7308 FEL adjustment on front bracket

Mosey · Oct 11, 2003

Page 21 in the 7308 FEL manual says the hooks on the FEL should be positioned against the tubes on the tractor. Mine are not actually touching, there's a 1/8" gap. Is this right or should it be touching? Thanks.

BigDave · Oct 11, 2003

I can't tell you right from wrong, but I have about a 1/2 inch gap. I believe this was discussed in a thread about a year ago & mine had a tighter alignment than some others.

DavidJ · Oct 12, 2003

They should be touching. The reason is that when you push into something with the loader the front mount absorbs some of the load. If there is a gap the rear mounts take the entire load and may fail prematurely. I would keep mine adjusted to touch. Be ready though, my manual says to torque the bolts to about 300 ft lbs /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif You'll need a serious torque wrench to do that. My Proto will only go to 250 ft lbs.

thcri · Oct 12, 2003

Mine are not touching. I had numerous problems of my front bracket even coming loose. I had to take apart a couple of times and no matter how tight I got them they would shift whenever I put down pressure on the bucket. I finally asked my dealer if there was ever a time that I would have to take the bracket off and he said no. I told him to weld them and since I have never had trouble. But I do have about 1/2" in front and 1/4" on the bottom.

murph

kpk · Oct 17, 2003

I too have a large gap. Probably in the order of 1/4 to 1/2 inch. The first time I saw it I thought "that can't be good". I have used the loader many times without a problem, but I still think they should be touching. Otherwise, as you plunge into a pile of whatever, the rear mounts take all the stress. I never got around to doing anything about it though. I was going to take them off, lengthen the slots, and put them back on.

SteveInMD · Oct 17, 2003

I have a gap too, but that is with the loader resting on the ground. Wouldn't the gap close up when pressure is applied to loader? I take a look at it tomorrow with the loader pressed up against something. It looked to me like my front adjustments were maxed out minimizing the gap.

Mosey · Oct 20, 2003

I was thinking the same thing. I'll put some pressure on it and see if the gap closes up.

MikeBurr · Oct 20, 2003

Mine too was getting a big gap, so I re-alined the parts for as small as possible gap. Then I drilled thru all pieces and put a bolt in place. Worked for little over a year, then the bolt broke on one side. Put another one in that is holding ok. Must likely need to bore a bigger hole and use a stronger bolt. Or I may just weld it, haven't had the loader off in 3 years... /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

thcri · Oct 20, 2003

Just weld the brackets in place. You still can take the loader off. Mine used to jump off and then they would sit on top of the post instead of around it until I welded them.

murph

Mosey · Oct 26, 2003

After using the FEL to scoop up some dirt, now I have about 1/2" gap. But, it doesn't look like the hooks on the FEL have moved, it looks like the bracket that the tubes are on has pivoted back some where it mounts to the tractor.