JD 450 A Track loader Around 1970 model? I ended up with two of them. Both have good drivelines. One was working in sad shape. A lot of years of people just keeping it working never really fixing anything. But had a mostly good undercarriage (a lot of broken and missing bolts) Along with the years of abuse ment it was going to have to come apart anyway. The other i did not get a picture of before tear down was in fair shape but the undercarriage was completely worn out; Could barely move itself for the sprockets spinning in the worn tracks and most of the rollers were coming apart which ate a lot of other stuff. So we decided to part the one i have a complete picture of and try to make one decent machine from the two. Parts machine whole (Gotta love the homemade rops) and parted.
The machine we are trying to save. It is all apart.
This is the machine striped down.
This is something we cannot understand. There is no front motor mount. They hung the radiator and hydroulic pump off the front of the motor. It all hangs out there off four bellhousing bolts. The big heavy nose piece hangs off the front of the frame.
Problems seen on both machines. > There are spacers (wish i had a picture) that bolt to the bell housing where indicated in above picture that then bolt to the frame. All of the spacers were broken; Very hard part to find and expensive when you do. I found a pair used. have not seen them yet but they are supposed to be inspected and guaranteed. > Of the 8 bell housing bolts i think we have two that are not broken. Another expensive part as the bolts are special with shoulders - JD dealer part only and such. Seeing as they were mostly all broken we will get 4 new ones and keep what we found still whole for spares. If a person had a machine shop he could probably make both those parts. Left frame rails broken. Setting in the seat the break would be at you left heal. Same location both machines so there is a left frame rail needed. We are going to try to weld up and fish plate one as a repair. Do you think that will work? It is around 500 for a replacement.
Looks like an interesting project amunderdog.Thats a good way to do it, taking two tractors to build one .Then store the rest of the spare parts for future use.The 450 is a different animal in the way its designed.Built more like a John Deere farm tractor in the way the engine,tranny,& rearend all bolted together in one structure.You should have a handy rigg when ya getter done.Ohhh Nooo ........... I feel a JD 450 flashback comming on ,swapping out my buddy's transmission case.I better get to work,good luck with it.
Man a live your not kidding when you took that apart ! :notworthy what a cool project ,it will be fun to see the finished product.
Got some pictures of the Bellhousing spacers. (I thinking JD named them wrong) They are really bellhousing motor mounts. The machine will probably look a lot like the first picture when reassembled. We are trying to get it working again as best it can; not doing a restoration. It would be a good time to have a gallon of paint though Thanks for the encouragement. My Mechanic is a Caterpillar type and I only have a general idea and manuals. So we both look at this machine like; what were they thinking. But it has survived about 40 years. Everywhere I read they claim they are good machines. So they must have gotten more correct that it appears.
At one time john Deere had A FIX for the broken frame I doubt that is still available
Progress report. Even with two machines we came up short on parts. Some of the part searches can be frustrating. > Got the frame rail patched up. Picture was too large to post. The other frame rail that was not broke had a fracture in the weld that the Votech people did not catch so it was set aside. I had another that appeared to be ok. > Got the right steering clutch replaced. Found a ring that holds the brake hub in position was gone and the groove that held it. This ring keeps the drum from walking out and eating the case. Replaced a few bearings in there also. > Got all the broken bolts removed (Lots of them all over). > Both track frames rebuilt. > Inspected the clutch adjustment and it was about run out. So we broke it on down and found the clutch nearly gone and the pilot bearing shot. Got that all repaired. > Went to inspecting the hydraulic pump coupling to motor and found a lot of worn parts there so we are gathering repairs in that area, the splines on the pump output shaft were nearly used up. > The old hard lines from trans to cooler and filter / hydraulic tank to pump and back were shot so had to have those fabricated. I think i managed to salvage one suction line. Getting ready to start the re-assembly Was inspecting the ROPS. It was damaged at some point. Do not think it is usable. It is bent way out of shape and has a lot of cracked welds. If you know of one lying around let me know please. That’s all i can think of at this time.
amunderdog, rops for these machines are hard to get because most of the production was pre-rops, and alot of rops went to those machines. Also alot of these machines saw forestry work and trees are hard on them. Whats the plan for the old loader once you get her back together? Want a backhoe for the machine?
It looks to me your doing a great job on your crawler , very interesting keep up the good work !
Thanks for the incouragment. The loader that will be left over had one arm end broke off a welded back on. Maybe both. I will look a it again. We had too take the hard lines out of one side and most all the hold downs will probably be donated to the other machine. The rest; i had figured would lay around as spare parts. Do not think i need a hoe for it. A winch or ripper would be great. Seen some good buys on 4 in 1 loader buckets lately but i really want a grapple rake. I will try to get some pictures. Not sure i can resize them. Wish the movers would hurry and find that re-sizer they lost in the move.
Hi Im just wondering if you know where i can source a good 2nd hand set of tracks for my JD450 as you might have a good idea being into JD450's I'm from Melbourne Australia and very hard to find parts here so im searching in the US Hoping for some luck Regards Damien