60s Case Eagle Claw: arms are slightly splayed outward, making hitching up fun...

   / 60s Case Eagle Claw: arms are slightly splayed outward, making hitching up fun... #1  

KilroyJC

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1962 Case 430, 1995 Craftsman Yard Tractor/mower, 1949 South Bend 9A Lathe, WoodMizer Lx55 sawmill, Kubota KX033-4 Mini-Excavator
1962 Case 430, using a Ferguson 2-disc plow and an anonymous 20-disc harrow. The arm ends are probably about an inch-and-a-quarter or so farther apart than they should be as the outside of the Claw hooks are right up against the lynch pins.

would it be a bad thing if I were to slip a large fender washer to provide extra bearing surface to help align and retain the attachments?


Another question: is there supposed to be some sort of spring in the latching system,? It seems to be working better for me if I hook in a small bungee to provide some tension to the mechanism.

there certainly is a lot to learn!
 
   / 60s Case Eagle Claw: arms are slightly splayed outward, making hitching up fun... #2  
I'm not exactly sure whats going on but I have an eagle hitch Case 400 so I'll take a stab at an answer. The eagle hitches were designed before the modern cat 1 hitches, and are narrower by about an inch (maybe someone else knows the exact difference). Is it possible someone bent your linkages out in the past to try to make it work with standard cat 1 equipment? I can't see any reason why some washers would hurt anything. I don't think my latches have any springs, but I don't know if there were supposed to be some there originally. I have a parts manual I can look at, but it is a different model and maybe was different on yours. Let me know if there is anything else I can maybe help with. Old JI Case owners gotta stick together! ;)
 
   / 60s Case Eagle Claw: arms are slightly splayed outward, making hitching up fun...
  • Thread Starter
#3  
I'm not exactly sure whats going on but I have an eagle hitch Case 400 so I'll take a stab at an answer. The eagle hitches were designed before the modern cat 1 hitches, and are narrower by about an inch (maybe someone else knows the exact difference). Is it possible someone bent your linkages out in the past to try to make it work with standard cat 1 equipment? I can't see any reason why some washers would hurt anything. I don't think my latches have any springs, but I don't know if there were supposed to be some there originally. I have a parts manual I can look at, but it is a different model and maybe was different on yours. Let me know if there is anything else I can maybe help with. Old JI Case owners gotta stick together! ;)
well, if the bent them out deliberately, they bent them out just a wee bit too far!

seriously, while I haven’t put a yardstick, straightedge, and t-square on it yet, the port-side arm is definitely skewed left, and the star aid side looks like it is too, just not as much. My guess is someone made a bit of a turn with an implement engage with the earth and inadvertently tweaked the arms. And with the Claw, I can’t just flip the one arm over 😕

what I will probably have to do is derive out the pins and swap them left-for-right —-and then they would probably be too close. . . But I would think that having the Claw riding against the implement, rather than trying to slide off the ends, would be a better situation?
 
 
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