1969 JD 450 track loader with 4 in 1 bucket.

LowBoy · Oct 24, 2017

I recently acquired a really pristine 450 JD track loader from an estate sale. It had an easy life in the underground utility cable installation industry. Never loaded trucks or dug dirt, just had a cable plow attached to the rear and carried a reel of cable on a custom built setup in the bucket.

It sat for a few years and in doing so a few of the steel hardlines from the valve body down were weak, so they were replaced. Then they previous owners went to move something with it and popped a main pressure line underneath it, that empties the transmission of 5 gallons in 2 minutes.

I have it home up on blocks, getting ready to drop the bellypan so I can do the repair. Looking for the veteran JD guys advice here, the bellypan on this 450 seems to have a set of hinges in the front, so I'm thinking that by removing the 3 bolts out back by the drawbar, and I think 4 on each side forward of the sectioned part, that it'll swing down and I will gain the access I need to fix that leak...? Must be that big pressure line I can almost touch up in there's sprung a leak...

DMiller · Oct 24, 2017

Other than the rails sloppy the outside looks good. Any luck on the line yet?

boaterri · Oct 24, 2017

Mid belly pan is held on by 2 bolts in the rear and 4 or 5 larger ones in the front. It is not terribly heavy but using a bottle jack on the rear to hold it up while removing the bolts is a good idea.

Rick

old-iron-habit · Oct 24, 2017

Looks nice. Needs a bit of track adjustment but it appears there is lots of adjustment left. Does this one have the 2 piece steel return line from the transmission to the front mounted pump with the stupid 3" long suction hose clamped in the center above the belly pan where you can't get to it. If it turns out to be that one replace it with a full length pressure hydraulic hose and be done with it. Not sure if they had that set up in 1969 but they were very problematic and a bear to replace that small piece of hose. That one will lose all the oil very quickly.

LowBoy · Oct 25, 2017

DMiller said:
Other than the rails sloppy the outside looks good. Any luck on the line yet?

I haven't had an hour to get the pan down yet honestly. Right now I have a project on my '78 KW power steering conversion going on that's just as much a challenge as any other of the 40 year old irons I keep alive, LOL! Shopping online for parts, getting them shipped, etc. Better than a 186K dollar truck to me though.

boaterri said:
Mid belly pan is held on by 2 bolts in the rear and 4 or 5 larger ones in the front. It is not terribly heavy but using a bottle jack on the rear to hold it up while removing the bolts is a good idea.

Rick

There's 2 sections to this one though Rick, correct on the 2 bolts in the rear, but then there's about 4 on each side of the pan up front too...they're smaller, guessing either 9/16 or 5/8 heads. Then another row if I remember across the very front, then it looks like there's 2 nice heavy bar stock hinges that allows it to swing from the front...

Gonna definitely use a bottle jack. 10 years ago I would have used my knees, but I've wisened up "some"...

LowBoy · Oct 25, 2017

old-iron-habit said:
Looks nice. Needs a bit of track adjustment but it appears there is lots of adjustment left. Does this one have the 2 piece steel return line from the transmission to the front mounted pump with the stupid 3" long suction hose clamped in the center above the belly pan where you can't get to it. If it turns out to be that one replace it with a full length pressure hydraulic hose and be done with it. Not sure if they had that set up in 1969 but they were very problematic and a bear to replace that small piece of hose. That one will lose all the oil very quickly.

I think you're SPOT ON with that old-iron-habit...I can see that steel line when I look in between the pan and frame, and see that short piece of rubber hose, and I'm almost 100% sure that's what blew is that piece of hose, so I'm gonna take your idea and do a full length hydraulic hose...good thinking!

It's GOTTA be that because it's high pressure, and I lost a full 5 gallon bucket of Hy Tran fluid from the lowbed to where it sits now in about 75 feet.

Yeah, the tracks are loose but I have to go through the whole thing before I use it. Drop and change all the oils, suck the fuel out of tank and replace with fresh treated fuel, air filter...and of course we could talk about changing hydro lines but that's one of those deals that is hard to convince myself to do all at once. Being I won't use it commercially, I'll just change the ones I think are prone to pop immediately, and take my chances on the rest of them one at a time.

I have an old JCB 214B TLB with some of the ugliest hydraulic hoses you ever saw on it, and in 4 years of owning it I've replaced 2 so far. Only use it to lift stuff and lately gave it a good workout pushing over and grading off about 50 loads of fill I had trucked in weekly this past summer.

I had a problem this winter when I went to move some snow, got water in the hydro system and it had an ice slug behind one curl cylinder. I went to curl the bucket back and bent the left one into a U. Took it apart, had a new rod made and replaced it. But trying to remove every bit of water from a machine as you well know isn't very easy...so that one gets special attention now when it's cold out.

Clutch · Oct 25, 2017

Nice looking loader.
Had a question on the last post how does water get in the hydro systems is there certain way it happens? I recently bought a backhoe and the hydro line look like they could be replace but are not leaking. Is that something that should be address before winter?

old-iron-habit · Oct 25, 2017

Clutch said:
Nice looking loader.
Had a question on the last post how does water get in the hydro systems is there certain way it happens? I recently bought a backhoe and the hydro line look like they could be replace but are not leaking. Is that something that should be address before winter?

Condensation usually. Warm oil in the tank and cooling down causing condensation over time, usually years to build up. The less oil in the tank, the more room for condensation to take place.

old-iron-habit · Oct 25, 2017

LowBoy said:
I think you're SPOT ON with that old-iron-habit...I can see that steel line when I look in between the pan and frame, and see that short piece of rubber hose, and I'm almost 100% sure that's what blew is that piece of hose, so I'm gonna take your idea and do a full length hydraulic hose...good thinking!

It's GOTTA be that because it's high pressure, and I lost a full 5 gallon bucket of Hy Tran fluid from the lowbed to where it sits now in about 75 feet.

It is a return line to the hi pressure pump mounted in front of the radiator behind the grill. It has a lot of volume. The short hose is a stiff little bugger of suction line with one wire running lengthwise in it. The steep lines have a bulge on the ends to clamp over. They will easily empty the system in 75 ft. when they blow. They usually blow off in a wet spot or when up to the belly pan in crap.

Clutch · Oct 26, 2017

Thanks for the information on water in the system.

redneckracin · Oct 26, 2017

looks like a nice unit! JD parts is a good resource for how thing go together. There is a place in meyerstown PA called wegners that has alot of parts available. I got some friction discs and an idler from them for a fraction of the JD cost.

LowBoy · Oct 27, 2017

redneckracin said:
looks like a nice unit! JD parts is a good resource for how thing go together. There is a place in meyerstown PA called wegners that has alot of parts available. I got some friction discs and an idler from them for a fraction of the JD cost.

Yeah I actually talked to them last spring about a used curl cylinder for my JCB. They were half of a new one, but still wanted like $750.00 for the used cylinder, so I pulled the bent rod out of the barrel and had one made, new packings and all for $330.00 in the end. I'll call them again though when I get to needing something for this 450. It steers one way, so I gotta operate on that yet, probably gonna need something there too.

boaterri · Nov 2, 2017

The 450c's with a back hoe attachment have 2 piece belly pans and a under mount counter balance weight. The machines with out the backhoe usually have rear mount counter weights and 1 piece belly pans. While you are under there check the bolts that hold on the counter weight. Both of mine backed out and the counter weight hung on the drawbar attached to the center shaft.

Rick

LowBoy · Apr 27, 2019

Update on 450 loader; I did get the bellypan down. That's it for now, LOL. Just been straight out busy with business and customers first. Gonna start attacking this thing shortly though.

Welder Dave · Apr 27, 2019

Looks like a ROPS off newer machine was added based on the weld on mounts on the loader tower. What looks more suspect though is the back mounts look like pretty thin plate for bolting the ROPS to.

Labparamour · Apr 27, 2019

Nice looking 450!

I have a 450B and I am just about to get her back on the road...Craigslist purchase. Ran her a while then, as I began tearing into her for one repair, found lots more needing done!

If you’re looking along the right lower frame at a 1 1/2” hardline with a rubber coupling in the middle of the run- that’s the hydraulics suction side to the pump on the front.
There’s a multi-section 1” hardline next to it for the hi-pressure side back to the spool valves.
Mine has 3/4” steel lines that run higher up on the right frame for the tranny oil cooler.
Dropping the belly pan completely will make it easier to make the repairs.
Darryl

LowBoy · Apr 28, 2019

Welder Dave said:
Looks like a ROPS off newer machine was added based on the weld on mounts on the loader tower. What looks more suspect though is the back mounts look like pretty thin plate for bolting the ROPS to.

Mainly that ROPS was added to be able to have the cable spool from the front bucket reel over top of the cab and back down to the planter. If you notice in one of the pics up close, there's two small sheaves front and rear that keeps the cable in line. I agree with you on the loader tower welds...pretty much a couple of layers of grapes, LOL...

\

LowBoy · Apr 28, 2019

Labparamour said:
Nice looking 450!

I have a 450B and I am just about to get her back on the road...Craigslist purchase. Ran her a while then, as I began tearing into her for one repair, found lots more needing done!

If you’re looking along the right lower frame at a 1 1/2” hardline with a rubber coupling in the middle of the run- that’s the hydraulics suction side to the pump on the front.
There’s a multi-section 1” hardline next to it for the hi-pressure side back to the spool valves.
Mine has 3/4” steel lines that run higher up on the right frame for the tranny oil cooler.
Dropping the belly pan completely will make it easier to make the repairs.
Darryl

I got to look at it briefly recently, and I do have the 1.5" suction (steel line) next to the frame rail with the short rubber coupling hose, but the leak came from above that line from the pressure line...so I have to address that one for sure and while in there, I'll do that rubber coupler piece too unless I see it's fairly simple to get at, I may just replace that line with some suction line all the way through.

Before I fire this tractor up for use, I'm going to purge the hydraulic system and put fresh oil in, pull the fuel tank and clean it and adjust the left steering clutch. Other than that, it's so low hours that aside from popping a hydraulic line as I go along, it should last a lifetime.

old-iron-habit · Apr 29, 2019

LowBoy said:
I got to look at it briefly recently, and I do have the 1.5" suction (steel line) next to the frame rail with the short rubber coupling hose, but the leak came from above that line from the pressure line...so I have to address that one for sure and while in there, I'll do that rubber coupler piece too unless I see it's fairly simple to get at, I may just replace that line with some suction line all the way through.

Before I fire this tractor up for use, I'm going to purge the hydraulic system and put fresh oil in, pull the fuel tank and clean it and adjust the left steering clutch. Other than that, it's so low hours that aside from popping a hydraulic line as I go along, it should last a lifetime.

Is your machine pedal steer? If so make sure you adjust the steering clutch/brakes to the manual. They often get screwed up by folks doing what looks obvious and is not. The other thing on them that is often messed up is the master clutch/power shift clutch adjustment. A half a clutch push releases the power shift while a full push releases the entire system and allows you to shift the manual transmission gears. Improper adjustment and the master clutch slips. I bought a nice 455D at auction cheap a number of years ago with a listed bad clutch. A day of reading and adjusting and it worked perfectly for the 5 years I owned it and is still working today for a WI logger.

LowBoy · May 2, 2019

old-iron-habit said:
Is your machine pedal steer? If so make sure you adjust the steering clutch/brakes to the manual. They often get screwed up by folks doing what looks obvious and is not. The other thing on them that is often messed up is the master clutch/power shift clutch adjustment. A half a clutch push releases the power shift while a full push releases the entire system and allows you to shift the manual transmission gears. Improper adjustment and the master clutch slips. I bought a nice 455D at auction cheap a number of years ago with a listed bad clutch. A day of reading and adjusting and it worked perfectly for the 5 years I owned it and is still working today for a WI logger.

Mine's a straight 450 old-iron. It's got lever steering. It steers one way perfectly, nothing the other way, can't remember which one at the moment.

I'm so busy with everything, I'm gonna farm this job out to a neighbor that does mobile equipment repair, he's a John Deere specialist too by luck. AND...he's a lot younger than me so HE can lay underneath that thing and play, lol...

1969 JD 450 track loader with 4 in 1 bucket.

Senior Member

Senior Member

Well-Known Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Well-Known Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member