Speed66
New member
Bought a 1978 John Deere 950 (964 hours on the clock) late last year from a plant nursery that was closing after 80 years, obviously the tractor wasn't there the entire time. 
Drove it from the nursery to my buddy's place a mile away and into the carport it went. I knew there was several issues to address but felt the 5k purchase price would allow some repairs without falling too far into the red. Just started working on it a couple of weeks ago by removing the upper hydraulic cylinder from the backhoe and had it rebuilt. Before starting or moving the tractor I changed out the engine oil and filter, hydraulic oil (cleaned the screen too) and reinstalled the cylinder on the backhoe but left the lines off. After starting, I purged the lines to the rebuilt cylinder and then re-attached them, backhoe is working without spraying oil everywhere now!
Currently I'm looking for replacement tires, I'm going to stay with the turf tires although I was surprised by the cost of new replacements, especially the rears. The first quote I got was $2,386.00 for just the rears including mounting, talk about making one leg go straight!! That is for the same Firestone R3 turf tire (13.6-28) currently on it, looking for other brands now as I can't see spending that much.
I am looking for some more info on the backhoe attachment, it's marked Kubota and appears close to or same vintage as the tractor but finding parts or service manual hasn't happen yet. Really want to find a picture of the control lever diagram, what was there is unreadable and although each level is working, the resulting movement in the arm or bucket isn't always what was expected. I saw an old posting by user "California" that may have purchased a similar unit about 10 years ago, curious if the controls are the same.
Here's a couple pics of my new Deere...
Drove it from the nursery to my buddy's place a mile away and into the carport it went. I knew there was several issues to address but felt the 5k purchase price would allow some repairs without falling too far into the red. Just started working on it a couple of weeks ago by removing the upper hydraulic cylinder from the backhoe and had it rebuilt. Before starting or moving the tractor I changed out the engine oil and filter, hydraulic oil (cleaned the screen too) and reinstalled the cylinder on the backhoe but left the lines off. After starting, I purged the lines to the rebuilt cylinder and then re-attached them, backhoe is working without spraying oil everywhere now! Currently I'm looking for replacement tires, I'm going to stay with the turf tires although I was surprised by the cost of new replacements, especially the rears. The first quote I got was $2,386.00 for just the rears including mounting, talk about making one leg go straight!! That is for the same Firestone R3 turf tire (13.6-28) currently on it, looking for other brands now as I can't see spending that much.
I am looking for some more info on the backhoe attachment, it's marked Kubota and appears close to or same vintage as the tractor but finding parts or service manual hasn't happen yet. Really want to find a picture of the control lever diagram, what was there is unreadable and although each level is working, the resulting movement in the arm or bucket isn't always what was expected. I saw an old posting by user "California" that may have purchased a similar unit about 10 years ago, curious if the controls are the same.
Here's a couple pics of my new Deere...
