Case 450B with 4 in 1 bucket - First machine!!!!!!!!!

[eganx]

So I bought 9 acres of land and am going to build a small house. The land is all wooded, so I need to do a lot of clearing. I decided I should just buy a machine as I will be using it a lot over the next few years. I found this Case 450B with a 4 in 1 bucket a few miles from the house. After checking it out and a little haggling I got it for 6k. 3600 hours on a full drive train rebuild. The undercarriage has been gone through twice in its life, and currently needs new pads, I'm just going to weld some 4140 1/2x1/2 square stock on instead. But.....my current question is about the hydraulic filter. The only filter I can find is a return line cartridge filter on the right side of the machine. The filter napa has is a very large spin on filter. Am I missing something? Is there a hydraulic filter I have failed to locate on the machine?

Any tips or advice on owning my first machine?

Other than that this thing is awesome!!! I changed the oil and filter, fuel filters, topped it off with hydraulic fluid, greased the pins and tightened up the tracks and went to town!!! The 4 in 1 is so versatile.....I should be able to do everything I need aside from trench for the foundation.

 

[DMiller]

Most machines of this era have a return hydraulic filter for major cleaning and a strainer in the suction to stop any larger debris, I suggest locating a service manual, either Jensales or eBay and look to that for direction. Wish I had waited a few months when I bought my Allis, a Case similar in size/near to price came up not long after and would have been a better buy for me, you got a good deal. Even as the pads are down I would measure out for rail wear, there does seem to be a lot of gapping at the pad edges, old girl may need new rails and shoes which would be well worthy of the investment. Should be 6" pitch on this one, 24.01 new measurement across four pins, 24.54 is 100% worn.

 

[eganx]

Most machines of this era have a return hydraulic filter for major cleaning and a strainer in the suction to stop any larger debris, I suggest locating a service manual, either Jensales or eBay and look to that for direction. Wish I had waited a few months when I bought my Allis, a Case similar in size/near to price came up not long after and would have been a better buy for me, you got a good deal. Even as the pads are down I would measure out for rail wear, there does seem to be a lot of gapping at the pad edges, old girl may need new rails and shoes which would be well worthy of the investment. Should be 6" pitch on this one, 24.01 new measurement across four pins, 24.54 is 100% worn.

Looks like my pins are at 24.25", so I pleased with that. Also, it appears there were two options for filters on that model. So I'm good.

When turning these machines, I use the hi-lo for most of my turning and only use the brakes when absolutely necessary. Its this correct? I'd rather avoid wear and tear on the brakes if I could, and thus far turning with the hi-lo seems to work.

I really enjoy the machine. Assuming nothing major fails that I cant fix(I'm a machinist and welder by trade) I think I did pretty well. I will definitely get my money out of the machine.

 

[thebaz]

Hi DMiller.
The hydraulic and Trans filters are under the right hand arm rest that you access by removing the panel covering the control valve.
I have a 455c and it has been a fantastic machine. The 450B was the result of years of improvements on the 450a and also a very good machine.
I find that for turning either method can be more difficult than the other depending on the situation. For tight turns the brakes are better but can cause the machine to dig in or hop depending on the terrain. The trans is better for digging or pushing while turning but can suffer loss of power due to one track being in a higher range. I generally let the machine feedback tell me what is easiest for it and do that.
I have adopted the habit of releasing the accelerator before moving the transmission levers as there is no modulation on all Case 400 series bar the last of the 455Cs. If you keep the throttle applied, the trans will slam from one range to the other hard, reducing the life of the tracks final drives and transmission. The brakes take forever to wear out, so don't be shy to use them, in fact they are more likely to go hard and become ineffective than wear out. I have never worn my disks out in 10000hrs but had to replace the brake components due the brakes performing poorly.
Do the normal maintenance and you should get years of good service from the 450B.
All the best.