NOT SURE I PUT THIS POST IN THE RIGHT AREA FOR HELP? Hey to all, I haven't posted for sometime but still moving dirt, logs and rock with my OLD 1975 Hough H60 Payloader.....BUT 3 days ago my tie rod broke on my rear drive steering. It had been repaired prior to my buying it but it gave out and is now in 2 pieces. After looking at the patch I guess I am lucky it has lasted this many years. Repair is questionable, never was a good idea with the break being amongst the bends on the right side but now the metal is so impregnated with grease that I am skeptical I can get a weld to hold + I have to grind off the mass of metal that was previously welded to what must have seemed like a good fix to them. I know somewhere out there, there is an old Hough H60 that has escaped the scrapers. Any one with a machine or idea feel free to e-mail me or message me. E-mail and then a phone call would be best. only need the tie rod, the adjusters are fine but would concider what ever I had too.
I don't think that I have seen an H60 in thirty years so you will have to be very lucky to find a replacement. Best hope I think is to have a fab shop repair that one or build a new one. You can always cook out the oil and grease with a torch. Do you know if you are space limited for put reinforcements on that one?
Reckon an engineering shop with some blacksmith skills could make you a new one using the old one as a template including cutting the threaded ends. Yours looks buggered.
Looks like the former repair contributed to the break. The break looks to be right on the edge of the weld which created a notch effect. If the tie rod is just a steel round bar a good machine shop could probably make a new one. Maybe out of something like 1045 so it's less likely to bend in service. I'm not sure what all the grades of round bar are. As a last resort the broken one could probably be repaired by an experienced welder. Would need a full penetration weld and better job of reinforcing it. The old repair looks like it was done by someone with little welding experience. Might want to use higher strength welding rods if the tie rod is a higher carbon or strength steel.
Dave, your are one of the few I run into that work off common sense anymore. Good advise, what caught my attention was you spotted the cause of “part” of the failure was the break at the end of the angle iron. That repair design caused a stress point leading to failure. That was the first thing I pointed out to my Grandson. The repair is possible for what I do with it I guess. I have been a metal fibber for some 45 years but now retired limited access to what I have in my shop. I am a welder of sort , cleaning it up is the biggest obstacle I see. Do you think 6010 5/32 rod would be a good choice? Grind and bevel at 210 amps???? Thanks
Meant metal fabber auto correct didn’t agree I guess… Ment 7/32 rod. Ya, ANYTHING can be made, so using cold rolled rod and a fab shop could but at $150 to $200 an hour to bend and thread $1500 to $2000 labor and 1 1/2 cold rolled or need hardened wouldn’t be logical in my wallet. Some where there sits a an old h60 sunk in the dirt with a good tie rod, - but where. So all you fellas out there who have ‘been around’ TOSS ME A BONE!!!
We have obtained Hough parts through these folks before: Waukesha Pearce Industries, Inc.
Thanks, I’ll check them out.
Thanks for the compliment. It's nice to know the likely cause or contributing factor of a failure. No, 6010 is the wrong rod to use. It's too brittle and not very ductile. At the minimum you want to use 7018 but a high strength specialty rod might be better. You can get them in small packages. They will say for difficult to weld steels like spring steel, high carbon steel, etc. 120-130,000 tensile strength depending on brand. More amps doesn't necessarily make a stronger weld. You need to bevel both sides of the round bar so you can get a full penetration weld. Put a pass on one side then grind the other side into the weld to get full penetration. Small 3/32" rods around 90-100 amps is what I'd use. If there's room the best place for a reinforcing gusset is the inside of the corner. If there isn't room maybe there is on the outside. I think the main thing is to get a good solid weld on the round bar. You can see there was barely anything holding when it broke. It doesn't appear the round bar was even welded when it first broke. Would be good to get an experienced welder to fix it. A specialty shop that does TIG could do a really good repair. Would cost a little more but have a better chance of lasting.
Clean it up, bevel and weld with 7018. Then bend a strip of thick metal on the inside radius. then weld the strip to the bar. It's what has been done on the other side.
I would like to know what the rod size is and also am curious what the threads are. Looks very close to a Jeep drag link. I would be willing to bet I could adapt a 60 dollar Jeep drag link, with a torch and a bend or 2.
Do you have to follow that exact geometry due to interference issues? What's causing the need for the 'dip' in the link? If you have the space available, I'd re-weld that drag link and beef up the corners with triangle plates. The plates may extend outward and don't have to be the exact diameter of the rod. All you want is correct clearance and strenght. While I agree with all the comments above, I'm also cognizant a cheap, usable (but ugly) fix is sometimes better than the right, correct (pretty) one.
LCA, being a rear steer loader the bend is to get the tie rod past the rear diff, probably with minimal clearance, hence why it was repaired on the outside of the bends only.
7 dead machines in stock. Heavy Equipment Parts & Tractor Parts | FP Smith Parts www.fpsmithparts.com Joe H
Yeah, that's kinda what I was getting at. If you can beef up the 'outside of the bends' with plate and there's room for it, then an easy, ugly fix might be able to be done to get it back to service. If the outside is the only room for material reinforcing, it might be possible to make a couple "C" plates, one for each side, where the broken elbow fits in the crook of the C and the tips of the C are welded to each side of the straights. I would be trying to minimize the stress at the broken spot by transferring the stress/load across the straights and away from the elbow. I agree with above that focusing on fixing just elbow will probably lead to same situation in a short time.
Dave, Thanks for your expertise. My idea was the 6019 for dirty metal and weld deep in the 1 1/2 dia.tie rod…. But that was an uneducated conclusion on my part. I was a fabber and we had a weld department so I guess only retained what I picked up on. I make a lot of things but NOTHING THIS OIL IMREGNATED or REQUIRING TO WITHSTAND THE TORQUE. I will for sure TRY to follow your recommendation’s. Getting to old to try and fight with things like this anymore and to poor to hire it done
Thank for the reply. Ya, reinforcements is something I’ll try to include but it all has to run on the bottom side which isn’t ideal (a 1/2” c plate) the inside of the bend rides to close the the read differential swinging back and forth. There actually are slight bends several ways the clear. I marked it under the machine but getting it back together at the perfect angle will be a challenge. ‘Tack & fit’ I guess, rolling around under machines ain’t what it used to be! My two Grandsons are a huge help! One’s going to be a senior and has no quit and the other one is one the road as an operator for the 139 so not around that much.
It needs to be as clean as possible. You can burn a lot of the oil off but where you weld has to be shiny clean.
It’s an 1 1/2 half rod fine threaded each end. The bends kinda appear on one plane but actually when inspected bend on several planes to keep it up out of the way and clear everything as it swings L & R steering.
Ya Dave, I don’t wanna make it a bigger job than it already is but I am going to have to remove part of the old angle patch. The old weld job is a mess which makes cleanup/repair even more difficult. SOMETIMES THERE NO SHORTCUTS
This lead looks really possible, not sure yet if I have to buy a machine (not an option) or can buy a part. The have 7 HOUGH h60’s that are dead. I am going to try and get an answer today . THANKS
https://www.machinerytrader.com/listing/dismantled-machines/253008335/hough-h50c-wheel-loaders Odds 50 may have same tie rods but they have lot of Hough loaders listed