Is there a trick to fitting the new bolts that hold a new edge cutter on a loader bucket? The bolt head will not sit flush to the plate which means that only about half the depth of the nut can be threaded on. Even with a three foot extension on a wrench, the nut cannot be tightened more than half its thickness unto the bolt... not enough to seat the bolt head flush to the edge cutter. I'm guessing that the bolt must be pressure fitted until it seats itself flush. Do I bash it with a sledge hammer?
Welcome to the Forums jpdg!:drinkup
Are you using the proper bolts for that edge? They should fit if the square's on the shank of the bolt line up with the square's in the cutting edge.
Like gramps says the cutting edge normally has square instead of round holes. The bolts are called plow bolts and look like a rivet but with a square section under the head. The square in the bolts should fit snugly in the square hole in the cutting edge without needing to hammer the bolt into place. You then only need one wrench to tighten the nuts. Are you using this type of bolt..? If you are it would appear to me that the bolt size is wrong if the square on the bolt won't fit into the hole in the cutting edge.
Thanx for the advice. Will double check the size of the bolt which was provided by the Case dealer for a Case cutting edge for a 580 Case Loader bucket. Bolt size must be off so I will refrain from attempting a pressure fit with a sledge hammer. jpdg
I have always installed the bolt, tightened the nut and then bashed the bolt head with an eight pound hammer. Torque to specs, smack once more and recheck. I've never know anyone in this part of the country to do cutting edges any different.
yea what he said
The square just under the bolt head should fit into the square hole in the cutting edge with no more than hand pressure IMHO, or at worst with nothing more than a light tap with a 2-pound hammer. If it won't then you either have the wrong bolts (but I assume they fit through the round holes in the bucket lip so that doesn't make sense), or the wrong cutting edge with square holes that are too small for the bolts. Agree with the posters above about beating on the bolt heads once they have been tightened, then tighten them again. Repeat the process ad infinitum until they will not tighten any more. Also it's always a good plan to remove all the paint from the cutting edge and throughly clean both it and the bucket lip before installing. It's amazing how loose cutting edge bolts can go when the paint wears off.
Yair . . . Bit O/T but it's strange how perceptions change. I was told by a youngish bloke who runs a couple of graders and a D6 that cutting edge bolts should never be reused! I never saw them to be a consumable item and if they are installed as mentioned by Nige in the #8 post (plus Neversieze) and then cut off flush with the nut under normal conditions (in my experience) they will see out several sets of edges. On some machines, due to wear they may sometimes need new nuts. I never pulled them to any toque value . . . just all a skinny little bloke reckoned was tight on a six foot length of pipe. Anything pi$$es me off is grovelling around in the mud under a scraper gas axing off bolts because some slack-ass fitter fitted over length bolts . . . absolutely no excuse in these days of super thin cut off wheels and five inch grinders. Cheers.
For me when it comes to GET the price of a set of edges & corner bits makes a new set of bolts cheap insurance plus it's easier to correctly tighten new hardware rather than struggle with old stuff. Example. D10; 3 cutting edges + 2 corner bits - $8150. New set of hardware $675, 7.5% of the total cost. As I said, cheap insurance. Plus gas axing the old hardware off makes the job twice as fast. The only reason I'd try to re-use hardware is if we were out of stock of new ones.
Yair . . . Gotcha Nige , fair enough, horses for courses. I suppose it's a little different at a mine site with a well stocked store versus working in remote areas. As far as insurance goes I can't recall ever having a problem with genuine Cat hardware breaking . . . not heavy shock-loads though as I imagine on a mine application. I can say for sure and certain though it is much quicker to run off well maintained correct length hardware than stuff around with sparks and blowback from washing nuts off with the gas axe . . . and oxy and acetylene bottles don't carry that well in a Cessna. Gas was always precious, we needed to conserve it for something that really needed it and once in that mind set I guess I worked that way all my life. When I moved to the big smoke looking after the field service on a fleet of dozers and scrapers my methods never changed and it took twelve months before I had all the cutting edges sorted out to my satisfaction . . . the Caterpillar rep was quite impressed when I showed how my crew could change out a 627 cutting edge in under fifteen minutes. Cheers.
The only machine that I re-used hardware on was grader. We were changing edges three times a month and nuts never got enough wear on them that a heavy six point socket would round off. On D8 and D9s we would get the ones we could with the rattle wrench and gas axe the rest. Dozer bits were usually only good for about a month.
Now on one job we were changing grader edges 3-4 times a week...! On that job we did re-use the hardware.......
dumb question Thank you for all the comments and advice. When I initially installed the cutting edge I was in a bit of a hurry....which is a poor excuse for not paying close attention to details. So I posted my question before leaving on a 2000kms trip to Winnipeg (death in the family). When I returned, I reviewed your comments and did some thinking. I removed the cutting edge and discovered that I had reversed it on installation. I then realized how silly my question really was. The cutting edge is now installed properly and the bolts fitted snugly in the counter sunk holes on the correct exposed side of the cutting edge. The nuts are now torqued tightly with a 3foot steel pipe . I have now been reminded of the old adage...........haste makes waste. Thank you all for your input. jp
I was just going to ask if by chance the cutting edge was "wrong way out" so to speak. Welcome to HEF jpdg and sorry about the loss of a family member.
My condolences also. It must be doubly difficult to lose someone at this time of the year when the rest of the world is full of the festive spirit. Nice to know you got your problem sorted though. Just remember to give the bolt heads another good beating after a couple of days and see if you can get any more movment on the nuts.
Yair . . . jpdg . Condolences also . . . sometimes the big stuff puts life's small problems (like posted here) into perspective. Life goes on though and all the best for the season. Cheers.