Bought a 1998 Champion 740A Series IV at auction for a decent price, needed some and still needs work. I have a few questions. I've done a full maintenance on it, changed all the oils(engine, hydraulic, transmission) plus their respected filters etc. With proper oil and filters. Serial 026203 First question is, the transmission wont downshift from gears 4 and up. Instead it upshifts. Have not dug into the shift controller at all. Second question, the rear ripper is hooked up to one of the wing controls. And it moves very slow and seems to have the pressure relief set quite low(wont lift the rear of the machine at all), i would like to increase the flow and pressure, is there a way to do so? Blade slide cylinder rod is toast. has scratches and gouges, but cannot find a new cylinder rod, even from Jade Equipment. Does anyone have a cylinder, or cylinder rod they'd want to sell? Or am i better off buying cylinder rod stock rod and getting one machined since all that would need to be done is thread the one end and drill a hole in the other. Is the stereo 24v or 12v? Can i throw any radio in there? or is it a specific champion size? The lock for the steering wheel/controls that you press your foot on to unlock at the bottom. doesn't work. So it does not lock, when i want to press both sides of the blade down i just push the steering wheel and controls away from me. I've cleaned all the dirt and debris from in the controls and actually got everything lubricated and rebounding. Just wondering if there is a spring that drops a pawl to lock it in that i can't see. Last thing, changing the wheel seals on the rear tandems, any special tools? Does one need to split the chain? I have 3 that are leaking quite badly and didn't want to change the oil in the boxes until i replace the seals. I have a shop manual that i can reference as well. Figured i would ask to see if anyone has personal experience.
Nice grader, are you sure it's a 98? Below is a series V brochure dated 11/97. Looks like later series IV have an upgraded engine too. Does your machine have an M11? Older series IV used an L10. I think I saw something about wheel seals in another thread. Can't remember if it was on this forum or somewhere on the internet. https://www.volvoce.com/-/media/volvoce/global/global-site/product-archive/documents/10-motor-graders/06-champion/ch-1997-series-v/ch-740a-v-21-740asve-9711.pdf?v=iSEyPw Champion Road Machinery 740A Specifications | Machine.Market machine.market Champion Road Machinery 780 Specifications | Machine.Market machine.market
Nice push block. Always wanted one for the front of mine instead of the plow lift. MB looks like it has been refaced, and not sure if it is just an illusion or if it is only a 12 footer. Our volvo loaders have inverters on them. Some have had their radios replaced with Canadian Tire bought ones
It was listed as a 1998 at the auction i purchased it from. The engine plate says its an LT-10 Cummins, it showed engine horsepower as well but can't remember what it said for that. I went to the local volvo dealer and asked the service manager and he said that i dont need any special tools, but having a big seal driver would be helpful. And i do in fact have to split the chain in the tandem to pull but the assembly. He also suggests flipping the gear about to give a new hard face surface on it where it rides. The push block is a homemade deal. 3/4" steel but it was quite rough when i got it home. There was 20 pounds of random crap welded onto it, chains, hooks, pipes brackets. It looked terrible. Probably hung tire chains on it. So i just cut it all off and painted the push block flat bronze because its what i had, but it doesn't look bad. I also cut off another 30 pounds of junk off the ripper too, haven't gotten around to painting it yet though. The blade has a 1/2" thick surface welded onto it. They put it right over the side edges as well. But i wont be rubbing against any curbs or anything so I'm not too concerned. It has a 14' blade, i just replaced the cutting edges, the person who owned it before be wore the blades down so far that they actually wore half of the centre bolt holes off on the crown. So i took the old blades off and flipped the upside down and switched sides and welded the old blades onto the bottom of the moldboard to reinforce it. Then built up with the welder around the worn bolt holes. Went through quite a lot of 7018's doing that project. I'm not even sure how to pull the stereo out of this machine, i didn't see any bolts or tabs to release like a tool box drawer. Or i could get my voltmeter in and check the output. I do have a parasitic drain on the batteries, the master switch gets turned off every time. It is strong enough to kill the batteries over two days. Ask me how i know.
Had a bunch of fixing to do on this grader since I bought it. 3 flat tires moldboard worn down half way through centre bolts, welded the old blades underneath to reinforce circle turn went backwards, so switched the hoses cut off useless steel from front counterweight/pushblock cut off useless steel of front frame section cut off useless steel off ripper changed engine oil and filter changed transmission oil and filter changed hydraulic oil and filter cleaned air filter had to weld the ear back on the alternator and remount it, ground down the ear to try and align belt aligned the air conditioning compressor washed it for the first time in its life, took off probably a five gallon pail of oil/grease grime fuel tank by the drain had a defect in the pipe, paint was the only thing sealing so i had to weld it shut greased it for the first time in years, half the zerks were plugged took the floor mat out and floor plates off to clean the 3" of sand and dirt blocking the levers took apart the levers and cleaned old grease out and lubricated them cleaned the rest of the interior as much as i could tolerate doing painted the front counter weight and on the frame where i cut steel off Oh and another issue i still have is a weak articulation.
Somebody sure didn't look after it very well. I'd guess it's a little older than 1998 based on the brochures I found in my 1st post. I'm curious if having extra weight on the front helps a lot with steering, especially in slippery conditions like clearing snow? My machine doesn't have a diff. that can be un-locked. I'd like to change the radio in mine too. It's only AM. I don't think you can buy a basic AM FM radio CD player. They all seem to have Bluetooth and a bunch of other features I don't need.
That's why I like a push block. some are full of concrete, and have a rubber pad like a backhoe stablizer. Extra weight up front is great, and the rubber pad if equipped, is great for pushing trucks.
Wheel seals aren't a very complicated project, I used an automotive cherry picker to handle them and it worked slick. I feel like I used a PVC pipe cap as the seal driver but I can't remember for sure.
Still looking for some pointers on the transmission upshifting instead of downshifting. Trans pressure is 250psi while in gear. When shifting it drops down for a split second. There is a green light on the controller. Can't see the little LCD screen due to dust. Is it removable and able to be cleaned?
Apparently the controllers are usually hard to read. I've read you can take them out and blow air under the cover to make them easier to read and seal with silicone. I had mine out but didn't want to disturb anything too much and read a couple wires with a bend can break. I'm curious how hard a job it is to fix leaks from the chain case where the diff. connects. I need to clean one side to see if it's actually leaking or was already fixed. It's obvious someone has been into the chain cases before.
Does the chain case sit straight? Our old 730 was leaking, but you could see a bit of a lean. The bushing was worn and making the seal leak. There were no grease points on the Champion, but Volvo added them
I thought it might lean slightly but I need to take a better look. With the wheel adaptors the wheels are 2 1/2" wider on each side which might make it look like it's leaning but isn't. There's dirt caked on from leaking oil but it could just not have been cleaned up. I think I should clean it up really good and then check for leaks. I hope it isn't leaking or isn't too hard to fix if it is. Hoping I get the solenoids this week so I can put the articulation valve back in... and the articulation works. I think it will increase the value by a few thousand $$$ and also be advantageous for getting around my MX track.
The stereo is 12 volts I think. There’s a 24 to 12 volt converter behind the seat. If you find one day the alternator isn’t charging, check the two fuses in that converter. I would just about bet any power draw starts there too. Those transmission controllers have magnets in them that move micro switches when you move the lever. One in a machine that I ran got fussy and the mechanic cleaned it a bit to get it working. But upshift instead of downshift I never had. Maybe Jade would have some ideas there. You might have to talk to a hydraulic shop about the cylinder rod. I took several wing cylinders for my boss to a couple and they they were always able to build whatever parts to get them up and running. If worse comes to worse, they could weld the mount on the end of one of their new cylinders. Might be cheaper and better going that route. Your serial # is close to a 730 I ran that has a pile of wheel seal trouble. Always was wheelbearings and sprocket issues. A machine shop would weld in a hardened ring for us. Then a local machinist pointed out that the hardened ring softens when you weld it. He wondered if something could be pressed in. Maybe even something that was a bearing material. Otherwise the mechanics were very focused on bearing preload and I’m not sure what they were setting their torque wrench to. Are the hydraulics weak? That ripper should have no trouble picking up the back of that machine. We always had ours hooked to the wing valve.
Go figure, this thing was so dirty i decided to clean it off and sure enough you're right. It is the converter. Nice to hear that i can try take that radio out and replace it with a different one. I'll have to check for power draw there. If i leave the master switch on for 8-10 hours it drains the batteries enough to need a boost. It shifts up and down 1-4 just fine, but when i get into 5th gear, and downshift down to 4th, it actually shifts up to 6th. Bogging the engine pretty badly. Also, it starts off in reverse in 2nd gear, must be normal, 1st gear is pretty slow. I just try not to use the moldboard slide cylinder if it gets full of oil it just comes right out. Haven't had much time to play with it we are harvesting right now. I was thinking about going to princess auto and buying a one of their bigger cylinders and just retrofitting it to the machine. They're probably cheaper then getting a rod made for this cylinder. Not exactly what i wanted to hear about wheel seals but for now i'll just keep adding oil. I wonder if those thin sleeve savers would have one big enough. SKF makes some, basically a really thin sleeve that you press onto the shaft to get a smooth hard surface again. I used one on a boat pinion before and it worked well. Just cut it shorter. Hydraulics can lift the front end of the grader off the ground without much problem, it just sounds like when i use the ripper that the valve is not opening all the way, and the relief is set too low and just bypasses.
Speedi-sleeve is what you're thinking of. They tend to work very well. The transmission will reverse in what ever gear it's in but I found it struggles in higher than 2nd gear on my machine. Not sure if a Princess Auto cylinder would have a large enough rod dia.? Does Jade have a complete used cylinder?
They dont have anything for the moldboard slide cylinder. Princess auto's biggest is a 8411779, 5" bore with 2.5" rod diameter, and 48" stroke. I was going to just cut the ends of the cylinder off and weld on the proper ends. I guess i should measure the cylinder in there see how much stroke it has and the diameter. It's only $800 from princess auto. Which is cheaper then what a cylinder rod would cost im assuming.
Will a 5" bore cylinder fit? I'm not sure you even need a 5" cylinder for side shift. I'd guess maybe 3 1/2" or 4" maybe even 3". I don't know if they still do but Princess Auto used to make custom cylinders to the customers specs. They have the threaded end cylinders that are rated for 3000psi that are better than their basic cylinders.
I've got a series 4 720 thats got to be in the same vintage as that, knock on wood, I don't want to jinx myself, but the wheel seals on mine were a pretty straight forward deal with the bearings and everything being fine. I got lucky when I bought the machine and got a couple boxes of spare parts with it, the municipality who owned it had 2 of them and this was the last one to go. I ended up with a couple of the seals on hand, they came with a speedy sleeve from Volvo or Jade (not sure who these came from). I honestly think the seal failure came from a build up of dirt and mud over time, this machine lives on the job for 4-5 months a summer and washing it isn't an easy thing to do but its something I will definitely keep an eye on, maybe just using a weed sprayer full of water to keep the build up down if it becomes an issue.
If you pick up the back end of the machine and grab the top of the tire, you’ll probably feel play. The inner race wears its way into the sprockets. It’s not so much a ridge wearing into the axleshaft. The older ones didn’t have trouble but the bearings were an interference fit. You had to heat the bearing race to get them on the shaft. Starting somewhere in the 24xxx they went to slip fit and that’s when it started.
Graders been running well, doing some more maintenance on it, trying to get the air conditioning to work, but cannot for the life of me get the compressor to kick in to start sucking refrigerant in. It has the air conditioner unit in the cab above the rear view mirror, i have checked all the fuses, and chased the wiring as far as i could in the loom to look for breaks. I haven't tried giving the compressor direct 24v to see if the clutch is seized or not. I've also checked all the fuses under the console by the light switches. All are good. My service manual doesn't have electric schematics.
Glad your grader is working good. I got my articulation working so hopefully it keeps working. I think you mentioned in the past the aux. hyd's. were slow. I used the solenoid valve for a snow wing to operate the ripper and it is pretty slow. The cylinders are pretty big but way slower than the main controls. I'm not that concerned as long as the ripper goes up and down. If you ever need new solenoids I got some out of the US for $9.20USea. With shipping and duty fee's two solenoids were $96cad.! Jade wanted $575ea. so still a guge savings. Only difference is I had to change the wires to ring terminals but I think they are better than push on spade terminals anyway. Did you get your tow behind packer finished with a lift axle?
With the a/c, try bridging the pressure switch. With no refrigerant in the system, it wont let the compressor cut in.
Your machine has electric solenoids for the wing controls? Mine are manual just like the blade controls. Just on the right side by the right door hinge. I did some more fixing today, the gas cylinder for the steering wheel/control tilt won’t lock, and I got sick of pushing the steering wheel forward when I was trying to put the blade down. So took it apart tomorrow I’ll get a new one. I also figured out the air conditioning, I tried jumping the switch at the compressor, but it didn’t do anything. So I put the recharge tool on it, and tried to open the valve and nothing happened. I took a jumper wire from the starter and jumped the switch manually. The compressor turns and created vacuum. But it wouldn’t take refrigerant. So no idea what to do I just started messing around. And I loosened the can of refrigerant 1/2 a turn and it immediately started taking it in. Turns out I can’t tighten it too much? But now the air conditioning turns on and works. And eventually I found out that there’s another pressure switch in the cab, at the evaporator. That one you can just unplug the leads and bypass the switch that way. And it turned on the compressor as well which made it easier to suck in the refrigerant. Hopefully it lasts, there is dye in it now so I can find out where it leaks IF it leaks. I have not gotten time to finish putting the transport axle on it. I used it a bunch this year again, and have a job lined up to build a hay barn and I wish I would’ve had that transport axle on it now. lol
The far right control on the rack on my machine doesn't move. I thought about using it but would need even longer hoses. I don't know if it's mechanically locked or the remote cable is seized. The wing control uses 3 solenoid valves but only 1 was left on the machine. It's on the frame just in front of the right side door. It was the most convenient to operate the ripper. If I wouldn't have found the cheap solenoid coils, I would have tried to get the rack lever figured out or put a complete new solenoid valve on. $1150 for new solenoid coils and no guarantee the valve works or may need other parts is more than I bought the ripper for. The steering pedestal on mine is simple. You push a button in the middle of the steering wheel in and move the pedestal where you want it. Series III you have to turn a large knob to move the pedestal. One of those things that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Somehow the pics. I had on my phone got deleted. I'll look for my old post with them.
My three aux controls are on a separate rack to the valves under the cab on the right side by the door. I have pioneer fittings on them so I could hook up an implement behind my machine and tow it like a cultivator or disc to be able to raise and lower it and unfold. I have two remote pairs available which is nice. My aux controls were also sized and wouldn’t move. I ended up taking off the bolts that held the shafts onto them and took a hammer and tapped them down and a slide hammer to lift them up. Eventually they freed up. I also have two remotes on the front of the machine as well which would’ve been for the plow and maybe angle plow? I got the grader for cheap in comparison to what I see classifieds for. I did get new tires on the drives not long ago, found a set of 4 Chinese tires and was tired of dealing with the one tire going flat from a pinhole by the bead. So got those put on. Unnecessary but peace of mind. Glad i paid someone to do it, took him majority of a day. In 30+ weather. And got him to replace one of the valve stems on the front tires that I lost the bead on last fall doing a job.
You have lots of aux. hydraulics. I needed new drive tires in the worst way. They were Chinese and 2 of them had gone flat and the sidewalls cracked. The seller said one would lose air but I went out to maybe clear snow and 2 were flat. They were leaking out the sidewall! I could get new Chinese tires for $750ea. I just happened to look at an upcoming RB auction since I knew they often sold a lot of tires. It was kind of a longshot they'd have 14:00-24 grader tires but low and behold they had 2 sets complete with rims. Brand new unused Goodyear radials. It was an online auction and I'm sure I was bidding against a used equipment dealer. He tried to go in at the last minute and scoop both sets but RB thankfully extends the time. The idiot made both of us pay more than we had too. I spent a little more than I wanted at $2500 and that was my limit. Thankfully it was his too. I thought I'd have the tires demounted and mounted on the grader rims but discovered the tires were foam filled. Arggg. Maybe I could go back to RB and get a refund but someone on here suggested maybe I could adapt them to work. I didn't think so at first but then a light bulb went off when I was looking how the Champion wheels are mounted using rim clamps. I designed some adapters out of 3/4" plate. With all the bolts and Nord Lock washers the adapters cost approx. $2000. I was way over budget but probably not as bad as I thought. I'm sure it would have cost at least $500 to have the tires changed over if I took the wheels off and went to tire shop. The guy that sold the tires didn't mount them. A tire shop may have charged more because I didn't buy the tires from them too. To have a mobile tire guy come out I think could have been over $1000. I was able to mount the adapters and the foam filled tires/wheels myself. They are about a 1000lbs. each which should give more traction. Putting the wheels backwards was the easiest but they stick out about 2 1/2" wider on each side than the stock tires. Thankfully I don't need to worry about the valve stems. Doing a little research I think the foam filled tires and rims, which fit a telehandler would cost around $20K if you had to but them new. I wasn't sure how they'd work but very happy to say they work great. It may have only cost me $1500 or so more than putting the Chinese tires on. I looked at the specs. for the foam filled tires and it said they were grader specific and designed to resist UV damage from the sun. I bought the grader for $15,500 delivered but think with the new tires, ripper added and articulation fixed it's a now about $27,500 machine based on what I see similar machines listed for. Grader has been running great but might need new batteries. Not a big deal.
Howd you weld the alt ears back on? Cast correct? My broke off as well
Hobart makes aluminum brazing rods, I took the alternator off, ground down and roughed up the ears to give more surface area for the brazing rod to bind to. Then took a map gas torch and heated the ear and then held it against the alternator and heated the alternator until it started melting the rod by touching the rod to the alternator. Not from the heat of the torch. It’s nothing to brag about by any means. I did not disassemble the alternator. I built the ears up thicker so that I could reinforce it, then filed it down flat. But it has held up for over a year now. If it fails I’ll just do it again. Didn’t take much time.
Nice! May give that a try. Thanks for the info
The the body of the alternator has some indents and stuff for strength. I filled the indents with the brazing rod, and then filled over top of ear. So when I bolted it down the bolt was grabbing the brazing fill and it was tied into the indents. So it would be pulling on solid brazing material. If you can tig weld I’d just do that, but my alternator is messed up i had to murder the ears and grind them wayyyy down to try line up the belt. Not sure if I have a wrong alternator.
To repair a broken ear on an alternator it's probably best to take it to a shop and have it Tig welded by someone experienced with aluminum. It will be easy for them and good as new.
All of my champion graders (3) I have owned, 720 - 22244, 740 - 22480, 726 - 24567 -all having various time on the clock, from 6000 to 12000 hrs, will leak at the wheel seals, (sometimes) 2 things I learned that stopped the problem. 1) make damn sure your chain box vents are clear, weekly. Stops 90% of the leaking. If you pull it in the shop and it pushes out fluid, guess what, it's pressurized the case from thermal expansion. 2) Told by Jade they are a floating face contact seal and if you crank the machine in a tight turn when you go to park it, there will be torque on the axles and cases and the normal play in the bearings will allow the seal to lose contact with the face and if left that way the lube will almost pour out on the ground. Get straight and Run the machine back and forth several feet a few times, and the leaks will usually not happen. All my tire insides are dry now about 99.9% of the time since taking this action. They used to always have a light coating of lube and signs of leakage.
Thats great to konw, ive actually found sometimes the wheel seals dont leak as bad when i park it, but some times it's a wet spot the size of your palm in the dirt. It's hit or miss, it seems the back right tire leaks the most, the front left leaks a bit as well. I have never checked the chain box vents ever since i've owned it. But iwth it being -38 with the windchill tonight. I feel like that is not a spring time job. I still dont have a heated shop big enough for my machinery to fit in.
Having a shop is nice. Having a heated shop would be like heaven. Unfortunately way out of my budget. I can't afford the $30k+ to put power to the shop. I never realized the chain cases are vented. I know someone has been into them in the past though. Now that everything seems to be working good, I'm planning to do a complete service in the spring. I wanted to make sure there wasn't any major issues first.
I bought a Vermeer RT650 trencher with backhoe for cheap to put power into our shop we are going to build, and to put power underground for the grain bin fans. I also didn't know they were vented, i'm going to have to dig around and find where the vents are. But it was -33 yesterday before windchill. Not too eager beaver to walk out into the field and check. Our shop is going to be 80' long, and 76' wide.
That's a big shop! My neighbor paid $25K to come down the power pole and get hooked up less than 200ft. away and he dug the trench. My shop is almost half a mile from the power pole. I'd prefer overhead power so I don't have to worry about digging the line up.