Finally got around to pulling apart the pins on my Takeuchi TB153FR after I broke the pin again frost ripping As I suspected on the one side the entire bushing is gone and it's worn into the stick, from a quick tape measure it's 1/16" one way and 1/8" the other way. The odd part is the other side there is still lots of bushing left for about 2/3 of the way then nothing left. I attached a few pictures. Is line boring a must? I called one place and they figured you could weld the loose end of the bushing, or fill in a bit of the worst spots grind it, or even try to get a machine shop to taper the bushing for a better fit? I was quoted from $700-$1000 for line boring I pulled all 4 pins at the bucket linkage, 1 has zero play whatsoever, i'm assuming I should replace anyway? Should I also replace the pins in all of them, 2 for sure but the other 2 don't seem worn at all. Dealer said in most cases people replace bushing and the pins last 2 sets of bushings? Machine has 4000 hours on it now, so either way it will be a long long time if parts last even 2000 hours. Also i'm curious at what point should a pin/bushing be replaced? As soon as there is any play? I noticed the bushings are quite big and it would take a ton of play before anything is worn past the bushing. There is some play at one of the pins where the boom attaches to the house, not a lot but it is there.
That's just weird, it looks as though maybe the bushing got loose in there and then cracked into pieces and fell out. That's the only way I could see one side wear soooo much compared to the other. I believe the line boring may be the best way, especially if you're keeping the machine for a bit, by the time you mess around with welding and grinding, or getting tapered bushings made it could be line bored and you'll be back to work and be able to use OEM bushings in the future.
Is taking the stick off and sending to a machine shop less expensive than line boring ? Seems like a competent shop should be able to manage a small stick like the Tak has. Bore and weld in a sleeve for new OEM bushings.
If you have 4K on your 153FR I would check the play in the side to side pivot system. I replaced those bushings last year at 3K. The machine gets the life greased out of it, but with a lot of hammer and hoe pack work, it takes a toll. I love that excavator but there is a lot of moving parts on them.
Line bore is cheaper compared to machine shop around here...but cheap is relative...lol
I hope Op checks with a couple of shops to let us know the costs relative to line boring. Seems to me the set up time is about the same but turning a sleeve on a lathe is less cost than welding up the sleeve equivalent and then turning it for the bushings. Plus travel time to the site.
I cant do pin bores on my lathe....i have to use my milling machine...the set up on the mill is a pain....the line bore guy sets up in no time and trues everything to itself...mill cant do that. He does it for 600 a hole cnd.
i just rebuilt 3 boom cylinders on my tb145. 3400 hours. I made a 3' wide bucket for it to run field lines. I bought a solid piece of 3.5 round bar and had them mill out the center for a hole 20 tho bigger than my pin size of 1.74. I used this as the new bucket bosses with no bushings since it does not turn in the bucket. The boss on the end of the arm could be torched off and re-welded with mild steel if you have a fat piece of mild in the 4" range. Bore it to hold new bushing if you must. Probably cost you a day of welding and a 100 for some machining. I also used a piece of mild round bar for some new wider pin material drilled and bored the center hole for a grease path to the middle. I believe there are 3 bushings in the end of the boom arm. In in the middle and one on each side with small raceways for the grease to pass through on the end ones. One side of mine is egged some. I put in a new bushing in it and it will fall/slide right back out. I cut some thicker washers out of the bored solid round bar which closes the gap between the bucket and the bushing and keeps it in place side to side. I use it egged. I don't think it really matters unless the bushing breaks into pieces under the odd stresses of digging. With out the chrome plating on my new pins you must make sure and keep it well greased and clean other wise it will rust up. Septic work is great for that. My new bucket uses a 14" pin vs the stock bucket using a 9" wide pin. The mild steel will not last as long but I will toss em and make a few more once they bend or scar up. Each pin, and bushing cost me about an hour of machine time to have made. I had to remove my boom arm and have the part that attaches the arm to the house welded and rebored. $800 to fix that part, the new pins were $1000.00. The new housing was $5k and back ordered when i did that. It removed about 8 or 10"s of side slop. It runs a nice straight trench now. The 145 runs the 36" bucket nice unless I hit rock. THen it has a harder time. Best thing I have ever used on my ex. It will move dirt fast... I do not side load the bucket or abuse the setup with off centered digging. I believe it would bend the boom arm. I have also avoided a grapple for that reason...
It would probably not be much different, but a ton of time to remove stick. For them to come to me to line bore it's about $250/hr, bring it to them to bore half the price at 4-6 hours.
One of the front ones has a tiny bit of play that started recently, so yes i'm going to need to do some work to those fairly soon. Did you replace all 4 of those pins/bushings? The front ones seem easy, but the back one's i'd imagine you'd almost have to take the cab off, and they'd still be virtually impossible to replace? I grease the heck out of the machine though. I've had it for about 1000 hours, not sure if it's ever ran a hoe pack or hammer, it has a thumb but it's plumbed straight in, no tee or easy way to connect any attachments. I do run a 42" bucket sometimes though, so I know it's pretty big. The biggest problem is the wain roy coupler. I shimmed all the buckets tight last spring, lasts maybe 50 hours and there's play in them again. Was tempted to buy a new one, i've had to weld it up in 3 different spots now because of cracks/tears in the metal but it was like $1500 so i'll keep welding it up. Might not look pretty but it gets the job done. If I could buy it again I wouldn't get the side to side, it has come in handy a lot but for the work I do now it's straightforward stuff where I don't use it much. But it's been extremely reliable and I will keep it for a long time yet unless I start having a lot of problems with it.
On the advice of a shop here I am going to weld in a bit of the worst spots, grind it flat and just throw a new bushing in and see how it lasts. They figure it should last as good as boring because of the size of the machine and such a small area. And this is the shop who does line boring, the fact that there are basically talking themselves out of work was nice that they are being honest that it's not a big deal.
It is not unheard of to cut that boss out of the end of that stick and weld in a new one with the original factory bushings.... or maybe it is. I have done this a few times on machines a lot larger than yours. If you can throw a cat threw the bores it is more cost effective to start new than try to repair what is there. I have 2 line boring systems. I try to look at the most cost effective way to repair a machine, not necessarily line my pockets.
I had all 4 replaced. It was a task, I paid the dealer to do it. I came out on that one.
Mind me asking how many hours they charged for labour? Curious how bad of job it is.
It's actually not to bad 2/3 of the length it is fine, the last 1/3 it tapers out slowly by the end it is 1/8" one way and 1/16" the other way.
Finally got parts ordered. Few insane things, 3/4 pins were cheap at dealer, between $80-95 not bad right I doubt a machine shop would do better. The main pin? $570!! The one I got made up last year was only $200 so I will be getting it made up. The other insane thing? The thumb and coupler bushings are not sold, when the guy was on the phone asking Takeuchi their comment was if they are wore out they expect to replace entire part! That is exactly why there is replaceable bushings so you don't need to! I'm not paying $1100 for a new coupler to replace 4 $30 bushings..... So got to find machine shop to make new bushings for those parts. Maybe they didn't need replacing, but i'm taking it apart I want to replace absolutely everything so I never have to take it apart again.
Well I have learned one thing, it's a million times better to just order the parts from the dealer then a machine shop. Got the parts back today, and they are wrong. The pin OD is too small, and therefore all 6 bushing for the coupler/thumb are too. The new bushings won't slide by hand onto my old pins even. Also in my opinion the pin they made up compared to their bushings it's too loose, the pin slides like nothing and there is almost even a hair of play now. I don't know how they screwed it up so badly, I brought them the coupler, thumb, old pin, and old bushings. The shop who made up the new pin last year only had the old pin (exact same pin I gave this shop) and they made it the proper size. Still haven't got parts from dealer, going to wait and see what those are like, if they are tighter I will just make them re-make everything. Not happy that iwas $760 either, the pin I got made up before was only $210. $550 for 6 bushings is insane, bushing from dealer are roughly $30 a piece. And the parts from the dealer still aren't in, suppose to be end of last week even paid for rush shipping, then it was today, now middle of week. New dealer certainly isn't making a good first impression.... My thinking is the easiest fix is for them to make 2 bushing for inside the stick to match up with their pin and 4 bushings, then make bigger their other 2 bushings to match up to everything else. It's not a whole lot of difference, I would bet they measured the pin where is was worn and it's like a 1/16" maybe.
It is expensive to make a one of machine part .Make 100 pieces price per piece goes down
If you don’t have a print - then they have to give it there best guess based on there experience and skill level. If they are not real experienced at this type work, you won’t get good results, and it will cost you more - due to there lack of experience. A machine shop with truly skilled people that can do this type work are rare now days, and like said above - low volume is expensive for any type of machined part.
Don't you have shops with Universal pins and bushings over there? Here in scandinavia we have shops that sells the most standard ones. And if they don't have an bolt in the right size I just order one a little too long and cut the side without greasnip. And most important it's a lot cheaper than the originale. https://www.lsengineers.co.uk/mini-excavator-digger-spare-parts.html Here they have som for the mini excavators.
A few years ago I bought a used Takeuchi TB135. There was a lot of play in the pins and bucket as it was a used United Rental. Everyone seemed to tell me this was "normal". Not long after I got it the first pin broke. I bought a new one from United rental for $400. That broke and I bought another pin for $400. In the mean time I had a machine shop make up a few. When the OEM pin broke again, I installed a machine shop one that was suppose to be better. We had also adjusted the grease fitting to be through the stick and not through the pin. This one broke also! I didn't think we were doing anything abusive. No slamming or tree stump yanking etc. One day we were digging and saw a big piece of round steel lying in the dirt. We did not know what it was, but it looked like a short busing. Then we found the bushing that moves the stick side to side had fallen out. There is a blind threaded bolt that had broken off into the casting and the stick was not not really attached to the machine. We managed to get the bushing back in and I inserted another bolt. When the engine blew (turns out the air filter cover had come loose and got dirt in and ruined the engine) we got rid of the machine and I bought a new Takeuchi TB240. Later on we learned that there was some manufacturing problems going on with the pins. I also learned, don't buy a machine if the pins and bushings are severely worn, and never buy a machine if the air filter housing has cracks and difficulty in attaching the housing cover. Seems like the air filter cover simple clips are a stupid design.
I agree the those wire clips are a BS design. I have had to replace the cover on mine due to the wire clips breaking. I prefer the air filter covers that rotate to a lock position and then depress a tab like my CASE machines have. I believe they are made by Donaldson.
Good to know about the air filter, I will pay special attention to mine, but it's never given me an issue. As far as the machine shop, I gave them the original pin, same as the shop that made the one up last year and it was perfect size, they measured the pin in a worn spot for sure. They definitely are not experienced at all. Both of my pins have broken right at the grease part, but it is totally due to the play, I am not worried now with all new parts and buckets shimmed up tight. Actually 2/4 pins really diGoing to need to replace a few more bushings at the base of boom, but those can wait a bit.
Finally about done, got all bushings back in. Just got to re-assemble. Used dry ice to put bushings in, worked pretty good. I need to do the bushings just on the main pin of my 210 hoe, would dry ice and heating the stick a bit be enough to get those in? Are they about the same as far as tightness or should I expect more difficulty getting those in?
Well the pin broke again, same as the other 2 right at the grease fitting near the center. This one I don't understand, there is only maybe 500 hours on all new bushings and pin. I only run buckets and a ripper on the machine, no hammer or anything. My only guess is the material the shop used to make this pin was soft? Dealer thought maybe they didn't harden the pin? What about tapping the boom of the machine and getting a pin not drilled for the grease fitting? What can I do for a pin so this doesn't keep happening? Dealer wants $600 for a new pin, biggest problem is the new pin is slightly smaller as shop screwed up, and unless I replaced all 6 bushings with proper size i'd need to replace them as I don't think there is enough wear in the bushing yet and at $600 I definitely don't want a pin that's going to break in 500 hours again.
Unless you get some help from Takeuchi, sounds like you're on your own till the machine passes on. You might show the broken parts to a metallurgist (maybe an engineering school ?) to determine the failure mode. It appears the grease port is a weak area. Can you post a photo of the break ?
Here’s the broken pin. I don't think i'd even waste my time with Takeuchi they've never been helpful in the past. It's definitely related to the grease hole, 3 pins breaking in the exact same point. I'm just wondering why it's never broke at the drilled hole for the bolt as that's a much bigger hole. I'd think a pin with no holes would fair better, the only concern is making sure all the bushings are getting adequate grease.
Suladas … From a class a long time ago, it appears to be a fatigue type failure. The image detail blurs out when enlarged. A fatigue failure starts at a defect or machining cut. (the grease hole) As the metal is alternately loaded & unloaded, the crack progresses across the metal. It's hard to see which end of the hole starts the crack... internal or outside. Look for a grain and propagation marks... like ripples on water. If it starts on the outside, a smooth rounded chamfer on the hole will help instead of the sharp edge. Solution either a new grease fitting on the stick or.... Since you need to have a new pin anyways... Chamfer the grease hole like a bugle horn not like a funnel with sharp edges. The rounder, smoother, larger 1.5 x hole diameter as a WAG. the better. Likely it starts there since any bending stress is highest at the OD. Here's some reading: https://clr.es/blog/en/prevent-fatigue-failure-mechanical-parts/ https://plant-maintenance.com/articles/rcfa.shtml http://www.niagaralasalle.com/product-stressproof.html If this were a science experiment instead of your livelihood, I'd try using a ball peen hammer on the shaft grease hole. Creating residual compressive stress to counter the cyclic tension stress.
Took pin to shop they said it's definitely the weakness from the grease port. Getting a cylinder rod cut to length and going to just drill the ends to put caps on it, no holes for retaining bolt or grease to keep it as strong as possible. I believe 1 hole in stick and 2 in thumb should be sufficient to ensure the whole pin gets grease. Don't want to chance spending more money on a pin that will just break again.
The broken piece could have a sample taken and sent to a test lab for chemical composition and a rockwell hardness test. If there is a shop that has a hardness tester nearby that could also offer a clue. I have found on occasion the machine shops might be tempted to provide a steel that is easy to turn - maybe it has extra lead or some sulfur in the heat, or is simply referred to as cold rolled. Not my preference for heavy loading: I like to get some 4130 (which is available usually in a normalized version). The hydraulic cylinder rod steel could be a very good idea but also could be varied as to the type of metal. How I get material: I have found a trusted supplier who is aware that we are known to send samples to labs and have received replacement material as well as reimbursed for the lab test. All this seems like a unnecessary effort until there are problems and I have enough problems that require solutions LOL. New experience for me on a machine repair: Pins I recently bought for my Kubota mini were induction hardened and finish ground to a polish - some will say this provides nothing and that lathe turning is adequate. When I bought the pins & bushings I thought they were priced a little high but once in hand the fitment, the finish, etc was way better than I had experienced for other machines that I have investigated and repaired. Probably their thinking is: If the surface is induction hardened that will make the material wear longer but the majority of the pin remains softer and retains some ductility .... the general idea. As to the differentiating the material to try and assure the improvement in mechanical properties when embarking on a make ur own, one can utilize a grinder and do a spark test and a rockwell hardness tester helps to determine the strength, but when one has to separate say a 1040 from a 4130, these two methods are a little too broad and that is where the test lab will put the sample piece on a OESpectro. Full fingerprint chemistry emailed to you. I have heard about files to determine hardness and thought about trying these but the range is usually way up in the Rc and to separate the cold roll from the normalized crmo one needs to see the end of the B scale and the beginning of the C scale...sorry, wish it was easier to id these metals.
I figured for the cost of a new pin it just wasn't worth spending too much time on it. The guy I got the new pin from seemed pretty knowledgeable and seemed confident the old one wasn't good quality steel.