Dig-It towable Backhoe partial restoration

[sparc]

Ok Man, how much to make another set? Those look great and I am liking the black vs red panel. All of my stickers are shot!

I might be up for a set of 158 decals too.
Cheaper by the dozen right?

 

[Wa11banger]

Sparc there are two places to get parts.. mission and the other guy, who buys them all from mission and resells them to you.. mission is the cheapest I have found even ghost aving them made local. And super quick delivery from mission. They are in Indiana and so far I get everything next day. You can also order a copy of the manual it has been the best investment so far. Plus it has all the parts break down illustrations int and all the part numbers

 

[Krookz]

Plates?

No I dont think there's air in them. I bled them pretty good

Mission has manuals. They're like $20... has all the pin/bushing sizes and part numbers

 

[Wa11banger]

They move far too much fluid to have air in them at all. I thought I was going to be wise one day and disconnect a hose stick it in a bucket and "drain/purge" the low point, ie the wheel motors. Let's just say there isn't a 1/4 of a second where what molecules that were in one of them motors is still in it lol.. And of course I had been working it pretty hard so that fluid was near melting point. It hit the bottom of that 5 gallon bucket and immediately ejected back out, all over me, all over the dig it, all over everywhere but the inside of the bucket.

System purged sir! lol

 

[nydigger]

loving this thread. just picked up a dig-it 158 for free.99 from my boss. has a blown engine but has also been sitting outside for around 5+years. was also told prior to motor blowing oil he had all the hydraulics serviced. ive located a strong running magnum 18 for 300.00 should be here in about a week looking to restore it and using for locating buried cesspool covers and trenching.

 

[Wa11banger]

Nydigger, welcome to the thread, you will love it when you get it running again. It has done so much work for me, and well beyond what everyone told me it would be capable of. It will easily perform the tasks you want it to..

 

[Krookz]

Grats on the freebie. Enjoy it!

 

[nydigger]

thanks guys, im picking it up tomorrow and my motor should be here saturday. i would like to get a set of the re-pop decals im going to do a full resto on it.

 

[Wa11banger]

Good to hear.. Hey if you start a resto thread please come back and post it here so we know where to go to follow you.. Or I am the original poster.. You can insert it in here if you like.. It is all up to you

 

[Kernopelli]

Well, I'm back to rebuilding cylinders on my model 158. I have mentioned in several different TBN post that the gland nuts can be almost impossible to remove. On this most recent rebuild, I have finally come to the point of cutting the gland out on a lathe. The problem with doing this was that the glands ( or any individual cylinder parts except seals) are not available from Power King or Heartland Equip. I was able to confirm that DigIt used a Bradco 8LD backhoe on the 148/158 models. I called Paladin Attachments ( Bradco parent company)and they were able to email me a cylinder spec sheet and 8LD parts and operators manuals. They also confirmed cylinder parts were still available through Bradco dealers. Happy days! Hope this helps anyone who may be facing the same problems.

 

[Wa11banger]

Great info and thanks for sharing. I currently have a cylinder leaking a fair amount and I am going to try this one by myself. Ive been taking them to a shop and they charge 150 per rebuild. and if we can get those parts I can mess up a time or two

 

[vpd66]

Alright time fro me to join! LOL I think I have the rarest Dig-it of them all. This past weekend I purchased a Dig-it model 102 serial #84021. Its the smallest Dig-it I've ever seen. It has a 8hp Kohler engine,12" bucket,20" drive tires, and 2" ball hitch. I brought it home on my trailer because the pervious owner didn't know how road worthy it would be towing it and the lights and safety chains had been removed. By how it pulled on my trailer I'd say it doesn't weigh more then 1500lbs. It seems to work perfect and doesn't leak a drop of oil. It could use some paint,maybe next winter. I called Mission and they had absolutely nothing on this machine. They said it was a real old model. I bought it to use around my property (trenching, some stump removel, and light landscaping) should work perfect. Its a real simple machine and it looks like all the hydraulic parts are off the shelf stuff and any frame or boom parts could easily be fabricated out of stock steel.

 

[Wa11banger]

vpd66, welcome to the thread.. That little bugger looks awesome. You will find that with a little patience they will do much more than other people say they will.. Everyone told me mine was about worthless but it has done a great job around the property. I did get a bigger backhoe JD410G but that was because of the depth capabilities I required. I could have dug out one side and dug in with the dig it but time was not on my side and the teleboom on the 410 meant I could dig 16ft almost straight down from up top

Still have the digit and used it this weekend matter of fact since completing the big dig I haven't used the 410 since. I put a manual thumb on the digit last year and use the heck out of the guy.. Most of my digging needs are similar to yours small farm stuff.

If you do rebuild it or repaint post here or start your own thread and post us the link to it here so we can follow you. I have only done a functional rebuild so far but plan to let it rest long enough for a complete rebuild soon

 

[vpd66]

Thanks for the welcome. This little hoe is perfect for what I need to do. I was looking for a 3 point backhoe for my Case 411b, then this came along. I know what you mean about people thinking its a toy and can't do any real work. I just hand them a shovel and tell them its a lot better then that. The guy I bought it from was kind of emotionally attached to it and would only sell it to me if I agreed to give him first chance to buy it back if I was to sell it. He had a 8" tree cut off in his yard and I got to try it out removing that little stump. He did most of the work and he was pretty handy with it and it had no problem digging it out.
Vince

 

[vpd66]

vpd66, welcome to the thread.. That little bugger looks awesome. You will find that with a little patience they will do much more than other people say they will.. Everyone told me mine was about worthless but it has done a great job around the property. I did get a bigger backhoe JD410G but that was because of the depth capabilities I required. I could have dug out one side and dug in with the dig it but time was not on my side and the teleboom on the 410 meant I could dig 16ft almost straight down from up top

Still have the digit and used it this weekend matter of fact since completing the big dig I haven't used the 410 since. I put a manual thumb on the digit last year and use the heck out of the guy.. Most of my digging needs are similar to yours small farm stuff.

If you do rebuild it or repaint post here or start your own thread and post us the link to it here so we can follow you. I have only done a functional rebuild so far but plan to let it rest long enough for a complete rebuild soon

Got a picture of that thumb you added. I'd like to make one for mine.

 

[Wa11banger]

I don't have a close up picture of it on the dipper but I will try to remember to take one this weekend. Got it for a great price on eBay all laser cut metal, keyed assembly, quick pin removable or stows straight up, and cheap. BTW his design is way over engineered for this BH but I liked it that way so I wouldn't break it. The guy is in Az and was a real class act to deal with! First one had wrong dimensions and he sent a second one no questions asked. I told him I would send the original back and he said nah just keep it. I was using it this past weekend to pick up pile after pile of branches (yah I know way overkill) but you should see how many of them I have to go through.. was a lot easier to use the BH to pick them up and cut them into the dump trailer from the backhoe's jaws of death. Then go to where I wanted them and touch them only once while dumping. It was a menial task for it but hey it made my job of cutting those branches down to size real easy. I could do bundles about 18-20" (chainsaw limitation not BH) at once and I didn't have to touch them. The point is although way below the machines capability I had a good time making tedious work a lot more fun

 

[vpd66]

I don't have a close up picture of it on the dipper but I will try to remember to take one this weekend. Got it for a great price on eBay all laser cut metal, keyed assembly, quick pin removable or stows straight up, and cheap. BTW his design is way over engineered for this BH but I liked it that way so I wouldn't break it. The guy is in Az and was a real class act to deal with! First one had wrong dimensions and he sent a second one no questions asked. I told him I would send the original back and he said nah just keep it. I was using it this past weekend to pick up pile after pile of branches (yah I know way overkill) but you should see how many of them I have to go through.. was a lot easier to use the BH to pick them up and cut them into the dump trailer from the backhoe's jaws of death. Then go to where I wanted them and touch them only once while dumping. It was a menial task for it but hey it made my job of cutting those branches down to size real easy. I could do bundles about 18-20" (chainsaw limitation not BH) at once and I didn't have to touch them. The point is although way below the machines capability I had a good time making tedious work a lot more fun

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Looks like that thumb is well engineered and very handy. I'll have to try and find that guy on Ebay. I noticed your using your Dig-it without the outriggers down. Does yours seem light on the backend when using it this way? Mine will jerk the rear casters off the ground with the outriggers up and there is a warning sticker not to operate unless the outriggers are down.

 

[Wa11banger]

The thumb is very sturdy, I will look back through my history and see if I can find the seller for you.. mine is stable enough to do this kind of work without the outriggers deployed but for the pics I was still positioning where I needed to be.. I dont use it without the outriggers deployed, I had gone to get the quad and trailer and didnt know if this spot was going to be good .. for lifting sticks mine has enough balast but anything heavier I would have had them deployed before ever starting

 

[vpd66]

I found the seller on Ebay. Thanks

 

[Wa11banger]

In case there is more than one seller titan-thumbs is who I dealt with.. Great guy really and man they were cheap compared to many others.. Which is amazing because of how thick the steel is