I'm looking at a 555A to buy. 2 Wheel Drive. I want to get it "going" as best I can before I plunk down the 5,000 to buy it. It has been sitting for a couple years. I jump started it and it seems to run pretty good. It needs a battery. The steering wheel just turns when the motor is off. (Is that normal?) I haven't run the motor long enough to see if it builds pressure and moves the front wheels when running. But gave it a wiggle the other day when I had it running VERY briefly and it seemed like not much was happening. It has a blown hydraulic line for the stick. I took that line off today and will have another one made tomorrow. Not knowing, I fired it up with the hydraulic line off today to check the steering and man did I lose some fluid. I thought as long as I didn't move a lever the flow would be blocked. Apparently not! So the steering is still an unknown. Tranny...unknown. Brakes..unknown. Hydraulic piston on the stick is pitted due to rust. The right stabilizer leg piston is a bit scratched and looks as though it has been leaking from the seal. 2 new rear tires. One recent front tire. One older weather checked front tire. good glass. The man who has it has not used it or really maintained it for years and years! Not good....I know. Physically, the machine is weathered but doesn't look TOO bad. A little repairable rust in a couple spots in the cab. It has 2,800 hours. I asked a used equipment dealer today and he said he could buy these machines all day for 2,500 to 3,000 dollars?????? My questions at this point are: What do you guys think about 5 grand for this machine if the tranny, brakes and steering end up actually being good. Also: What are the two small tanks on each side of the front of the engine just aft of the radiator? What fluid do they require? I'll get some pics tomorrow and hopefully get some information from you guys tonight on the reservoirs and fluids I need for them. (Steering / tranny / and hydraulic reservoir.) I'd like to think this backhoe would be a good entry for me into owning a piece of heavy equipment. A stepping stone to eventually having a nice little excavator of about the same weight. I will absolutely get the manual for this machine if I buy it. Thanks for the assistance.
good tough machine when new, sounds like this may still be a good machine,,5,000 is about right price,, however I wouldn't sell mine for that price, even with my worn out back tires,, new tires around 600 each,,tell used dealer I will take 5 at 3,000 each,,, steering sounds like low of steering fluid, steering,trans,and rear end take the same fluid [I use Tractor Supply 134 trans/hyd fluid],,,hyd system for backhoe/frontend load any regular hyd fluid
Hey JimG, Thanks. Those two reservoirs. Can you tell me what each one is? How about the tranny oil service port and dipstick? Where are they located? heck... I cant even see where to put engine oil in this thing??! I'll pick up that fluid you told me about in the morning and get some pics. thanks!
I'm having a hard time with your "two reservoirs" question. One is the P/S pump with integral reservoir. The hydraulic fluid reservoir is in front of the radiator. The engine oil is filled through the timing gear cover. The plug has a round plastic handle. Pull the grill and check out the pump drive. It probably hasn't seen grease in a very long time. The transmission and center housing fill through the deck. You'll see two plugs under covers in the floor of the deck in front of the seat. Each plug has an integral dip stick. I can't imagine the brakes have problems. The park brake is separate. Stabilizers are always beat up, pitted and scratched. Eventually we all have to replace the rods and reseal. As for the price, if the engine and shuttle are good, you're ok. Hopefully the steering motor is ok also. It just dawned on me that you're looking at the P/S reservoir on the left behind the radiator and the engine oil fill plug on the right behind the radiator. When you pull the engine oil fill plug, you can see the timing gears. The fill plug (looks like a plumber's test plug) should say engine oil in small print on the fill plug. Hope that helps. Check the fluid in the trans and center housing. If she's been sitting for years and leaks out the bottom, she'll be dry. You don't need any additional damage. If you have coolant, P/S fluid, engine oil, hydraulic fluid, transmission fluid and center housing fluid, you're ok to move it. Grease the pump drive also if you can. Hope that helps.
Thanks. Perfect. I know we new guys ask the same questions over and over, so I really appreciate you getting me going in the right direction. Off from work for a few days so I'll get to work on this today. Thanks again.
Above is a picture of this machine. Also I have included a picture of the two lights that came on while pulling into my yard with it. Note the temperature gauge. I have not bought the operator's or service manual....YET...because the previous owner believes he may have them. Can you guys tell me what we are looking at? This can't be good....... Oh...also this machine seemed very resistant to get moving in 4th gear. Hydrostatic tranny with a "fwd-N-rev" shuttle lever on the steering column. (This seemed like maybe a normal thing...but not sure.) doesn't appear that you can shift on the fly???? Maybe have to stop, select the gear you want then move the shuttle lever out of neutral to either fwd or rev. Thanks again for you input! Justin
one light on the right is oil pressure the other one should be trans temp [some model shows to a flasher indicatior instead of trans temp],,,,,,,,,,,,,no shifting on the fly,,yes very slow to take off in 4th gear,, should take off in 4th only if lever ground or a slop going down,,give it time in 4th or will damage tran
post pics of the two tanks??
yes can view the two pics,,, but can't see the tanks?? my shop manual says not shift gears when rolling
sry for keeping writing on this post,, 555a doesn't have dual hydraulic tanks.. hyd tank is behind the radiator and is accessed thru a door on top of hood..there will a fill cap with a dipstick attached to it, your last post showed in my email but on this site
Hi Jim G, I'm on the road at the moment so I can't get those pics of the tanks, but it believe the information you gave me was good. Power steering on left side up near the radiator and engine oil service port on the right side. I checked the tranny fluid and rear end??? levels before I moved it and they looked great. Clean and serviced right up. I did not try to grease the joint that connects the hydraulic pump to the front of the crankshaft, but I will give it a shot. I wonder if I was asking too much from it today coming up the long gradual hill to my house. I had it in third and was right on the throttle.. I can see how a hydrostatic tranny would make a lot of heat if it's slipping. But...didn't sound like it was slipping? I'll get those pics of the tanks when I get home on Sunday...and give her another try to see if the lights come on....being a bit more patient this time with my use of the gears and speed that I ask from it. I'm disappointed to hear what those lights mean but.....Thanks! Justin
Don't worry too much about those lights coming on once, if you'd just driven it up a hill in third and then idled it down. I'd be inclined to add an oil pressure gauge, even if it's just temporary, so you can see what's going on with the oil temp. And use a temp gun to check the transmission temperature the first few times you work it, just to get a feel for how it works and to make sure the idiot light is coming on when it should. And it wouldn't hurt to blow the crud out of the radiator and check the belt.
That sounds good. I will definitely install an oil pressure gauge. Also, I did notice the other day that the fan belt IS really loose. Couldn't see the adjuster to tighten it, but I'll find it. Got a friend in the fire department who has one of those temp guns who might be able to confirm how hot the tranny is getting.
That thing is a cream puff. You have everything but an X-stick. If you bought it for $5K you stole it. The problems can be sorted out and fixed. You own a brick s..thouse. She'll take abuse and ask for more. I have one sans EROPS and used to know just about everything necessary to keep it going. I think I've forgotten more than I retained but the manuals usually revive the dead cells. Don't stress. Ten years from now you'll wonder how you managed without it for so long. Your gauge problems may all be electrical. If either one or the other light was on, I'd start to wonder. With both, I'd stress less. There's an answer and the probability that the engine oil pressure is low is minimal. You checked the engine oil level before moving and you can now verify engine oil pressure with a service gauge. The two lights in your picture depict air cleaner restriction (left light) and engine oil pressure warning (right light). As for your shift on the fly problem, she doesn't have synchros so you have to get it rolling, shift the shuttle into neutral on the column and grab 4th. The synchros first appeared with the B model. Pull the front grill and lube the pump driveline. What kind of controls does she have for the backhoe; Ford or wobble stick. More later.
If you're talking about a thermal imager, that's overkill. You can get a good used non contact thermometer off fleabay for under $20 if you can wait a couple weeks for something to come up. Of course I was assuming that was the trans oil temp, or pressure. Could also be electrical, but if everything is hot and you idle it down, the oil pressure will drop, and the trans temp might go up because the flow drops so the cooling slows down slightly. But you'll figure out what's happening soon enough without guessing.
That's a real nice looking $5k hoe. Most places, if it runs and moves and you have function with the bucket and hoe, those are $5K. Yours looks a lot cleaner than a $5K hoe; more like $10k+. Except for the cab, that is exactly what I learned on 26 years ago. That size hoe is probably the most popular in the country, except in rock, you can do about anything with it. Keep it in the low gears, all you do in 4th is to scare yourself. I had my 5550 ONE time in 4th, going about 25 and with all the tire bounce, had a tough time keeping it in one lane. You'll save the torque convertor and tranny staying first and second. If you look in the archives, transmission problems are probably one of the most popular topics; and also one of the most expensive to fix. Splitting the hoe has a flat rate of one weekend, if you're fast. You can get a non contact thermometer from Harbor Freight for about $30, I use mine in the kitchen to tell when the fryer oil is up to temp...
I appreciate the encouragement. And excellent advice. I'll look into these things. I'm not sure what type of controls it has, but it does have only two levers. For now I can only do one thing at a time, but hope to be able to multi task with those levers...semi smoothly...before too long. Sure is cool to see it setting out there hogging up the whole driveway. I'll let you know what I find when I get home and can work on it some more. Justin
Two lever is JD/Wobble Stick and is what you see on current machines. Ford controls are 4 lever. You can pull your air filter the next time the restricted filter light lights up. Just make sure there's no dirt in the air cleaner that can be sucked inside. The inner filter, if of Ford or NH manufacture, should have a date code on it. It would be a good idea to replace it if its more than a few years old. You're going to find out those lights are courtesy a mouse or two. Pull the panel under the dash and take a look at the harnesses. There's four screws to remove. You'll identify it quickly by the brake linkage. It enters the lower left hand corner. So do the mice. Your fuse holders are in the center of the panel. Your fan belt tension is controlled by the alternator. If the belt needs to be replaced, you'll have to remove your pump drive to install the new one. Does that cab have A/C or just heat.
Great information! I can't wait to get started on these things. The air filter is definitely dirty. The cab has only heat. Speaking of mice....Man is that overhead console loaded up with mice litter. I suspect nothing works up there. I was afraid to hit any of the switches because I didn't want the heating elements to catch that stuff on fire. I'll pull it all apart and get things working. The cab is a bit rough. Rust here and there. The floor is really heavily rusted from the floor mat holding moisture. I pulled the padding off and I'll put the floor mat back in.
Just a quick update: I tightened the alternator belt. It seems like the warning lights may in fact be an electrical glitch. They flicker on and off in unison with the slightly erratic tachometer. I haven't gone digging for what the problem may be. I've been dealing with leaks. One stabilizer had a stripped port on its cylinder. One of the roll cylinders on the bucket needs to be repacked. I've got them in the back of the truck and will drop them off tomorrow. Put a new inner and outer air cleaner in it. Hadn't been changed since 1988. Napa gold: 100.00....yikes. Been looking on ebay at exhaust stacks. Mine is rotted out at the bottom of the silencer where rain water has pooled. I suspect that the cheap ones on ebay are straight through designs which might let a little rain water run directly into the engine. If I'm going to buy a straight through design, I thought maybe a cool alternative might be a stainless steel round magnaflow with say....a three or four inch chrome or stainless stack on top. Would look good and last the life of the machine, but may be a bit loud which I'm not too keen on. I'm Pondering that. Any thoughts? Note: If I had a well cammed 460 Ford under the cowl, I'd run straight stacks. Either way, from this day forward I'll keep the stack on the little 3 cylinder covered when not in use. I've been greasing things (greased the hyd. pump joint etc.) and removing crud from all the nooks and crannys which is helping me to assess what needs to be done. Cleaned up 1/4 of an inch of rust and slag from the cab floor. I may hit the floor with a little sandblasting and black paint before I throw the mat back in. Maybe put new seat cushions in. But don't want to go too crazy worrying about cosmetic stuff until I know I've got it mechanically sorted out. I have yet to actually dig anything with it. One of my daughters has also shown an interest in getting to run it.. which makes me happy. We'll get there. Justin
you can get muffler shop to build you a stack with a turn out at the top like ford has, my indicators lights were giving trouble like yours. found the probably to be at the wiring connector going thru the fire wall,,that is located behind the panel below steering wheel,, high on the right side. I have wiring diagrams. let me know when get to needing them
It doesn't matter what muffler you put on it, you need a 90 degree turn or a rain cap at the top.
oops forgot your exist muffler probably has an offset center inlet. I went to muffler had them select right inlet size muffler and build short stack with turn out. all for less than 50 bucks it has the orginal good ford sound
Yes, mine is presently offset which I think helps to protect from water getting in the engine. You'd have to put a lot of water in that stack before it would run down the exhaust manifold. I'll bet that stack, which is stamped "ford" is expensive.
If you cut it open you'll find it is built with tiny holes in the center pipe, which isn't the full length of the muffler. Even if it isn't, one little rust hole, then jump on and spin the engine over, you'll be buying a connecting rod, if not a head and piston. A $5 rain flap is cheap insurance. There's a reason nothing comes from the factory with open top vertical exhaust.
Good point! I'll probably go with a cap and put something over it to boot when not in use.