Hi all, new guy to this forum and I need some help if someone would be so kind. I bought an old 543 Bobcat to use around the place, well, traded for it really. I used it last winter to clear snow and it runs well and the hydraulics and drive seem to work okay. The problem I have is the loader is quite a bit lower on the left side, will be leaving two inches of snow on the right side and picking up gravel with the left side of the bucket. The machine is pretty beat up and the bucket is a mess but I can see that the bucket isn't the problem. If you look at the front of the loader the cross member of the lift arms is lower on the left side when you look at it, compared to the door sill. You can see the lift arm on the left side is a lot closer to the fender too. I took the cylinder off and had the ends reamed and bushings put in and new pivot pins made for it, thought it may have been worn enough to make it lower. It didn't help at all. Everything looks good on the arms, can't see that they are bent anywhere. The left side cylinder doesn't have as much of the rod showing when the loader is all the way on the ground. I've never seen one of these cylinders apart, could there be something inside that could cause it to not to run in as far on one side as the other? Anyone have a problem like this on your loader? Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you, Jim
I believe the problem is that your loader arms are racked (twisted out of square). You may be able to load your bucket with something heavy and put the low side on a block and press down, or you may have to involve a larger machine.
Thanks, Mitch, for the reply. I did try something like that, tied the high side to a tree stump and put a six ton jack on the low side and lifted it quite a ways. Didn't seem to help. How would a guy tell for sure there was a twist in the loader frame? I don't see any cracked paint or bent steel. I may have to try twisting it back with the jack again. I suppose the best way would be taking the loader off but I'm crippled up pretty badly and not up to that kind of job. I wouldn't worry about it but it sure makes it hard to use, having the bucket that much lower on one side.
I did that same thing to my loader, I was trying to pry a stump out of the ground. (Yea, wrong tool, wrong job...) So my cure was, 'two wrongs make a right'. I just found something to overload the opposing side. In the future I will make sure not to load (overload) one side of my FEL, its not what its made for. So look for something to lift, that you know you can't, It needs to go a little past where it should, as it will spring back a little. I'd do everything from inside of the machine, let the hydraulics do the work for you. I wouldn't bother to take the unit off, unless to have a huge press available, jacks ain't gonna do it.
Thanks, I've tried that already too and it didn't help. I stuck the high side under a stump and lifted, didn't seem to help any. I'll have to give it another try, maybe chain the lift arm to the stump instead of putting the bucket under might be able to put more pressure on it before the rear tires come off the ground. Thanks for the reply and advice.
i would think you would have a hard time bending things back to where they should be. the machine probably wouldnt be able to do it on its own. i would say chain down the one side of the machine, put a block on the bucket, get a giant loader and bend things back and hope you dont break it. a local welding shop could probably get you fixed up one way or another.
Mr. James: Did you measure the lift arm cylinders to see if you had the same on each side. Somebody may have swapped one of them. If not I would belive I might take the pins our of my bob-tach and try to adjust each individually until I got it right. It can be done. Either the pins in either end of the lift cylinder or the cylinder itself could be the problem. Let me know and I'll keep thinking about it and may come up with something else. Good Luck BE CAREFUL.............. Bubba
Thanks for the ideas guys. I think you are right, Dave it would be hard to bend it back to where it is supposed to be. I have no clue as to where it is bent, if it is bent. Bubba, I replaced the pins on the cylinder on the side that's low. The cylinder bodies are the same length but when the bucket is resting on the ground the cylinder rod on the low side is in farther than the other side. I've not heard of adjusting the pins of the bob-tach, is that in the repair manual? I'll have to take another look in there today and see. Is there anything inside the cylinder that could have come loose to cause this? I've never had one apart. Thanks for the ideas and help, I'm sure you guys know how frustrating it can be to try to work with a machine that isn't level. Jim
I have done this type of repair before. You will have to rack the arms a fair way past where they need to be to combat spring back. What ever you do, don't use heat as this will have an adverse effect on the arm's strength. I suggest that you perform the repair on the machine, (don't remove the arms), unfortunately I doubt that a 6 ton jack will cut it unless you use a lever of sorts, which will mean pushing, then blocking and pushing again and you will need to anchor the machine down.
Sounds to me like the machine may have been rolled over with the arms up or maybe fell off a trailer at speed or something like that, I can't see how lifting something or even abusing the machine would bend the arms like that, that would take a lot of force. I would look around for a parts machine and see if they have the arms available, hopefully they're not bent too... Otherwise try as others have suggested to try to straighten it, just be careful!
I have seen this before on tractor mounted front end loaders on several occasions, it's amazing what a determined operator with no mechanical sympathy can achieve Straightening the twist in the arms is a simple process and shouls not impact upon the future strength adversly. All that keeps the arms aligned is the torque tube between them and this has most probably twisted slightly, (not enouigh to crack the paint even). If the machine had roplled with the arms raised I would expect more likely a side to side offset rather than the twist, although without seeing the machine I would rule nothing out. All you have to do is apply the opposite force and the problem should be rectified. I have achieved this with loader frames as well as truck tailgates and even truck trailer frames. You have nothing to lose, just remember that you are deaing with large forces and also that the frame will store energy when you push it so be safe and think before you act.
from the sounds of it they are bent but before you go further, check your tire pressure. remember simple things first, a low tire will make a machine lop sided
get a load in bucket high side. like s shale bank,raise boom till back wheels are off the ground ,then move machine forward , this will twist boom other way may have to do this a couplr of times to get right ,be careful
Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys. I did make sure all the tires were fill to the same pressure and all the same size. The loader cross member or torque tube as Karl said, is uneven when compared to the door sill. it's lower on the right side of the machine and also a bit closer to the front of the body on that side. I swapped the two lift cylinders side to side to see if they were the problem. It didn't make any difference at all so I can safely rule the cylinders as being the problem. I have come to the conclusion that there is a twist in the loader arms but I can't tell where it is for sure. I have tried to springing it back by putting the high side under a tree stump and lifting and even chaining it down and lifting the other side with a six ton jack and it didn't help. I'm afraid of breaking something but maybe that would be a good thing at this point. I bought the darned thing because I needed something to move snow with now that we started getting big snow storms again. I was in a hurry and traded a Mustang that I had just bought that quit running after the first time I used it, didn't take a good look at it. Now that I have looked at it and tried to use it I might have been better off with the Mustang that wouldn't run. This Bobcat looks like it was rolled down a mountain. Hey, at least it starts and runs like a champ, just a bit hard to clear snow off of a gravel driveway. I'll keep trying, and again, thanks for your help and ideas. Jim
A lot more machines have a twist in the loader than you would think. Our Michigan 175 even had some. Just look at the cutting edge wear and you can see it. A friend did this to his new Case skid trying to pull a stump just like some one else mentioned. He fessed up to the dealer and tried to get it warrantied as he thought a machine should not be able to bend the loader under it's own power. Case turned him down flat.
I don't know if you want much money on it but I would think about talking to a body shop and see if they can put it on a frame machine and see if they can twist it back in place. If they can't do it I spoils find out where on the boom you can cut it partially an true it to a level floor and then weld 1/2 in plates to each side of the boom arms. This would be the last choice I would turn to but this way the bucket would ne true it. Cut it at a place you can make good welds.
The idea of a body shop has merit, however I would lean more towards an engineering/fabrication shop. Do not cut anything - it is unneccessary and will not actually attack the real problem. I suspect that you are doing all the right things, just not far enough. To explain, to remove the twist of say -3 degrees, you need to push +3 degrees for the twist plus perhaps another +3 to 6 degrees to take the steel past it's yield point and then it will spring back to the desired point. Proceed in small amounts and creep up on your target as you don't want to rack the frame too far in the opposite direction.
well, im not so convinced cutting the arms and truing them up at the ground would be such a good idea. it seems to me that could cause problems with the top of your lift path, or cause binding on the way up.
for the record our loader arms are all screwed up but the job seems to still get done... if something can flex, chances are it wont break, its when it cant that you have problems
WAG!! Check the tires and see if they are the same diameter. I ran a 623 once that had miss matched back tire. Same size but different tread. Couldn't cut level period!! STUMP KNOCKER
As a new poster, I don't want to step on anyones toes, but a lot of peoples ideas on here are just plain wrong. For starters, measure up the loader arms, from a point at the very front (where it attaches to the bucket), to the back pivot point. If the distance between point A and point B is the same on both loader arms, then chances are that isn't your problem, but if it is different then that is where your problems lies. Then check the cross member, measure to the center of it, and measure it to the front (point A) to the middle of the cross member, if those measurements are different then your cross member is the problem, if they are the same, then you are looking at a problem back where the back pivot points are. At this point consult a machine shop, you have big problems. I would post some pics of exactly what I mean but I can't seem to upload images.... Anyways good luck
When it comes to fixing, once you identify the problem, find which piece is bent/broke/out of whack, and replace/repair. hope it is the connecting tube that is bent as that is the easiest thing to fix by far.
Yes, Stump Knocker, I did check the tire size, they are four brand new matching tires all at the same pressure. The Bobcat's chassis it level to the floor but the loader isn't level or square to the Bobcat. I know what you mean about tires, I ran a little John Deere scraper for a guy in the Denver area that had two different size tires on the back. Took me a little while to figure out why I couldn't cut level. I told the owner and he said the original tire had been cut so he put on a tire he had laying around the yard. He told me to come into the cut area from a opposite direction each time. This old boy would rather not have the frustration of a cutting edge that isn't level to the ground. The guy that sold it to me, a dealer salesman, said I should run one side with the tires over filled and the other side flat. Funny guy, I told him exactly what was wrong with the machine I was trading in, he didn't bother telling me the loader was sprung on the one I was trading for. It's not a big deal because I just use the machine around my yard but it is hard to clear snow off without scrapping up gravel on one side and leaving a couple of inches of snow on the other. Buckwheat, I think I know what you mean and that's a good idea, it would tell me where the problem lies better than how I've been doing it. I can't afford to do much to it and can't do much work myself, I'm pretty crippled up, not supposed to lift anything or bend twist and all that. I have a hard time just getting into the damned thing. I appreciate all the ideas and help from you all. Jim
Not a skid steer, but a new CubCadet Yanmar 45hp. Had a root rake/grapple built to fit. Does a great job, but the torsion pipe that connects the quick attach plates is not strong enough. Pick up anything with one corner of the fel, and the pipe twists just enough to misalign the two attach plates so it is very difficult to attach or detach front end implements. Going to replace the pipe (sch40) with a sch 80 sleeved over the original from end to end, then weld to attach plate hangers, unless someone has a better idea. I have heated and realigned several times, but it always does it again. Yanmar says there is no problem unless there is something broken, they won't fix it. Obviously the fel is not built strong enough for the tractor.
I learned something really neat one time, by accident(literally) I was a kid when i jumped in my car, threw it in reverse in the dark and flew backward out my driveway. However, my neighbour's truck was park off to one side, and i clipped his step bumper at speed. His bumper was twisted down a good foot. So my first thought was grab the loader and lift it back up into place. I lifted the rear of the truck off the ground and the bumper didn't budge. I bounced it...nothing. So i grabbed the sledge and tapped it a couple times and noticed it start to to move. With the weight of the truck resting on the bent bumper, a few well placed taps and the bumper came right back into place, you could hardly tell it was ever bent. So when you are trying to rebend that loader, apply some force, then apply some energy with a sledge. Where before it wouldn't bend, you may find it starts to move. good luck
Thanks for the advice, watglen, I'll have to give it a try. I've come to the conclusion that the loader arm is push in on one side. the cross member is a little bit closer to the door sill on the right side, the side that is lower. I put the bobcat against a tree stump, the left side of the loader was against the stump and the right side chained to a snatch block. I ran the cable of my pickup's winch through the snatch block pulley and back to the hooks on the front of the pickup, which was chained to a tree to keep it from being dragged. That gave my 9000 pound pull winch 1800 pounds of pulling power. The Bob cat just got pulled sideways and I don't have anything to anchor the back of the Bobcat to to keep it from moving. I did manage to break the stump loose and I had been wanting to get rid of it anyway. I'll try again and give it a smack with a hammer if I can but there isn't much room between the frame and the loader arm to get a good swing at it.' TheOldMan, I think you're right about the loader not being built strong enough for the tractor. You should be able to lift on a corner hard enough to lift the rear wheels without the loader being sprung. I also think you have the right idea for a fix, a heavier pipe over the original should make it strong enough. That's what should have been there in the first place! Jim