Richard
Elite Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2000
- Messages
- 4,822
- Location
- Knoxville, TN
- Tractor
- International 1066 Full sized JCB Loader/Backhoe and a John Deere 430 to mow with
I narrowly dodged a repair yesterday.
I was driving my backhoe/loader back/forth across the farm bringing some topsoil from the barn area to my yard.
A single round trip is almost 30 minutes to get there, load up & return to the house.
I noticed every now & then, some form of "shiver" that the machine was experiencing.
It was not something I felt to be normal (which is why I think I noticed it).
I chalked it up to moving a bunch of dirt and maybe something shifting every now & then.
Then, yesterday, I'm driving with an empty bucket to the barn...and feel the shiver... huh?
Now I'm looking, watching... just being more alert to things trying to get an idea as to cause.
I then notice my front left wheel "wiggle" a little bit. Not much, just a little. Since I need a kingpin on that nuckle, there is a little slop in the wheel... I jiggled the steering wheel and saw the slop. The wiggle and the slop were two different things.
I had a flashback memory to a time when some stupid idiot (that would be someone that I know dearly and they will stay nameless to protect my ego) who fixed a flat tire on the front....but, did not tighten the lug nuts all the way. The lug nuts loosened and the wheel fell off the little 1/2" "lip" that it rides on, causing all the lugs to shear and broke the hub.
I bought a new hub which was around $500/$550 and all was well.
So yesterday, I see this wiggle... and have this flashback memory.
I immediately stopped the machine and went down to look.
Virtually EVERY one of those lugs were about 50% loosened. Indeed, the wheel was starting to shimmy on the lugs and the lip that holds it.
I hand tightened the lugs in the field as best I could and went straight home to tighten them properly.
In the 10 minutes it took me to drive home, they came almost as undone as I found them in the field. It was like a little gremlin was there unscrewing them as I was driving.
Regardless... made it up the driveway, planted my bucket to raise the wheels and tightened those little SOB's down.
All other wheels were ok. I put the wrench & 30mm socket in the cab with me and went on with the rest of my day realizing that I would have probably NOT made it back home on that journey. Indeed, I might not have made it to the barn.
Had I made it to the barn, the extra weight of the dirt in the front bucket would have probably done me in.
So, broken hub is avoided and I now have $500 or more in my pocket since I don't have to fix it.
:thumbsup:
I was driving my backhoe/loader back/forth across the farm bringing some topsoil from the barn area to my yard.
A single round trip is almost 30 minutes to get there, load up & return to the house.
I noticed every now & then, some form of "shiver" that the machine was experiencing.
It was not something I felt to be normal (which is why I think I noticed it).
I chalked it up to moving a bunch of dirt and maybe something shifting every now & then.
Then, yesterday, I'm driving with an empty bucket to the barn...and feel the shiver... huh?
Now I'm looking, watching... just being more alert to things trying to get an idea as to cause.
I then notice my front left wheel "wiggle" a little bit. Not much, just a little. Since I need a kingpin on that nuckle, there is a little slop in the wheel... I jiggled the steering wheel and saw the slop. The wiggle and the slop were two different things.
I had a flashback memory to a time when some stupid idiot (that would be someone that I know dearly and they will stay nameless to protect my ego
) who fixed a flat tire on the front....but, did not tighten the lug nuts all the way. The lug nuts loosened and the wheel fell off the little 1/2" "lip" that it rides on, causing all the lugs to shear and broke the hub.I bought a new hub which was around $500/$550 and all was well.
So yesterday, I see this wiggle... and have this flashback memory.
I immediately stopped the machine and went down to look.
Virtually EVERY one of those lugs were about 50% loosened. Indeed, the wheel was starting to shimmy on the lugs and the lip that holds it.
I hand tightened the lugs in the field as best I could and went straight home to tighten them properly.
In the 10 minutes it took me to drive home, they came almost as undone as I found them in the field. It was like a little gremlin was there unscrewing them as I was driving.
Regardless... made it up the driveway, planted my bucket to raise the wheels and tightened those little SOB's down.
All other wheels were ok. I put the wrench & 30mm socket in the cab with me and went on with the rest of my day realizing that I would have probably NOT made it back home on that journey. Indeed, I might not have made it to the barn.
Had I made it to the barn, the extra weight of the dirt in the front bucket would have probably done me in.
So, broken hub is avoided and I now have $500 or more in my pocket since I don't have to fix it.
:thumbsup:
