lining to get to the rear light cluster assembly.:Banghead as well as the 4 bolts that are underneath and done up so tight that we had to bend a cheapie wrench to get it out.:Banghead
I wonder what they where thinking when they designed the ASV 4810.:beatsme The only thing thats easy to get to on them is the rad cap. Wrenching on the contraption sets a guy to drinking:drinkup:drinkup or seriously contemplete suicide.:Banghead
our case ih mx200 tractor has an oil pan leak. u have to pull the engine to fix it because the frame surrounds the whole bottom half of the engine.
Welcome, glad to see you on also. I am new to this board also, was a field engineer with Buick Motor Division until I retired. We finally in the 80's started requiring that a service engineer was on the design team and had to sign off on the design or it did not go to production. This did not correct all the problems but it sure did help..
Dave, Pulling the engine on a MX200 is not a big job, the tractor still stands on 4 wheels. The reason the oil pan leaks is because (1) the Cummins sump retaining bolts need reinforcing straps in the corners (long washers that fit in the sump ledge to you and me) and (2) the frame cavity fills with dirt and mud and as the engine rocks on the iso-mounts, which also wear, the sump imprints in to it and pulls on the bolts and loosening around the sump gasket. Either fill the sump area with that expanding foam or you can bolt strips of thick inner tube around the chassis to keep mud out (or at least reduce the amount that gets in there) - Case actually do a kit for this.
I understand the frustration from an owners standpoint, but from a mechanics standpoint that is billing by thew hour the harder the better. The 416 mentioned earlier , a small job just turned into a major labor bill . Also if that Cat engineer is still checking this out, please attempt to stop the tilt cab on the d model skidders because that will put a whooping on my billed time on transmission remove and replace. Cat,s labor bills will take a hit as well. Relativly few transmission failures have I seen under warranty. The removable sheet metal makes access for most other repairs so cab removal is only necessary for transmission overhaul. And oh yea, 644s,bring on !
I was told by truck driver that the reason the designers built the things the way they do. It was because they found out their wife was having an affair with their mechanic and wanted to get even. That is the only thing that makes sense.
No truer words have ever been spoken. I despise anything that says Bobcat on it.
We have a 743 Bobcat and I can agree things are way to hard to access on it, but, I would take that old Bobcat over the 185 Robot JCB any day of the week! If you want to see a major Cluster **** of a design check out the tilt cylinder mounting design:Banghead Instead of two pins, one at each end they have one pin at the rod end and four links that look like connecting rods out of an IR compressor mounted to the side of the barrel. So instead of two points to wear there are now six They did change this on the newer JCB's I have seen but that does me no good. And then there is that single sided boom design. Great visibility to the left but forget seeing anything on the right. Sure it's safer as you are not climbing under a raised boom to get out but then what idiot does that anyhow! Maybe they should design the seat belt to not release till bucket is on the ground? All it would take is a few extra sensors, a relay or two a dedicated ECM an a mile or two of poorly marked and routed wires:cool2
And I thought Bobcat was supposed to be the cat's a##. I just got the engine and pump package back into a T300 that was so full of dirt (as it has no removable belly pans for cleanout, WTH?), I had to look at parts schematic to find front engine mounts and cut them before I could get it out. Even after cleaning a wheelbarrow load (really) of dirt out of it, reinstalling the front mounts was one of the worst pains in my a## of my 13 years of major repair work. Best I could tell, I should have removed all of the valves and hoses first. One thing about custom repair is I can see which brands are engineered versus drawn by the slow kids eating crayons.
My son has one of these bobcat contraptions, everything electronic. i hope for him it runs a long time without issues cause i don't want anything the do with it. I have my belly full already of the ASV 4810 i have and that one is easy compared to the kitty.
Case 580M-3 pos Digmor buttons,outrigger switches that work some time.4/1 rocker switch. Dash 2 M ok for a Case stay with it no we have to find job security for the shop.
Crayons are yummy! Figured that is why I needed to fix this stuff rather than design it!! Lol....TIO
How about the engine oil cooler on a ford 6.4 diesel (Navistar) that is a 20 hour job to change. If the intake manifold had 1/4 inch more clearance at the front the cooler could be changed in about 2 hours. To remove the intake you have to remove the turbos and to remove the turbos you have to remove the cab of the truck. Yeah how do you like that when the first thing it says in the manual under turbo Replacement is remove cab!!!!
And that might not be a big deal with a fairly new truck, but what about when it's about 8 years old and hardware is rusted solid?
With all the bobcat complaining I cant believe now body mentioned the little fuel pick up hose that goes in the top of the fuel tank held in with a grommet, The last 1 I change was on a 863 I pulled the right rear wheel pulled the cover then tried to put my oversized arm in the hole, after making a trip to the cow barn for some ob lube (KY for cows) I did manage to get 2 fingers on the line and pull it out. But getting the new grommet back in the tank took a long pry bar and a lot of cussing, I think Atco is on the rite track with crushing anything that says Bobcat on the side
I'm glad somebody said it.