FEL bent....

[fred98050]

My Bx24 has about 600 hrs and I have been using the FEL 80% of the time vs 20% for the backhoe.

Today I have noticed that the bottom right side of the fel bucket is wearing out faster than the left side. Puzzled by this discovery I investigated further and found out that the right vertical bracket sitting on the frame (near deck) is a bit loose. For instance when lifting the bucket all the way to the upper position the left bracket would stay perfectly still however the right bracket would move about a quarter of an inch backwards just before the bucket reaches its highest point....

Don't know if this makes sense... But basically the right arm is a bit lower than the left until it is raise to its maximum height.

I am on my way to my local dealer tomorrow but I was wondering if anyone else have noticed this problem on their BX24?

Thank you.
(I'll try to post a small video tomorrow)


Fred

BX24 2.5 years old
mostly move gravel, sand, dirt, fire wood and snow. Never tried to lift anything heavier than a load of gravel.
Frame does not seem bent, tire pressure is good, never hit anything hard.

 

[dodge man]

I don't know if this is your problem or not, but when I first put a loader on my BX2350, I didn't know what I was doing. When I first drove into the loader and installed it, I got the pins in, but the loader wasn't seated down in the brackets. The back end of the loader would pivot on the pins and it worked pretty lousy. After I figured out what was wrong it was pretty obvious, and it seemed almost impossible to install it the wrong way, but I manged to. Is there any chance you don't have one side seated all the way in the bracket on the tractor?

 

[fred98050]

Dodge Man,

Thanks for the reply.

I would not be surprised that I might have messed up that too but by looking at it, it looks like it is sitting correctly. It is on a trailer right now, ready to go to the dealer first thing tomorrow, so I can't take the loader off tonight and check it.

Looks to me like there is some play somewhere in the bracket.

Now that yours is sitting correctly, do you see any (left or right ) brackets moving forward or backward when operating the loader?

Thanks again.

Fred

 

[dodge man]

Now that I have mine installed correctly, they don't move, but they did when I had it installed wrong. It wasn't really obvious either when I had it installed wrong, but the brackets on the back of the loader arms really flopped around when using it. I also noticed the bucket would not sit on the ground level. Good luck.

 

[radioman]

no problems with mine. it seems to be square the whole time i owned it. keep us posted on what you find.

 

[fred98050]

I will. I'll also post some pix.

Fred

 

[Charliebrn]

Heres one way to straighten it out: First: Air up the tires to the proper inflation...especially important that the two rear are exactly the same. Then drive to nice, flat concrete and loosen the FEL bracket bolts at the tractor frame slightly, not much, but enought the frame can move a bit. Then put a little down pressure on the FEL...not a lot, but enough to move the frame snug against the bolts. Retorque all the bolts to proper torque.

 

[kevinj]

Heres one way to straighten it out: First: Air up the tires to the proper inflation...especially important that the two rear are exactly the same. Then drive to nice, flat concrete and loosen the FEL bracket bolts at the tractor frame slightly, not much, but enought the frame can move a bit. Then put a little down pressure on the FEL...not a lot, but enough to move the frame snug against the bolts. Retorque all the bolts to proper torque.

Darn....................that is pretty much what the manual says

 

[PILOON]

Had similar problem.
Probably because I always load left side more than right side due to visibility issues when working up close.

Also found loose bolts that had worn the holes oval.
Because torqueing still was not sufficient, being lazy, I tack welded the frame componants at that point.
The real proper repair (I know) would be to bore out oversize to next bolt size to take up the slop and good torque wrench.

Don't blame the factory as INMHO that is a maintainance issue.

 

[fred98050]

Piloon,

That is exactly what the problem is.....

Loose bolt made the holes oval which rendered the right fel bracket loose over time.

I will try to bore out the next size bolt and see if this work.

The bx is at my local dealership for the weekend (new seat), I'll try to solve the problem next week.

Thanks again for all the info.

Fred