Evaluation advice needed for a 580b

[hbarski]

Greetings all.

I have an opportunity to pick up a 1975 580b from a fellow that is getting out of the business because of his health. He is the second owner and the unit has 4000 hours on it. It appears to have been maintained well. He wants $8000 and that is within my price range.

He is bringing it to the farm this weekend for me to try out. I am under no pressure to purchase, except that which I put on myself. The problem is that I know NOTHING about this type of heavy equipment other than I need it around the farm.

What I would like from the members here is a list of things to check during the evaluation period this weekend. I am an aircraft mechanic by trade, and have experience running farm tractors so most of this stuff doesn't spook me. Can you help?

 

[Countryboy]

Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums hbarski! :drinkup

 

[hbarski]

I went ahead and took the plunge. I had it for two days this weekend and I just couldn't pass it up for the price. While I had it this weekend for a trial run, a neighbor offered me $1000 more than what I was having to buy it for.

There are a few small hydro leaks, and weathered hoses, but nothing that jumped out at me. I found no cracks.

It ran great all weekend and dug some big holes. Any suggestions on maintenance would be appreciated.

 

[bigblueox]

looks like a nice machine! good luck. only bad exp. i've had with a case B/Hs is they have lousy brakes. only other major thing was front king pins but that was a special case scenario.

 

[Ol'Joe]

Looks nice and unusually clean. Congrats!

 

[jughead]

looks a lot better than my 655D with about 5 k hrs. on it

 

[hbarski]

After using it a lot this weekend I have several questions about this unit. I have ordered a service manual and IPC for it.

I noticed what seemed to be some slop in the backhoe. How hard is it to replace the pins and bushings in the backhoe? I have tried to do searches for this subject matter, but have not been succesful.

Mine is a power shuttle with the twin disc, and seems to be weak when traveling up the inclines on thte farm. I am planning on replacing the filter and fluids this weekend. Are there simple op checks I can perform to test for slippage or other known problems with this transmission?

And finally, I have a question about transmission fluids/hydraulic fluids. What is the recommended fluid of choice for the hydraulics and transmission? I use the Rotella hydraulic fluid on my Ford 3930, can I use it in my hydraulics on the case? Does the tranny need hytran or can a generic substitute be used? Any recommendations?

 

[ScottAR]

Howdy!

Fellow Arkie here...

I'm also a backhoe newbie, Case 580D.

Pins and bushings are doable but not fun. The pin is easy. Take off the snap ring and tap em out with a 4lb. hammer. Provided they aren't seized. That's as far as I've needed to go so I dunno about the bushing part although I'll need to in the future. All I've needed so far is to remove some hydraulic
cylinders to repack them. My boom has a little slop and the swing tower
could be better.

The fluids are pretty straightforward. The Rotella is fine on the hydraulic system. Use the 3930 to lift the bucket up to the filler. Mine is on the loader tower and it's pretty high to lift a bucket by hand. I should mention I'm lazy. The little yan deere can lift a bucket like nobody's business.

My trans is actually two parts, the shuttle part and the transaxle. The shuttle (bolted to engine) takes hytran TCH or Dextron II. Dextron III is fine too. The transaxle/rearend takes gear oil 80-90W if I remember.

Oh yeah, behind the dash is the brake master cylinders. They take TCH or Dextron as well. *DO NOT* put brake fluid in them.

 

[hbarski]

Thanks Scott, I think I will be trying to do some bushing and pin replacement this winter. There are just a few old hoses left on it that will need to be replaced. I bought all the filters for a complete change out. I imagine that will be done very soon. Mine is also a power shuttle and the trans axle.

I was a bit concerned about the apparent lack of drive power, but from what others have told me, this was very early in the automatic drive era and these were not speed demons. It will still spin the tires when encountering a full load on the the bucket, so I guess I shouldn't worry too much.

It will still dig a nice stump even though the teeth on the bucket are very dull.



Where abouts in the state are you? I am up near Pokey.

 

[ScottAR]

I'm over in Paragould... I figured you were west of me... little more hilly in the pics than here. Great looking place btw.

My 580D isn't very fast either. Goes pretty good in high on flat roads but slows on any sort of grade. I read on here that the 3rd and 4th are synchronized so you can kick the
shuttle in neutral and shift the floor shift and kick the shuttle back in on the fly.
I haven't roaded my tractor in awhile but will try it out. 3rd pulls a grade a lot better than high.

Put some new teeth on it and you'll have a new machine so they
tell me.

The cylinder pins are pretty easy. The boom and tower pins will probably need more than a 4lb hammer.
I've been thinking of having a biggish pin I have welded to a mini sledge for
something to hit with a big hammer. Probably use a bottle jack for the swing tower pins.

If you have any leaky cylinders, I have the gland wrench to take off the end of the cylinder and enough knowledge to get us both in trouble. I will work for steak.