slightly twisted bucket arms.

[gravelman]

on my Kubota B2650 the bucket is not sitting flat...one side up very slightly Im thinking bucket arms could have been twisted with too much pressure on one side.. Is there a little secret out there to fix...maybe try lifting the other way?? Or do i have to remove the pistons, bucket etc and replace the arms. Sometimes the little pins look like they are coming out but that is not the case here. Front tire pressure fine. thanks for any and all help

 

[nyone]

Front tire pressure dosnt dictate a leaning tractor. Rear can.

Take some good measurements including the rear axle height on each side before you spin even one bolt or remove one pin.

 

[5030]

Do a search of this site. Many threads concerning twisted loader arms and may ways to cure it as well, if they are twisted that is.

 

[RjCorazza]

I agree that measurements should be taken, and a thorough evaluation needs to be done. Frequently the issue is the crossover tube being twisted, with the sure fix being to cut, realign, and reweld the crossover tube.

 

[rScotty]

on my Kubota B2650 the bucket is not sitting flat...one side up very slightly Im thinking bucket arms could have been twisted with too much pressure on one side.. Is there a little secret out there to fix...maybe try lifting the other way?? Or do i have to remove the pistons, bucket etc and replace the arms. Sometimes the little pins look like they are coming out but that is not the case here. Front tire pressure fine. thanks for any and all help

Isn't that maddening? I bent the bucket bottom AND the arms on my first compact by being stupid and putting stress on one corner trying to lift something it couldn't.... and then paid for it with 20 years of dealing with a bent bucket.

I eventually fixed the loaders for a couple of customers, but of course never got around to fixing my own.

What worked - when it worked at all - was to get the tractor on the level, take the bucket off, and stick some 6 foot long very straight pieces or half inch water pipe or electrical conduit through the bucket mounting holes on each arm to see how they line up from one arm to the other.

The pipe doesn't have to be a tight fit in the holes, its purpose is just a visual aid to help tell you if the problem is in the loader arms or in the bucket.

Hopefully the problem is in the loader arms because then you can loosen, shim, bend, or slide loader frame mounting bolts in their mounting holes until the arms are parallel. You may have to oblong or oversize a mounting hole or two on the loader frame, but get those arms parallel, bolt it tight, and then try the bucket on again.

If the bend is in the bucket itself, I'd guess all the same applies. but never have done that myself. At least you would know.
rScotty

 

[JCoastie]

Had something similar myself, pics and info in this thread Did I bust something on the loader hydraulics?

After checking everything I could, loosening, re-tightening, etc. the fix for me was getting fed-up enough to apply the same opposite pressure that caused it in the first place. Not that I recommend it, but I bent it back with a downed tree in the grapple forced against a standing tree. Basically said F' it. It's either bending back , or I'm buying a new loader when I snap this one lol It did take quite a bit of force, more than several attempts at kind of ramming it, and I could see it going back little by little, but it did work. Again, not recommending this course of action. I was just fed up and embarrassed by it. Luckily it didn't cost me a new loader or anything else. Been 10 months and no issues have popped up.

 

[gravelman]

ok on all these...as always..THANK YOU ALL

 

[rScotty]

Had something similar myself, pics and info in this thread Did I bust something on the loader hydraulics?

After checking everything I could, loosening, re-tightening, etc. the fix for me was getting fed-up enough to apply the same opposite pressure that caused it in the first place. Not that I recommend it, but I bent it back with a downed tree in the grapple forced against a standing tree. Basically said F' it. It's either bending back , or I'm buying a new loader when I snap this one lol It did take quite a bit of force, more than several attempts at kind of ramming it, and I could see it going back little by little, but it did work. Again, not recommending this course of action. I was just fed up and embarrassed by it. Luckily it didn't cost me a new loader or anything else. Been 10 months and no issues have popped up.

Metal workers always have a problem is with the term "bending back". Metal is pretty easy to bend, so it's hard to resist fixing things that way.

But basically there is no way anyone can bend something back to where it was before. Metal yields when it bends, and when it yields it also stretches. There just isn't any way to unstretch it.

What we can do is put another bend next to or on top of the first one. With luck the result will be straighter and only a little bit dogledded. But it can't help being longer.

If we put multiple bends into loader arms to get them to be parallel, we may end up with the bucket edge being level, but now one side becomes farther forward.

Bending is a last resort, as Coastie says. But worth a try.

rScotty

 

[etpm]

Metal workers always have a problem is with the term "bending back". Metal is pretty easy to bend, so it's hard to resist fixing things that way.

But basically there is no way anyone can bend something back to where it was before. Metal yields when it bends, and when it yields it also stretches. There just isn't any way to unstretch it.

What we can do is put another bend next to or on top of the first one. With luck the result will be straighter and only a little bit dogledded. But it can't help being longer.

If we put multiple bends into loader arms to get them to be parallel, we may end up with the bucket edge being level, but now one side becomes farther forward.

Bending is a last resort, as Coastie says. But worth a try.

rScotty

I don't like arguing but in this case I need to disagree. Metal does indeed stretch. The statement that there isn't any way to unstretch it is untrue. Any decent body worker does this on a regular basis. By body worker I mean someone who does sheet metal body work on cars and trucks and the like. Even though I don't do body work I have, for myself, done body work where I compressed stretched metal to remove dents. In my real job as a machinist one of the things I had to do was straighten hollow driveshafts that were part of a piston engine to turbine engine conversion for small planes. After we made the driveshafts from solid stock, after all the drilling, turning, milling, etc., the shafts had a final heat treat. After the heat treat the shafts would no longer be straight enough and would need straightening. I did this. And the metal would stretch on one side and compress on the other side. If the shafts only stretched then they would have grown in length. They did not get longer. They did no change in length. The Seattle Space Needle also took advantage of metal compression, just like the sheet metal in an auto body. The graceful curves of the legs of the Space Needle were done with only flames and water. So the metal was compressed on the inside of the curves and stretched on the outside of the curves.
Eric

 

[Dman1981]

On the heavy equipment when it bent we would bend it back straight and weld up anything that cracked
Do this for many units over the years no problems with any of them