I picked up this backhoe last week before reading a lot of negative info about Caterpillar 416 and 426's here and am wondering if maybe I shouldn't have bought this. It is a 93 436B 4x4 extendahoe with heated cab.
Swing valves had a history of sticking in the few I used around that time frame. Other than that it was a strong digging machine!
Also - it has 6800 hours.
What are symptoms of the swing valves sticking?
I bought the backhoe to assist me with starting to build a new house next year. I'll be demoing the garage on the left side of the picture, digging the basement and footings, water lines, etc for the new house and eventually demoing the house in the background picture.
Its a good machine, pretty basic to work on and parts are readily available. Good job on getting one with 4x4 and an e-stick, i wouldn't want one without either. It will do the work you want it to do.
Cat is good I have a 426C IT -97 and it has been a very good and incredibly strong machine. I'm not crazy about the neutral safety switches as they are hard to troubleshoot if problems arise, but they are an operator friendly machine. I have operated and sometimes owned damn near every brand of backhoe available here and there are pros and cons to them all. I do know that regular maintenance is very important to long, trouble free life in all of them! Grease frequently, it's cheaper than fixing pins, bushings, u-joints, etc. Do not start "golfing" with your hoe extended or you can bend or break the boom.