Not that anyone else cares, but got my hoe put back together this week...well, got the tranny in, pulled the case together and welded up the bucket arms. I dont have the Hoe put back on yet though, need to change the injector O-rings on the return lines, and then will change some hoses as I rebuild the rams.

Once the Loader part is up to snuff, Ill start on the Hoe.

 

I was wondering how you were doing on it, just didn't know how to segue into the topic from another post.

Were the bucket arms cracked, and if so where? Right by the cross brace? We've had to weld the right arm there three times now, even built a huge gusset for it. Right now I'm rebuilding one of the loader tilt cylinders, just seemed to be a good time to do it since it was leaking all over the area that keeps cracking and I took it off to get it out of the way anyhow.

Have you got a lot of experience running a 580, or any backhoe, Mike?

 

I care, congrats on your accomplishment. It is a Ford isn't it? JK

 

Yeppers, the factory weld came off the crossmember to arm...and then started to crack underneath.

Kinda looked like "T".

I had a buddy come by to give it a Once over and we laid out the 1/2 plate to use.

Ofourse my welds and plates cuts look awesome) but in reality, he saved me a few days of work...I'd have been cutting out the original X-member and making a new one.

It good to have friends that know things like that, heck between work and home and stuff, replacing that X member would have taken me 3 to 4 weeks, all said and done, we we're completed in about 3 hours.

 

Oh, and as far as experience, color me in the black, I peter'ed around abit 25+ years ago digging some trenches and holes and such, and I've run a lot of farm equipment over the years, but am no where near or even close to, beng an accomplished digger.

I have about 3 hoe/trench projects to get done before I venture out back next to the neighbors fence line, I'm hoping I have a good enough feel for it by then to be able to clean the ditch and not pay for 165+ feet of fence

 

One thing to watch out for with the old 580B is the neutral safety switch. A lot of folks over the years have disconnected them for whatever reason. Ours doesn't work, for one.

A local guy was killed a few months ago when he reached over to start his 580 from the side of the machine while working on it, and found out the hard way that he'd left the shuttle lever and the tranny in gear. It pulled him under the rear tire and spun on him for about 45 min. till someone came along. It wasn't pretty.

The moral of the story...please get in the habit of only starting the machine while seated in the operator's seat. I'm guilty of doing otherwise in the past, but I always think twice now.

 

Yes, my switch is bypassed as well.

Real good advice!

 

Mike, here's a pic for you:

(Click the pic)

This was taken at work, but right now we've got the hoe up on a hillside piece of property that my boss owns in Cobb, clearing brush, trenching for a culvert, grading a driveway and leveling a pad. Friday I was trenching for the culvert and when I was done I turned the seat back around and found oil all over the place. I sute it down and started looking for the source, tracked it to the radiator overflow. Seems the transmission cooler in our rebuilt radiator (replaced when I rebuilt the engine a few months back) sprung a leak, forcing pressurized transmission oil into the cooling system. I disconnected and baypassed the cooler (it was cold day so I felt it would be OK for a while) and got back to work, but now I have yet one more thing to fix when I get it back off the mountain. Sometimes these older machines can really be a PITA...

 

They are a PITA, but who wants to spend 30K-40K on a newer machine and never have a problem?

 

Yeah, that's no fun...

 

What I think "it's all about" is that we will spend our lives wrenching, rebuilding and fixing things and become experts on stufff.

But by the time we do become an expert, we'll be too old to be of any use to anyone.

 

Uh oh, by that philosophy I'm already done...

 

Well, I must thannk yo for bringing this thread back up!!!

It reminded me I needed to change the injector Orings on my Hoe...so out I went, found the orings I had stashed, and fired it back up to see which one was leaking....

Took a real hard look at things and figured out the injectors werent leaking, but the line going to it was, garbbbed a few wrenches, tightened up the fittings, and no more fuel leak!!!

So now Im going to get ambitious and rebuild my cylinders on the loader today, I hope I have enough parts to do it.

Yessir, yesterday was a fluke, today the sun is shining and I'm making progress!

 

Hmm, you wouldn't happen to have a spare injector pump laying aroung that you might let go of, would you? Ours leaks from the throttle shaft (badly) and I can't afford the downtime to take it off and ship it out to have it rebuilt. I hear there's a place in Sac. or thereabouts that does it, but they're really slow.

 

Naw, I'm real limited on Case parts = zero

ONly extra parts I have are drive train parts, and even those don't mstch my tractor.