IH 175B The Beast!

[250c]

I'm glad to see your progress GT. Sorry I haven't been around for moral support. Elk/deer season without adult supervision has kept me away. I did manage a cow elk but the bucks here haven't been cooperating. I think since I posted last I tore a transmission cooler line off (no belly plate) man that thing holds a lot of oil. All is fixed now and I have been building what will be a good size tank/duck ambushing place. If this drought holds I should be done in 2014 lol.

 

[Goldtrigger]

250c, glad you got an Elk. Last time I tried in the Arapaho National Forest, all I saw was Elk berries and live Moose. Last Elk I killed was back in '73, sure was good meat. The rain that came through today was not worth a good spit! I spent all afternoon over at Temple at the VA so didn't acomplish a darn thing. Tomorrow I will get out and get that buffer lifted and the hose hooked up.

We took five deer opening gun weekend! 10 point, 8 point, spike, 3 does, one of which we did not find (bow shot). We tracked that bow shot doe all over the place but never did find her. Looked for buzzards all week and no joy. Second one we have lost this year.

Congratulations, Boone on your Mason, your newborn Son. Looks like a go getter!!

 

[boone]

Glad to see you making progress too. I know what you mean about those short days. Something's just not right about going in to work at dark and getting home at dark. Hopefully, Mason will be a go getter. It'll be awhile before he can reach the pedals on the 175 though.

250c, those transmission lines are big! Hope it didn't take any of your fittings when it tore. Someone here on the forum has posted a youtube video of a 250. That thing is a monster!!

 

[250c]

Boone,Congratulations "Dad". It did get the coupling that goes into the torque converter but thankfully there was enough left sticking out I was able to get it out without too much trouble. Man that thing holds a lot of oil!
GT I didn't get a drop of rain.

 

[Goldtrigger]

Buffer is ON!

250c, same here, these fronts have got to start to doing something besides making the wind blow!

Beautiful day today. A little cool, especially when the sun went down. Finished hooking up the buffer. I got the hydraulic line hooked up without having to lift the buffer. Just unbolted it, slid it over to the edge of the deck and screwed the hydraulic line up. With a little shoving and grunting, got it back in place and bolted down. Then hooked up the line to the output connection and all is GOOD!:notworthy Tried out some Tractor Supply Transport Yellow Color spray paint, nearly matches the other yellows on the Beast. Tractor Supply has it in 1 gallon cans so will invest in a gallon and waste it on the Beast. 85605[/ATTACH]

 

[OldandWorn]

Looking good GT....almost there!

 

[Goldtrigger]

Old thanks, it has been mighty slow! New muffler will be in today! If I don't run up to Waco for some sheet aluminum for the trailer I am helping build with friend Walt, I will put the muffler on and fit the cover on the buffer. Saturday, God willing, Walt and I will make the push to get the fluids back in and get the Beast started! Wonder how many leaks we will find

 

[malcolm]

Hi Goldtrigger
The buffer you talk about is called a Hydro Spring in IH speak do you understand why it is there
and how to use it . Progress is looking good .
regards Malcolm

 

[Goldtrigger]

Malcolm, thanks for the nomenclature. No one has ever given us the real deal on this gadget. It is part of the ripper system as far as we could tell and nothing in our 175B manuels show it. From what we surmized, it is designed to take up the shock of hitting an immovable object when operating the ripper; so that we don't blow a hydraulic pump or line. Our we close to right? It was not connected when we disassembled the Beast to install the final drive.

 

[Goldtrigger]

The Beast is Alive-Again!

We got everything hooked up except the drag link on the final drive, had to go get some new pins for that. Old ones were worn beyond use!

Modified the cover for the Hydro Spring and got it on and bolted on correctly. It is all hooked up and should function as intended.

Put all the fluids and fuel back in it. Bolted the hood back down and the exhaust stack. Put EOD Keith in the driver's seat and told him to hit the starter. He had never driven a track loader or even started anything like it. He hit the starter button, first push the old girl started right up:notworthy. Make us really proud. She has been sitting dormant for over a year, hasn't been started since last April and she started with no ether or external kick to the batteries.

Once running, we found a serious leak to the control valve for the bucket lift. That will require a disassembly and new O-rings. I guess the Beast has been sitting too long without exercising the hydraulics. We need a couple of new clamps on the new return hose for the hydraulic tank; it had a class 3 leak on either end of the new hose and the old clamps just would not tighten up enough to shut it down completely. So, need to figure out how to get into that bucket control valve and disassemble and re-O-ring it and re clamp that hydraulic return hose. Holding our breath, we did not find any other leaks and we ran the engine long enought to get it hot and exercised the bucket and ripper up and down several times.

Walt will work this week to find a drag link coupler and pins so we can get the track back on and we should be just about ready to move it!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, will be away for a week visiting Grandbabies.

 

[250c]

I'm glad your up and running! I had 27 years in Army maintenance and had to chuckle at the "class 3 leak" statement--you gave yourself away lol. Have a great Thanksgiving!

 

[malcolm]

Hi from down under
the hydro spring is there as a rough ground absorbing system to allow the bucket to float up and down when traveling with a full bucket
most operators have it turned off unless traveling a long distance. It makes the bucket very hard to control if on when leveling or cutting
to grade . The 175 was not designed as a ripping machine so there is no benefit having it on then, but no harm done if its on (may bee
some class 4 or 6 leaks) If I lived closer I would love to come and have a drive.
regards Malcolm

 

[Goldtrigger]

Hydrospring

Malcolm, thanks for the education. Wonder why it was disconnected? When we did our big pond dig last summer and it was not connected, and the Beast did fine from what we could tell. Obviouly, we did not go long distances with a load, but we scraped the bottom down ten feet before the hurricane caught us and filled the pond up! With it connected Saturday, we exercised the bucket and ripper repeatedly, no leaks in the hydrospring!

 

[boone]

Looking good GT and Happy Thanksgiving! Glad the Beast is alive and well and close to tracking again. That hydro-spring is a neat concept. I noticed in this vintage video there is a convincing demonstration of it's effectiveness involving a glass of coke - it's the type of demonstration you'd expect in a mattress commercial. Fast forward to 4:08 in the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE2ax8w9xY0&feature=related

 

[Goldtrigger]

Boone, thanks a lot. Amazing how that works. Wish I had all those blades! I will have to see if the hydrospring compresses like they show it when we get the track back together!

 

[malcolm]

Hi
We kept it turned off for more bucket control also those springs used to break maybee you do not need any more grief with this machine
have a try but a floating bucket is hard to control and a broken spring may not look so good in the for sale photos
cheers malcolm

 

[Goldtrigger]

Malcolm, probably why they had it disconnected. Doubt we use it at all. Definitely do not want it broken. Like you say, I do not need another dollar going into the Beast that I do not have to put into it.

 

[Goldtrigger]

Back to Texas this morning from Florida. Beautiful weather here. I know now why folks move here. 68-70 degrees all week, light rain one morning, other wise, just kept the windows open wide the whole time I was working here! Beautiful walks along the beach! Back to the ranch tomorrow. Friend Walt says they got 1.38 inchs of rain in the gauge at the ranch and burn ban was lifted in Lampasas County for a couple of days. He was going to try and burn some of the cedar piles while the ban was lifed but cold front came through with strong north winds so I am not sure what he got done. Will see tomorrow. Will start on the hydraulic leaks and see if I can get those done before we finish up the final drive and do the track this next weekend!

 

[Goldtrigger]

Progress and Help Needed!!


Progress this weekend and we need a question answered. The track is back together, engine is running, the beast is moving and and everything is going well!:notworthy We still have this severe hydraulic leak out of the front of the control valve of the lift cylinder actuators control. We disassembled it after welding the track back together today but could not figure out how to get the valve body out.

The four socket head screws came out that seem to hold it in, but it did not budge. Any idea how we get that valve body out of the assembly so we can replace the o-rings?

Pictures are Walt welding the track back together and some of the cedar burns we did as we finally got enough rain so they have lifted the burn ban for a while. Still have several cedar piles to burn!

 

[Goldtrigger]

With regard to the hydraulic control valve.

We spent a part of the day discussing the valve and looking through the service manual. Appears the only way to do it is pull the whole control mechanism, take it to town and put it on the shop bench where where we have light and cleanliness. From the manual, there just seems to be way too many small and intricate parts in there that have to come out and would surely fall into an inaccessable place if we try to do it on the loader. We have learned the hard way with the final drive that it is always better to follow the manual than try to work around it and spend twice as much time and effort.

Suspect we won't get to it before Christmas now, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!