How can I fix bucket slop on the loader?

[jobguy]

I have a Ct120 with loader (230 hrs). I used the loader a lot for pulling buck-thorn and moving dirt. A lot of wear has occurred between the pins and tilt cylinders at the attach points between the top of the bucket and the lift arms. I am going to remove the pins and measure pins outside diameter and the inside diameter of the cylinder attach ends. Do any of you know the specifications for these measurements? Or where I can get the specs? I am hoping that it is the replaceable pins that are worn rather than the cylinder ends. I should have greased more often than I did.

[case245]

wow slope at 230 hrs wow i put 11k on a 21hp case never gresed that fel i ran that16-17yrs your cylinders are going to be worn to doing fel work i grease my Kubota every 2-2.5 hrs of use u can u use a brass bushing or copper tubing for a bushing or metal pipe just drill a hole in in for grease to go in thour the zerk put the bushing beween your pin and cylinder grease it up tap in cylinder hole make sure line up the hole with the grease zerk hen grease your pin tap it in its not that hard

[Canada_CT230]

Greasing is vital! Grease can never be done too often on those FEL zerks. It only makes a mess but when the grease in there starts to attract dirt it becomes very abrasive and accelerates the wear.

[SSdoxie]

All the pivot pins are greased through the enter of the pin so you can make or add bushings to tighten up the clearances and do not have to worry about drilling holes or cutting grease passages through the bushing.

[k0ua]

I have a Ct120 with loader (230 hrs). I used the loader a lot for pulling buck-thorn and moving dirt. A lot of wear has occurred between the pins and tilt cylinders at the attach points between the top of the bucket and the lift arms. I am going to remove the pins and measure pins outside diameter and the inside diameter of the cylinder attach ends. Do any of you know the specifications for these measurements? Or where I can get the specs? I am hoping that it is the replaceable pins that are worn rather than the cylinder ends. I should have greased more often than I did.

Alright fess up.. how often did you grease the loader?.. please do this so that others (and myself) may learn. Thanks

James K0UA

[jobguy]

I only greased it 3 or 4 times. I have lots of sandy peat which might be part of the problem due to the abrasive nature of Sand.
I looked through the Shop manual for this tractor but did not see anything about pin/cylinder end inside or outside measurements. Some other threads on this site indicate loader slop is normal and not to worry too much about it. I would like to figure out how to tighten things up a bit.
If I take some measurements, where would I get bushings made???
When I worked on airplanes I never saw any wear at all on the landing gear components which were used a heck of a lot and only greased according to how many hours the plane operated. Of course those components cost many thousands of dollars and were high quality steel.
Am I being too fussy?????

[rswyan]

If I take some measurements, where would I get bushings made???

You can get bushings (and reamers) from McMaster-Carr:

McMaster-Carr

[jobguy]

Thank You. I will post a follow-up after I make the repair.

[LD1]

Wow, definatally should have greased more often.

You are most likely going to need a set of reamers. Cause the holes dont wear out perfectally round. They are most likely egg-shaped. A set of expandable reamers will bring them back to round. HF sells a cheap set but they do work okay. You just cant take big bites.

Getting the hole large enough to have sufficent bushing thickness and then Measuring the ID in a hole that small is going to be the biggest challenge. Re-doing pins isnt an easy task. If you can get it to a standard size you can probabally use an off the shelf bushing and save some $$ vs having a machine shop do it.

It is going to take some time to get the holes opened up large enough to have room for a bushing that isnt just paper thin. Another option is to just go enough to get the holes back to round, use NO bushings, and just have an oversized pin made. But grease it more often whatever you choose

[bertman1]

Did you get your Ct120 fixed yet.If not, get a smooth piece of rod that a couple of bearings will slide through easily, $5.00 bearings will do, tack weld the bearings to the outside of the holes, on each side, go to harbor freight and get a couple of tool bits for a lathe, you weld them to the rod on the inside of the holes, so you can slide them one way and the will cut and you slide them the other way and they cut, apply grease to both holes hook up a 1/2 inch drill motor to one end of the rod and slowly drive the rod threw the hole to enlarge it, you have to drill both holes at the same time, so they are true and inline with each other, you can't ream one side at a time, cause they won't be inline with each other, after you enlarge the holes, then you can get oversize bushings that will fit in the holes and you can put standard pins back in. This is how I have done mine and this is a cheap, poor mans way of doing line boring, that a machine shop will charge you 1000's of dollars to do.