IH 100C, worth the work?

Lets start this out with thanks for looking and I'd appreciate any feedback

Bulldozers aren't really my specialty, I deal more with ag equipment for a living. Nonetheless I found a project that was local and bought for around scrap metal price and I'm looking for some advice. Will be a farm machine 50 hours or so a year in use, with maybe the odd additional project. So with that said, here's the machine, it's a 100C IH.



Engine runs great, steering works, transworks, hydraulics are strong. Needs a water pump (easy), and the transcooler patched (easy) Onto the issues...

Machine seems to have gotten new chain/sprockets before the owner died and it sat for years. Chain's pretty frozen. The fellow who moved it out of the woods cut into the bushings to 'oil' the links... Will be hauling off the chain when I fix the leaks and taking down to the track press. Can the bushings be welded shut and re-used facing away from the sprocket? I know this would eliminate rotating them later, but I'll never put enough hours in my life to wear them out. Or should I bite the bullet and replace the bushings along with the odd pin?




Also I have a broken recoil spring. I've found replacements easily enough, but they seem welded in place? Haven't gotten my service manual in the mail yet, but I'll assume I'll have to cut the spring up and then torch the cover off? Is the cover/brackets available anywhere or will I need to fab a new one?



One idler will need to be rebuilt (loose) and one is good. Will replace the seals in the tensioner and clean them up if I remove the track. Seems I can get wear strips to weld in as well for the idler to replace the worn ones.



Oh and one last question, I'll assume grease is not supposed to come out of where the red circle is when you tension?

Tighten the grease fitting down it is also a valve to relieve the tension . I had a old AC dozer that sat for years with new tracks and they froze up just kept running them and they loosened up but were so rusted that the tracks lost there pitch and were shot so I would not put a lot of time in them maybe run them for a wile welding them might effect the hardness but at 50 hours a year they would probably be ok to weld them if you can without welding them to the pin

you can try tracking though water as suggested on other threads it worked on a hoe we bought but that had only sat a year not much to loose though

Nice find 100c !

IH 100 track loader with 4 in 1 bucket on front & backhoe attachment on the rear .

Little wrenching and it will be " Great Again " !

Run the chain until it falls apart .

Good idea hacking in to the bushings with a torch to free them up .

Trying to think of a job that rig cant handle ?

Still thinking about it . LOL

td25c said:

Nice find 100c !

IH 100 track loader with 4 in 1 bucket on front & backhoe attachment on the rear .

Little wrenching and it will be " Great Again " !

Run the chain until it falls apart .

Good idea hacking in to the bushings with a torch to free them up .

Trying to think of a job that rig cant handle ?

Still thinking about it . LOL

Click to expand...

Agreed, those chains will run a long time at the anticipated level of usage

Bill that rig out for $ 125.00 an hour on site and the new chains will show up .

Those are nice tractors !

I’d love to have it. I need something to drag logs out and load them up. Need to get next years firewood racked up and seasoning!

If anybody finds a gem let me know!

Those combo rigs were pretty common in my area growing up .

Those old cats made money with them .

Generally removed the hoe for extensive loader work . They remove & install fairly quick .

You name it they would take that combo unit and getter done .

I missed a deal on a JD 450 C combo last year .

Crane Operator found one nearby that doesn’t seem to be a bad deal. Can’t seem to pry my wallet open quite that far.....lol

Always an issue, isn't it. LOL

I have the same problem at times, maybe for the better....

Theweldor said:

Always an issue, isn't it. LOL

I have the same problem at times, maybe for the better....

Click to expand...

It usually is for the better. Mine would open that far....just don’t have the gumption to get it there!

Are all the bushings cut like that? on the outside or are some on the inside? I'd use acetone and transmission fluid mix before you use it and see what happens. Being that tight with oil and possibly grease still in there, I don't think water will work as well. Water is nice for penetrating rusted tight stuff, and for working the rust out of the joint once it's broken loose a little bit, I just don't think the water will penetrate well with the oil and grease.

From my experience they never come loose
We have tried heat, oil soaks etc.
The last set I had like that was on a 125e and I had them pressed out cleaned recoiled and reinstalled.

Yeah I don't expect the tracks to free up, but I have been soaking them in diesel/atf. I'll give it a shot once I get the leak/water pump fixed. I'll have to remove the track to fix the tensioner, idler, and recoil spring, so it's looking like the track press will be the solution either way.

So if I take the track into the shop to be pressed apart, I'm leaning towards repairing the bushings. I'd assume that I can weld the torch holes shut once apart and have them pressed back together with the welded side away from the sprocket? Any thoughts on this anyone?

Also got the service manual in today, looks like most of it is fairly simple, just heavy. Looks like I can get parts for the idler, rollers, and tensioner. The recoil spring however is a problem. Has anyone here repaired a recoil spring on one of these? Looks like it's an assembly welded onto the rail. I can get a new/recoil spring itself, but looks like I will have to fab up a copy mount, and cut the original off?

Anyhow I'll likely pull the hydraulic coolers off tomorrow for repair, and the radiator to be flushed out and bc it's in the way of the water pump being removed.

Not sure what I will do with the backhoe, I think I'll be taking it off and storing it. Might be useful someday even though I've an excavator already. Can't wait to try out the 4:1 bucket though

The backhoe during use as a loader will be problematic, in the way, off balance and pressuring the final drives/sprockets. Best to set it off until needed. A track shop can press the bushings out/in and rotate them as they do to set them away from wear, no necessity to weld up as they are open at both ends. The recoil spring assembly should have a removeable end cap where it is fitted, someone may have welded it in the past. New one will have to be caged the old one need to torch as many links as need to so pressure if fully OFF before attempt to remove.

100c--I've had two crawlers with backhoe attachments, one my JD350, which is about the size of your IH, and a JD 555 which was quite a bit bigger machine. The 555 had a 4-in-1 bucket and it was the handiest thing, ever, for what I was doing (mainly clearing trees and cleaning up). No dragging or rolling a tree to the pile--just pick it up and away you go. Same with moving brush piles or posts or even big rocks. The backhoe on the 350 works far better than I would have imagined--I've dug trenches for waterlines and trenches for foundations. The waterline trench was basically to bedrock (up to 6' in places) and a couple hundred feet long--I don't think I spent more than 30 minutes on it. But--the backhoe is off of the machine 90% of the time. It is just too much weight on the back of the little 350! On the other hand, I left the hoe on the 555 most of the time because it was a better match weight-wise and balanced the heavier 4-in-1. You'll have to be the judge of how the balance works on yours. I don't know how your hoe attaches (probably not much different than mine), but the 350 hoe is off or on in just a few minutes. It is an acquired skill, to be sure, to know what levers to move to line up the holes! But once you learn, it's a piece of cake.

I often wish someone made similar machines now--smallish, simple, affordable, and capable. Nothing fancy needed--just a reliable tool. Good luck with that IH! I know you will have boat-loads of fun with it!

Yeah I think the backhoe will be less than ideal for most things, made it quite annoying to load onto a trailer as well. Center of gravity is not right with it on. I'm pretty sure it will spend most of it's life in the pole barn, but who knows it does work as it should. Looks easy to remove, will definitely require some fiddling though. The 4:1 looks ideal for land reclamation, think it will do everything Machines bigger than a 350, closer to a 450, but smaller than a 555 for sure. It's basically a td7 with an IH d206.

I'll definitely be bringing the tracks into the local shop with a track press. Doesn't look like I can get new bushings, so I'll be repairing the torch scars and turning the welded side away from the sprockets.

The recoil spring does look like it has caps that can be salvaged, and I'll be cutting it up into smaller parts before I remove. Don't like the idea of getting popped by one under load. Will likely have the shop cage the new spring and then I'll modify the old mounting. May well have questions when I get to that stage of the repair.

Removed the transmission cooler and the bulk cooler to haul off for repair, we are lucky to have a great radiator shop around the corner. Waiting on that water pump before I pull the radiator...

Finally had time to put the new water pump in, will now be waiting for new hoses and filters all round for the machine. Should have the repaired trans cooler back shortly. Neat to find reversible fan blades Need to scrape oout all the debris and then pressure wash again...

i`m looking at reversible blades in the pic above

Have a similar hub for my Allis, going to rebuild it as best as can when swap radiators out where can trust it better.