Hi All, I just bought a Case 480c backhoe/loader. Me - have worked on a variety of equipment, cars, mowers, snowmobiles, etc but this is my first piece of heavy equipment. Not afraid to learn and work on things. Plan to use it to remove stumps, general work around property Equipment - 1977 Case 480c. What I know about it so far - got it from my brother. He has not used in last 5 years - he got it from someone who used on a farm to move hay etc - about 3300 hours - quite a few hydraulic cylinders leak. Took out boom rod/piston and put on new seals. Need to do many more, maybe all - starts right up - some new hoses but many look old - I have parts and service manuals - electrical issue, if you leave battery connected it will drain - rust inside hydraulic fluid fill pipe I plan on working on it over the winter and hopefully use in the spring. What are the main things I should look at? I plan on doing seals on all hydraulic cylinders for backhoe and loader. Maybe swing and stabilizers. Thanks much!!
Howdy and glad to have you on the forum! I don't have a 480C but I do have a 580B and in the process of rebuilding the backhoe block valve. Took it off and apart tonight. I've got quite a few hoses to replace also as soon as I can get the boom, swing, dipper and bucket to work! You have the same engine as I do, the 188CI non-turbo. I've never had any problems with it other than starter related, to be expected for a machine that is almost 50 years old. I've got 6700+ hours on mine. I don't know if it has ever been rebuilt. It smokes a bit...gray, like unburnt fuel possibly. Other than that, it's a Case. The older ones seem to all be pretty similar. I believe your shuttle-shift is the same as the 580B. There is a known problem in that the pickup tube for the shuttle gets clogged with debris and causes slow forward/reverse movement when driving. I'm not sure if the 480C has this problem. It might. If it doesn't have problems moving, I wouldn't worry about it. I believe the 480C has a model 33 hoe vs. the 35 for the 580B. Slightly smaller and just a little less force than the 35. I'm certainly no expert on either of these machines. Seems like I work on mine much more than I use it, but that's because it's old, used and worn. I'm slowly bringing it back around which sounds a lot like the project you have with yours. At least you seem to be working with a less worn starting point! They are pretty simple machines and work fairly well for what they are. Nothing terribly complicated or difficult to grasp conceptually. They can be a lot of labor when working on, but hey, that's part of the pleasure (yeah, right) of owning an old backhoe...right?