Hi. I am looking for advice. Can you tell me what I might do to repair my bucket or pins to keep bucket from disconnecting on right side of my severe duty rock grapple? My regular bucket and forks DO NOT have this problem; so, I assume it is a bucket issue more than a pin issue although my pins have seen better days. I have a sever duty grapple bucket on my L180 and if I put very little downward pressure, to get under a log, drag backwards, etc... the right side comes off. This is not good as it is a heavy grapple and all that torsion is not making the other side happy I am sure. I have some basic shop tools: welder, angle grinder, etc... Attached are a few pics. Thank you. -Mike
With out a better picture looking start towards the edge of the lower pin locking point I am guessing the problem is most likely the locking point lip being bent downward. The top lips where the wedge on the tractor fits in could also be bent allowing to much slack between the two. /welding a piece of strap across the bottom lip may solve your problem. Steve
I have had several old buckets do that, almost always it's the slot where you have the arrow. Yours don't look bad but it's possible that there was a manufacturing irregularity that resulted in too much clearance. Either way it can usually be fixed by welding a bead so the pin holds tight. I usually get in the machine and curl the bucket all the way down and observe the pin/slot interface while gently curling back and forth to see where the slack is.
Assuming the pins are hydraulic (vs manual), make sure they are greased up good. I wasn’t lubing my pins when I first had it (didn’t know they need grease) and it wasn’t latching properly (fully) on some attachments. Once I started greasing them, no mire problems, even in winter.
First, make sure the right side locking pin is going all the way down. If that's not the problem, measure from the weld on top of the pocket down to the bottom plate. In the first picture the bottom plate on the right side looks bent down, but that might just be the lighting.
Put the bucket on, try a feeler gauge between the top surface of the bucket, and the bottom surface, of the QD bracket. do both sides, so you know what the tolerance is. Then either cut the bracket off, and re-weld, or weld in a piece of shim stock. By all means, do check that the pin is fully down, and functioning properly...
Excellent. Thank you men!
I agree with checking the top lip. I have seen some attachments of mine that the upper lip of the attachment that holds the top of the QC bends outward and creates excessive slop. This is especially likely on buckets that you use to pry with. Also if your QC is hyd check that the coupler is not going over relief and relieving the pressure some how allow the pin to lose its down pressure. Also like mentioned if the bottom bracket that holds the bottom pins is bent that can cause the pin to pop out. I have also seen on attachments that I had made, if the slots that hold the bottom pins has too much gap from front to back that can cause the pins in the QC to pull out of the bracket. Pretty easy to fix by building up the inside edge of the hole in the bracket to hold the pins tighter in the slot.
That sounds good. I do not have a hydraulic pin. It is two levers, one for each side and they have a spring tension on them. -Mike
Check that pin and spring too...