Hi all. Google searches lead me to the forum here and it seems there is a wealth of information. I have a Case 580b that I acquired with my acreage (80 acres not far west of Saskatoon, SK). The backhoe has a rebuilt 4b, some recent hoses and 1 new boom ram. It currently has no brakes, the diff lock is not working, and I believe the ring gear is missing a few teeth. I have read here that the ring (crown) gear is a fairly common issue. I see a ring and pinion set on ebay.ca for about $350 shipped I might pick up. Anyway, just stopping in to say thanks for the information I have received so far and thanks in advance for future help I may receive. I have no background working with heavy equipment but fairly extensive experience with cars, trucks and bikes. I have a 1990 Toyota with a solid front axle swap, dual transfercases, locker front and rear, 37" tires. I also have a 98 GM 2500 4x4 with a 2003 5.3L engine and hydroboost swap. I'll finish with a pic of the Case. Cheers
Welcome to HEF KevinF. :drinkup Good looking B ya got there.
Really good looking B.
Thanks guys. :scool How terrible is the rear differential job? I've done differential setups before. Have the service manual and gave it a quick look but not in depth. I will also look at the diff lock at the same time, hopefully it is an easy fix.. Maybe nothing even wrong with it. Previous owner thought it contributed to the first time the ring gear went. The first time, he found a USED ring gear and threw it in. Lasted 4 years. Would probably still be going but I did some good pushing with the loader. Should have moved that dirt with the hoe I guess. Would like to turn this into a reliable machine to keep for some time. The alternative is to off-load it and upgrade to a decent skidsteer but that would probably cost $6k difference. I'd rather keep the 6 grand and run the (hopefully) trusty old backhoe.
If you have done other rear ends, this one is not any different, really. You just set it up with shims. Just make sure the carrier bearings are tight and within spec. Loose carrier is what kills the ring and pinion. Roading them it not recommended as it wears those shims.......
Thread bump and update. I stated that the tractor has a rebuilt 4b, but I had been misled. Surprised no one corrected me! I lent the backhoe to the previous owner of my acreage so he could do some work at his new property. The boom rams were his creation while he had it since one of the original boom rams had a good sized dent in it that liked to take out seals. This tractor does exhibit the "will not move when cold" issue that is well discussed on this site. I hope to (at least partially) address this. Most of the pins have a little slop. Some of the pins have a lot of slop! Overall it is an okay machine for acreage use, I think. Got the tractor running on a warmer day a couple of weeks ago. It was only about -10C for most of the outside work. It was pretty easy to start at -10, plugged in, with the battery warm and charger over night, and my pickup boosting. The boom to stick ram didn't really want to move at first, but it freed up after some back and forth. Hoe removed. Finally inside Beginning to tear into it Great looking fluid Nice.... How I supported things.. (first time working on a tractor, much less splitting) The carrier bearing plate that took the brunt of the ring and pinion abuse. So I guess I have to disassemble the transmission and check the pinion bearings and then order some parts.. Basically my goal is to fix some wiring, change oils and flush lines as well as possible and get the tractor really functional again. I am on the fence about doing the brakes but I will do the seals that were taken out by the carrier flopping around. Brakes could easily be done after the fact if I am happy with the machine and want to continue to invest in it. Any thoughts? Thanks again all, for being here, this is a great resource.
Sweet looking hoe. Looks like its worth fixing for sure. At least you will know what its made of after doing all that work
Quick question .. To get the 4 speed transmission (main drive shaft) apart, do you just smack the shaft from the final drive side? The manual talks about putting a step plate adapter (1 - 1.25" Owatonna 630-3) against the rear of the main drive shaft and hitting with a mallet. Also says place a spacer block between the cluster gears on this shaft. What is the purpose of the the spacer and adapter plate? Here is the empty case with ring gear shrapnel and pinion remaining. Carrier Bit of damage to a side gear.. was not happy to find that. 53 Case DC4 gasser (belongs to a friend but lives at my place) for pushing snow. Cool little tractor.
The tool that has the half pipe with the rod on it is used to take the slack up when driving the shaft back, the shaft for the ring gear will come out the rear and that bearing will stay with the shaft, the bearing at the nut end has to be forced of the shaft, the spacer holds the gap tight allowing you to bump the shaft through it. Some use large c clamps to hold pressure along with large screw drivers/ rods between the gears to take the slack up, the later units had a snap ring that had to be exposed and released to allow the shaft to be removed c/d/e/k's. It is a straight forward repair, follow your book and check the clearances as required, do not install the seals and o rings on the side gear housings until you have all the shimming correct, you may have to pull it apart several times making adjustments before final assembly.
Thanks - Do I need to remove the top shaft (main shaft) and gears from the trans in order to swap the pinion shaft/gear? Not sure why but for some reason I thought I do. Don't have it in front of me right now.
Here is a bunch more pictures and an update on progress. First I'll note (maybe help someone in future) that when driving the mainshaft out of the transmission it gets knocked out from final drive side towards what would be the front of the tractor. If the pinion is in place, the large gear on the pinion/countershaft will catch the bearing on the back side of the mainshaft and wreck it. That's probably why the spacer is put in place to take up that slack. Not required if you remove the pinion first and just let that big gear sit in the bottom until mainshaft removed. Here I put a little paint on the inside of the 3rd gear to show where it was interfering. It did not want to slide nicely on the pinion shaft without some filing. I was consulting wi4x4man (from this forum) throughout the process and he mentioned he had the same problem with this gear not sliding freely on the pinion shaft. New bearing carrier plate and sidegear I got from Hagan Tractor in Oklahoma Intermediate photos from the removal and cleaning process Devised a way to push in the mainshaft. It worked OK. Only okay. Ground the old welds/bolts out of the carrier, installed new ring gear with bolts as per this thread. I found that the standard M10-1.5 x 30mm Grade 10.9 Black Oxide Socket Cap Screws from the bin at Bolt Supply worked fine. I didn't need the low head versions to clear my bull gears. I didn't find setting up the pinion or differential gears to be too bad. I did find that I unseated the big pinion bearing race a little when driving the pinion out. I didn't realize this until I had 'set up' the pinion. I should have thought to look at this because it basically caused excessive pinion depth to the point the pinion nut didn't look to be on the threads far enough. Someone earlier in the life of my tractor had also installed a thick ~.100" shim in under the bearing on the left hand side gear. It was not possible to bolt the side bearing carrier to the housing with that extra spacer in there, but everything worked as it should with it removed. For the differential gears, in an automotive application I probably would have removed some pinion depth but the pattern looked pretty good with .008" backlash (the upper end of the spec). With less backlash the drive side contact was right to the toe of the pinion gear. Regular .5" bolts used for setup and the new (used) bearing plate. Ready to go back in. Now ready for backhoe reinstall.