Ed's 77 Terex 72-41

Welder Dave said:

United Rentals prices look kind of stupid. Are there any other rental places in your area?

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The second screenshot is Sunbelt Rentals. There are other rental places too.

This is “better”, but now there’s a more pronounced bend next to the triangle.

Rented a Big Blue 300. Nothing smaller was available.


Preheated.


Turned out better.

Welded in something to mount the diverter valve, still need to drill a hole. I know it’s not the greatest welds, but it’ll hold. I did this, my son did the other.

Got it back in on Friday, it was smoky that day from a fire south of us. Parts are going back on already.

I got the transmission end of the cradle bolted in, it wasn’t easy. Have to use an open end wrench to turn the bolts. Can barely get the bolts in there to begin with. The other end doesn’t line up. I tried jacking up the transmission (to relieve pressure where it sits on the frame), but it didn’t help. I’m gonna elongate the holes with a die grinder. Prying moves it out another way too, and I don’t want it in a bind anyway. As long as it’s tight it’ll be fine. It was a real pain just to get the cradle in there, we had to remove the steering manifold and unloading valve assembly. I also got a few other things on, including the alternator, and transmission filter housing (it had to come off to get the transmission end of the cradle out, it’s bolted to it too), also replaced a broken connector on one of the starter wires. Also installed all of the bolts holding engine and transmission together.


The steering block below had to be separated into two pieces to get it back in there. Still need to tighten the two blocks together better. It’s a half inch Allen, and I only had the type for a 1/2” drive ratchet with me. I’ll bring my regular L shaped one next time, that’ll fit in the tight space.

Elongating holes is only going to lead to chronically loose bolts. Figure out why its not aligned properly.

DB2 said:

Elongating holes is only going to lead to chronically loose bolts. Figure out why its not aligned properly.

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It’s not aligned because either the break was misaligned when welded back together, or the heat tweaked it. Either way, I’m not pulling the engine to fix it. There are ways to keep bolts tight: Locktite, or drill the heads and wire them.

The bolts for the broken/repaired bracket lneed to be the last ones you put in so if there are any holes to be slightly enlarged, it won't affect the alignment of the other ones. I assume you started all the bolts on all the mounts before you tightened any. With all of the bolts loose, things may be able to be shifted slightly to allow all the bolts to be started

56wrench said:

I assume you started all the bolts on all the mounts before you tightened any.

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That was the plan, I usually do. But I had to jack up the transmission just to get one end in. Which is understandable, but it was such a fight that I didn’t think there would be any wiggle room. I can loosen them and try it before elongating.

Also, I never loosened the mount on the other side (from the transmission). With the engine and transmission bolted together the relationship between mounting holes on those two can’t change, but the frame mount in the middle can.

Loosened the transmission end of the cradle and got the flywheel housing end of the cradle bolted in. It lined up a lot closer, and we were able to pry it the rest of the way.

Finally got the last of the bucket teeth bolted on.

With the long teeth you may have to be careful digging out rocks to prevent breakage, likely of the shank or bucket edge

Cleaned out the steering tank a couple days ago, the screen inside was about 50% blocked. It’s all clear now. Air compressor and steering pump are back on too.

56wrench said:

With the long teeth you may have to be careful digging out rocks to prevent breakage, likely of the shank or bucket edge

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Are these unusually long?

From what i see, they seem to be a bit long but maybe they just appear that way

I thought they were normal, but I don’t know what I’m looking at.

Mocking up how we’re gonna make the turbo fit.

We got the flex plate lined up with the flywheel and a bolt in. I forgot the rest of the bolts in the other glove box. Doh! Got the starter mounted and wired. Got the radiator cleaned, and mounted with the shroud. Lower radiator hose on, upper hose half on, still need a thermostat so we can mount the thermostat housing and the other end of the hose. Got the diverter valve solenoid rotated so we can wire it without moving the fuel tank again, then painted it and put fuel in the tank. Then attached the fuel line to the tank, since we don’t need to flip it out of the way anymore. Scratched the old exhaust manifold where I need to make a mount to bolt the turbo on. Also cut off the fuel filter bracket beyond where the throttle cable attaches, with the turbo type blower the filters can’t be where they were.