Pretty cold here today so I figured I’d start a Case 780 backhoe thread to give some attention to the big guy standing in the corner. Thoughts, opinions and stories of these great old workhorses welcome. Here’s mine trying to sneak up on me... And the last day above freezing digging out a parking spot for my d6b
The 780's sure are big ! Do you have a functional cab heater in it ? Did you ever get a thumb on the backhoe ? I have my 680 in my shop trying to fix all the air leaks in the brake lines. A few years ago I replaced all of the old lines with hydraulic hoses. Does your 780 hold air pressure good ? Why is your backhoe orange and the tractor is yellow ?
Hi Tinkerer. I do have a heater in the cab. It works great. I have not put a thumb on the tractor as of yet. I hope to tackle that before I really get rolling on this latest road project because it would sure help. I ended up changing both master cylinders on my brakes so they work very well now. I can lock both brakes. They are both attached to the same air line though which is wrong and I can’t operate the brakes individually as a result. Napa had the mc’s. My air pressure will drop from sitting but builds pressure up to 135psi when running and holds it well. My air tank does accumulate quite a bit of oil though. I blew a hose that was rigged up on the bottom of the hydraulic tank. That cost me a fair bit of fluid! I do need to put some maintenance in on some little things like light switches and the charging system is weak. As for the colour, the previous owner must have gotten a good deal on yellow. He painted over decals and over the foot windows too!
Individual brakes are a must have for me. It shouldn't be too difficult to sort out your lines to fix them. I was getting LOT of oil in my air tank also. The compressor piston rings were wore out. It still pumped enough air to maintain 125 psi tho. I replaced the air compressor with a rebuilt one I found on EBay. It was such a good deal that I emailed the seller and got another one cheaper. He had fifteen of them on a shelf and no market for them. The online Case parts manual shows the air hose routing in great detail if you are interested. "As for the colour, the previous owner must have gotten a good deal on yellow. He painted over decals and over the foot windows too" That is quite funny !!
Post a picture of the 6B if you do not mind sometime. I have been waiting on that one!
You gotta go to South Africa to see this one.
I have one closer than that to me! I need to go crank her though. The neighbor had one in running condition, but I have not seen it in a few years.
Ha! Maybe I should have started a “What have you done with your D6B” thread lol. Both rare birds! On the acmoc forums my handle is Dizzel. I have a decent thread on getting mine and getting it up and running. It’s been great. A real workhorse. I still use the original buzz bomb pony motor too. This pic is from the fall. I pulled a seacan, one ton truck, and trailer up our local ski hill. Then the club had me do some trail clearing since I was up there! A fun day that paid for some skiing
Great looking machine. You see them around every now and then, but not that often. I did not know any of them had a pony motor.
Here’s a video of my machine and the start procedure I use.
That video brings back memories of a D8 with a pony I ran back in the early 80"s. Thumbs up from me too! Thanks for posting!
Well I had a bendix explosion the other day. I have one on its way. The pinion well.... what do you think of the damage to the flywheel? I am going to run it.
Did you rotate the flywheel one full turn and check for any missing teeth ? If there is it is going to have short life.
I have not. I will check
Ok so my bendix showed up two days early so I went ahead and replaced and reinstalled everything. No broken teeth on flywheel and I took a small hand pump and pumped a bunch of diesel fuel in the starter hole letting it drain out the cover at the bottom of the bellhousing. Lots of small metal particles but no more big chunks. I also swept the bottom numerous times with a magnet. The old 780 fired right up and ran fine. Off to work tomorrow!
When you’ve got to move rocks with a backhoe this is a nice one to have. Great to have it up and running again.
Kinda scary looking there Fletcher.
Yes Tinkerer. A poor wrap I agree. I had it spooled all nice when my dad was here to help out but I’ve been working solo. It’s not too high on my priority list to spool it better because I have to bring the winch in off the tractor while I feed the cable correctly. If I get snagged in it as this happens I’m a dead man.
Hello, I have a 1979 Case 780 extend a hoe and was wondering if I can get the contact info for the person who sold you the compressor. I am in desperate need of one with governor and can't use my machine because it is spitting out oil like crazy. Tony.
Welcome to HEF, Tony !! I made that purchase 4 or 5 years ago. I will try to find where I bought it. I know he no longer has listed anything on ebay even back then. You may have to start contacting salvage yards. I don't know when Case started using water cooled air compressors on the 680 and 780 tractors. But they did. So beware of getting one of those instead of an air cooled one.
I just purchased one last week and I bought it for the same reason, rocks. It runs great but I am busy changing hoses and boom cylinder packing due to the machine sitting for a while. Do you have counter weights welded to your front bucket. My machine does because the backhoe on this machine is massive and weighs a lot.
Much appreciated if you can find something. I really want to restore my beast as I call it because it is massive.
Can you post a couple of photos of your air compressor ? There are big differences which model compressors were used in these tractors and I don't want you to get the wrong one.
This is the one I have.
This looks like the one I have, model 300 I believe. The rubber cap on the governor is identical. I will double check in the morning.
This is an exact duplicate of the OEM compressor in the 680C parts book. I purchased it for a spare because they are nearly impossible to find. I spent many hours on the internet searching for it. Walker's Air Brakes 921 E Francis St. Ontario, CA 91761 Phone -- 909-947-1141
Thank you for the info and reply. I will try and contact them tomorrow to see what they have left.
Please let us know if you were able to get the compressor.
I believe my compressor is not an OEM compressor. I power washed it to look at the serial number and the compressor is a Bendix compressor Tu-Flo-400. My tractor should be a 300 series according to the book. The governor however is the original part and fits on the compressor. I will contact the number you gave me tomorrow to see what he has in stock, hopefully shipping won't be too much.
The 780Ck's came with either a 300 or 400 depending on when the tractor was made. A 300 is capable of pumping more air than your 780 will ever need at any given time. I would buy whichever one is available. Provided the belt pulley fits both of them. The taper on the crankshafts may be different sizes. I just don't know. The people at Walker's will know, I am sure.
Thank You for the info. I will call them today and find out.
I doubt anyone is there today. It is a National Holiday in the US.
I finally received the compressor after it being held at the border for over a week. A rebuild kit costs more than the entire compressor, who would have thought. I purchased the last one he had. Thanks for all your help in tracking down the compressor.