1973 Case 350(g) bulldozer!!! New to me I love this machine

Okay so Im pretty new here on these forums, a few weeks ago we picked up our mini excavator
Now we have our bulldozer.
You see we live on 23 acres back in the woods off the grid way North Idaho. We have a 2.5 mile road from our home to the gate, then its about 8 miles to town from there. WE are along a river and the road can flood in spots. We get a good amount of snow, we had over 14' in 2018. We needed a few pieces of equipment in order to get along back here and make improvements. For the first year I did alot of research, talked and worked with our neighbors and their equipment, etc and then decided on what would work best for us. We had a budget of about $30K and had decided on a backhoe. We figure the backhoe would do all we needed to do, however we would need 4wd. 4x4 backhoe in the size we need is right around 25-30K for a good used unit. While shopping for the perfect machine we had an idea, what if we had a mini ex and a small dozer, now two tracked machine could do the work of the backhoe and probably quicker with two operators. Also there are places where a backhoe would be tight to do work on the road. So the decision was made to get two small machines.
Now we have them both!
Yesterday I dragged home our new dozer! 197(3) Case 350 (g)!!!! Metal tracks and a 6 way blade. This machine is in very good condition. I started to mess around with it a little, pushing a big rock around, moving some dirt and stuff. Then my stepson got home from work and said he wanted to get some seat time. Well we showed him where we planned to clear brush along our front pond. I have been working out there with the mini ex for a couple of days making from good progress. About 3 hours later the dozer had cleared ALL OF IT. It simply pushed all of the small trees and brush over and flattened down the dirt. Now the mini ex can go and pick up all the slash...but man oh man did this little dozer make SHORT WORK of all that brush!! just in time for fire season.
So that brings me here, I cannot wait to learn more about this machine. I know people love these old Case 350 compact dozers and I can see why...
We paid $9000 for this unit it was only an hour away from home. It is well cared for, came with spare parts and the shop manual and some service tools.
I look forward to having this unit in our "fleet"
So now we have:
1984 John deere compact tractor 650 with loader, forks, 5' box scraper, rear blade, and a couple of field mowers
1998 Takeuchi TB035 Mini Excavator
1973 Case 350 dozer!!

Time to get to work! No more borrowing or renting machines!!
The case has a few small leaks here and there, otherwise everything works and she is in good shape for her age.
I was also born in 1973, lets see who holds up better...............

Pics please!

NICE..!!!

Got to love your enthusiasm!

PICS!!!!





granddaughter approved! We are "parking this place out " for fire wise, for visibility, control our drainage, reduced bugs and of course for the kids to play!!
I design elevators for the worlds tallest buildings, when I am not flying a desk or building custom off road machines I am outside building our homestead!




Thanks guys!

I miss my Komatsu D39P sometimes, you can’t beat tracks for grading and pushing stuff.

That's a nice looking machine. It's very similar to my neighbors 350 loader. I was wondering if your manual has any trouble shooting information for the transmission or why it won't move?

I can certainly look that up, this machine came with the full shop manual, I have not even opened it yet
I will check into that this weekend
My first guess would be a bad torque converter? low converter pressure or fluid?

That would be great, thank you. He said it tries to move but won't. A couple people think it could be a problem with the shuttle clutches being worn.

Welder Dave said:

That would be great, thank you. He said it tries to move but won't. A couple people think it could be a problem with the shuttle clutches being worn.

Click to expand...

Check shuttle fluid level it is separate from trans. like the 580Cs

I started looking through the shop manual yesterday at the transmission and final drive sections, nothing in the troubleshooting areas mentions no movement at all. This is the first time I ever opened that book so bare with me I will keep looking for the "no move" issue.

On another note the dozer got stuck for the first time. My stepson James is the dozer operator around here. Well he got a little excited, you see his mom has been trying to make an atv trail down by the river for the last year (since we moved here) the girls have been down there with chainsaws, shovels and brush trimmers all last summer trying to open it up to atv's. Well now we can remove the brush alot faster James figured he would take the dozer over there and start on a mothers day surprise....well the ground is still too soft for that = dozer was stuck!! Then as luck would have it the temps in the mountains have increased and the water came up 24" overnight, leaving the dozer in a puddle of water.
Turns out it was not a huge ordeal, we tried to pull it with a truck and chain, only to snap the chain. So yesterday I went out there and found the battery dead and the dozer in 2nd gear. We hooked up a 12,000 winch to the back of my truck and planned to give it a good pull. I put a fresh battery in it and showed james that he had been in 2nd gear for the last two days (machine is new to him too). Dozer started right up and backed itself out of the hole....seems 1st gear made a world of difference Put truck and winch away....back to work clearing the brush and flattening the land.

I want to get James a bumper sticker that says " I flatten stuff" because he and that dozer go together like peanut butter and chocolate.....our land is turning out really nice, real fast. I need to go get some grass seed........





We are all VERY impressed with this machine, it runs so well, sounds like a hot rod and boy oh boy does she push dirt, trees and rocks

added rear hitch
much easier to move dirt










Progress



Spring!!

Fourtencustoms said:

added rear hitch
much easier to move dirt

Progress

Spring!!

Click to expand...

Nice photos y'all doin a great job

today I plan to move the big pile of slash!!! I need to pickup some mineral oil for the rear differential it has a small leak.
I already picked up some Case type A transmission fluid, the trans has a small leak also every few days we have to add some trans fluid.
Any thoughts on where the trans leak would be coming from? It is hard to see up there

Could be around shifter spool.

Fourtencustoms said:

Any thoughts on where the trans leak would be coming from?

Click to expand...

That could be anywhere above the belly pan. An oil leak from 6 feet away can trail to leak out of somewhere that isn't near the leak also.

Thanks for the tips! I am quite familiar with finding leaks and their source, I am just a total newb when it comes to this machine. My stepson informed me it is leaving a small puddle once in a while, he had a quick look to see its dripping right off the big yellow belly pan under the engine I think he said. The previous owner also made me aware that it may need 1/2 quart or so after a couple of days work, he was right! It uses about 1/2 quart every 2 days of us working it around. We check the dipstick and add as needed. So far no issues other then the small rear diff and trans fluid leaks. I was using dexron III until I picked up some Case type a trans fluid. Pretty sure the dexron is ok?

I will research the shifter spool and the other possible leak areas and report back.

On another note the dozer is great for moving the trailer full of pond mud around the property. Now I am looking at converting the larger military trailer to a dump setup

OKay the dozer is in line for its first round of "upgrades" and needed repairs. The alternator is only pushing 11.6 volts, likely needs to be replaced from what I can see. I am going to check the wiring first then order a replacement. There is at least one section of the track that needs to be replaced, the pin is worn out and so is the housing.
Cleaning all the dirt and debris from the tracks and undercarriage for the first time, I can see it needs some work, a few rollers, etc
Otherwise she is doing well.

We have a problem that needs to be sorted out ASAP.

We cannot angle the blade right to left, we can angle it out the other way just fine.
The control valve/hand controls are physically restricted from allowing the blade to move the angle. The other direction works as it should.
Up down works great, tilt works fine, its just the angle on one side.
It is almost like there is a O ring or something stopping the lever from moving.
My plan (as always) is to take it apart and see what we find, but I figured maybe somebody else might have some idea's?

Thanks!

I would remove the spring cap on the bottom of spool the spring may have an issue.

seems you were bang on! After fiddling with it for a few minutes, clean the area with toothbrush and pb blaster... I found the lower cap simply unscrews

Removed the spring cap, allowed the valve assembly to drop out, cleaned and lubed it cycled it up and down a few times. Some debris/gunk was in there some came out
It is working better then ever now! Sometimes we win one for the good guys!
back up and dozer'in

Thanks!