CASE/DB 885 Troubleshooting and repair

[jclaudii]

I am looking for some help diagnosing some issues with a CASE 885 (david brown) that is extremely slow to turn over and becomes hydrolocked with fuel after a few attempts to start.

I pulled the injectors out and shot the fuel/water mix out of the cylinders via turning it over and thought that would be good enough. But after getting fresh fuel pumping out of the injector lines, I put it all back together and a a couple dozen revolutions later the starter can not overcome the compression any more, and neither can a wrench on the crank bolt so I'm guessing the fuel has leaked out again and is causing issues.

This tractor has sat for years...i mean YEARS! I'm thinking a brush may be out in the starter causing slow turn over as I melted a set of jumpercables trying to help out my good battery to deliver enough amps to turn over.

Without pulling the head, what is the best way to get that fuel/condensation out?

Oil looks good, got perhaps a half cup of water out of crank case and only about 20-24oz out of hydraulic area.

There are a few froze up controls around the hydraulic area, but hopefully penetrating oil will help with those.

I am completely new to a David Brown style tractor, I am awaiting confirmation to the UK guys David Brown Tractor club forum but thought there may be some help found here. I ran across some info showing it to be a Perkins ad3 / 55a engine...which is similar to my perkins a3.152 in the MF35.

Again, any help in getting this ole girl running again would be appreciated. I really need the bigger tractor to work a 3pt backhoe that my mf35 just can't handle. Thanks in advance for the advice.

jclaudii

 

[jclaudii]

I pulled the injectors again today and not much blew out. I took some water remover and poured directly into injector hole and turned over again until all seemed gone. Then took torch and stuck in injector hole and heated the hole up. Used same torch to heat the intake while I put it all back together. This got it to hit once or twice but then my starter crapped out again. I'm charging battery again tonight and will give it another try in morning or I'll try pull starting it....any other suggestions?

 

[jclaudii]

Got it going today! Man I worked for it thoigh!

Never ever forget to check oil bath air filter for water....I'm super lucky it sounds like and could have been pretty bad.

Got it running again and decided it needed water and pit the air filter back on it to drive. After all those parts were back on, it hit over twice and locked up pretty hard. Sucked water from the dang oil bath filter!!!

I thought at first it was a blown head gasket as water when starting was getting into engine.

After pulling injectors again and using water remover and a torch to dry cylinders out again, it fired right up with a shot of spray.

Hydraulics are weak, but got power steering primed so that works, 2 speed pto works, even the plow light works.

Just as an fyi, this tractor has not moved on its own since 1990 or 1991! I did manage to break the muffler off so it's pretty dang loud!

 

[jclaudii]

Finally got her home last night at about 10PM.

Got ready to load the trailer at about 3PM yesterday and took a measurement of my 18+3 car hauler and of the 885 tire width. I discovered the rears were set to almost 8 feet! Luckily we had a kubota m7040 to help out, but it could not lift the backhoe & the tractor at the same time. So off with the backhoe one more time, drove it to a semi shady spot and my brother and I did a rear tire rotation using the loader to lift up each side. It was as narrow as i think I can get them without using spacers or washers, I'm not sure if I can flip the centers to the inside or not as they may rub on the reduction unit. But it was just barley enough, when I say barely I mean I had to air the rear tires up some on the tractor and take the weight off of the 3pt to keep them from touching my trailer tires! I will research about flipping the center dish inward instead of how it is to see if it can make it a bit narrower.

Since the hydraulics are not working correctly on the 885, I used the kubota to lift the backhoe up in the air and used the 885's draw bar as a wedge between the lift arms and where the draw bar mounts too. This gave me about 8-10 inches of ground clearance and I'm sure I was exceeding some weight ratings here but it seemed like a better idea than trying to follow me up the trailer with the kubota pushing and lifting the dead weight backhoe. I ended up taking the front weights off of the 885 in order to do some work in that area and I knew I should have put them back on with all that weight of the backhoe hanging off the back. Loading was a bit hairy, but being consistent with speed and a bit of brake for steering I got her on the trailer and only crumpled one fender when I drove over it I know my brother stepped back a good distance when the front of the tractor was about 4 feet in the air while getting on the trailer! Supposedly this thing has some crawler granny low gears called HS and LS, but I could not figure out a way to engage those.

No, I 'm not sure how to get it off yet. I don't have a tractor with a loader to lift the hoe and 3pt back up to wedge the drawbar in there to hold it. I am unsure if a comealong and a tree branch would lift it enough or not either. Perhaps disconnecting it form tractor and dragging it off the back of the trailer? I'll have to think some more on this, perhaps I can use a hydraulic jack and cribbing to get it high enough to slide the drawbar back in. I'm sure this won't be the end of "Casey" the case 885.

 

[DT86]

I tried to type this out but a picture borrowed from online is better.



The S will be lower than the main range. So HS is slower than H and LS is slower than L. Seems like there is overlap in HS with L and H. I can't remember ever using it.

LS is great for garden work.


Now, what are those hydraulics doing?

 

[jclaudii]

I was thinking the slow low or slow high would be better for loading/unloading off the trailer when I have heavy equipment on the back. I'm not sure what all this tractor will get used for yet, but interesting enough I found the owner's manual to this thing in a file cabinet and it showed just pushing the lever over to the left, not left and up like you show in your decal. I used a sharpie to write on the pattern on the case for now.

The hydraulics work some as they do go up with no load but stay up regardless of lever position. Also, my body weight is enough to force them back down as well. I did drain about a quart or more of water out of the case when I first started playing with it so I'm sure their is some more water and possibly the filter is messed up. It can't be too much as the yellow light on the dash does go out upon starting. My goal was to get it home first, figure out how to get it off trailer with a dead backhoe, and then do some of the troubleshooting steps that I have seen outlined over at the DBTC website. The selector switch is also frozen as well as the knob to lock the lift in the "up" position. It had a cesna valve on it by the lift quadrant, but I had to remove it and just put the cover plate back on as the relief thing on the end spit its guts out all over when the tractor started up. I'm guessing it had some water in it and it froze.

 

[jclaudii]

The good news is I was easily able to jack the 3pt up with two floor jacks high enough to wedge the tow bar between the tow bar mount and the 3pt arms so I have a good 8 inches of ground clearance Bad news is I have to try and get at least one of the cylinders working on the backhoe in order to lift the boom up to back it off.

Some things I have found out is the water pump is shot. Not sure if I'm better off buying a rebuilt/new or a kit and just rebuild it myself.

After looking at pictures of other 885's online I believe I can rotate the tires one more time, but this time I will turn the center dishes IN instead of OUT like they currently are. This should buy me some more clearance for future trips on the trailer. I'm pretty sure when I back up the right fender on the trailer is going to come off with it

After researching for a cheap price on fluids, I think I'm going to just throw some Rotella 15w40 into the engine and some 303 super tractor universal fluid into the transmission/hydraulic system. I used Kubota UDT in the power steering as that is what I had on hand when I loaded it. I figure I will put some diesel in the hydraulic system before I drain it to help clear out the goo. I also have to put oil back in the oil bath filter, it's currently just using the old crusty prefilter. And that brings up another thing. Are the pre-filters really necessary? I know the oil bath filter is great, but should I just get a clear bowl style pre-filter that is easy to empty if I see dirt is accumulating in it?

 

[jclaudii]

Here is my latest update on Casey since I have had a chance to Clean and take some parts off. I even have video links at the end of this post

First order of business was working on the British selectamatic hydraulics. The hydraulics do go up but are extremely weak as my body weight can push it back down.
I took off several of the access panels for the system and noticed there is indeed a healthy flow of fluid rushing through when it's running. This indicates the pump is at least sending fluid and seems to be working fine. These two bolts will be removed in order to free up the RamShaft for pulling the Valve Body out from it's hiding spot.


This selector knob does not turn which is keeping it in the depth position, this needs to be fixed to be sure it is not causing my issues.


This section of the RamShaft has to come off as well:



I have manged to take the RamShaft off the back of the tractor, and let me tell you that is a heavy part and I would recommend a friend and heavy duty boots....your toes will thank you! In doing so I did manage to do a bit of damage. I managed to bend the quadrant position rod that goes through but should be easy enough to bend back.



I also either broke or was already cracked and I broke it, this guide plate that goes into the right ramshaft housing. You can see it in the first image I posted above while it is still bolted on. My thinking is I am going to try and repair it first, perhaps braze it, as it seems to just guide the critical parts.



This part mounts here in the right RamShaft housing:


After I got that off and parts soaking in degreaser, i turned my attention to the 3ph Lift Cylinder. I could see right away it was nasty and would not work long in it's current condition.



And this was going to require some extra work to keep the 3PH working IF I ever got it back together. So I pulled a few more bolts off and pulled the Ram Bore and Piston out of the Axle housing and put it on my table. A little air pressure later and I had the piston out and was able to get a good look at the rust I would have to clean. At the moment I am going to attempt to clean it with green scotchBrite and red in the heavy areas if needed. I then may follow that up, if needed, with a wire wheel brush. If it needs more polishing I may try a fine grit sandpaper. But it looks like scale rust and should come off fairly easy but I fear there may be some pitting.

In order to see how I took things apart and share in my tear down and fix (hopefully) adventure I am uploading videos to YouTube for anyone who may be interested or spot something that may need attention. Hopefully I'll continue to chip away a little at it every few days as if I leave a project for too long I always seem to misplace a bolt, screw, or even a critical part.
885 Hydraulic video 1
885 Hydraulic video 2

Please feel free to join me on my misadventure in repairing this old tractor!

 

[jclaudii]

Case 885 Hydraulic Control Valve 3 - YouTube here is the latest part of my adventure, I tried using electrolysis to remove the rust from my ram cylinder bore.

I'm still working soaking the valve body plungers in pb blaster in hopes they will come free eventually.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Interesting read