Backhoe beginners concern removing BH

[rooftrussman]

I got a ford 1210 about 3 months ago with FEL and BH. I've been reading about all the great uses for attachments so now if I get some, box blade, tiller etc., (I actually have use for all of these), I need to remove the BH. The guy I bought the tractor from never had it off if it ever has been. There are loops of hydraulic hoses that seem to be for connecting the other hosses when the BH is removed. It is frame mounted, Model 754, and seems to be held on with 4 bolts and a frame that extends up to the front of the frame of the tractor. It seems pretty straight forward but I've thought that before.. I woul;d guess you need to drop it off whwere you can store it. It weighs about 1000 # according to the books so it doesn't seem like it will move easily once I get it off. The 3 pt hitch seems to be missing a couple of arms but hopefully they are generally available. The PTO seems to work but makes some noise as it turns but in a rythmical way as though it catches something every revolution but not too noisy. Any thoughts about how to check a PTO without actually connecting it to something and anything to watch out for disconnecting a BH. Thanks

 

[ragkar]

Well I have don't have one of those, but from struggling with my JD I can offer the following suggestions:
Pick a place to store it where you can maneuver the tractor to get it lined up. It's bad enough backing straight in without the bother of having to do your backing out of a curve.
Store it in a location that won't let the stabilizer feet dig in. Asphalt or concrete would be best if your stabilizer feet would allow it.
After disconnecting my JD bh I have to plug in a hose from the tractor back into the tractor to remake the hydraulic loop.
Consider putting the bh on wood blocks.
Maybe a friendly farmer could advise you or even do it for you while you watch.
Lower the bucket for stability.

 

[john_bud]

Taking one off is fairly straight forward. Not "easy" as there is some mess made and muscle needed. First of all, find a very flat and level place where you will store it. If you have no level place, find one where the tractor is slightly higher than the hoe. (It will make it easier putting it back on, otherwise the tractor wants to roll away from the hoe.)

The bring the dipper stick in all the way, curl the bucket and lower the boom to rest the bucket on the ground. Put a piece of plywood 3'x3' or so under the bucket to keep it from squishing into the ground over time. Put a 4'x4' or so piece of plywood (maybe 2 sheets thick) under the hoe.

Lower the stabilizers onto either 2' pavers or 2'x2' plywood. Shut off the engine for now.

Place 3 jack stands where you can slide them under the hoe body. One under the swing pivot and 2 in the back. Loosen the bolts that hold the hoe. They will be dern tight and probably rusted and full of grit, that's why you have been hitting them with penetrating fluid every day for the past week. (GM makes a great one, Kroil is good, PB Blaster, liquid wrench and the others are ok, WD40 is not a penetrant - don't waste your time with it. 50-50 Diesel and ATF are ok to good and cheap.)

After you bruised your knuckles, skuffed off a bit of skin, lost some blood, turned the air blue with cuss words and gotten the nuts off for the first time in 20 years, you are ready to get the hoe off.

Start the tractor and at idle, slowly and carefully raise the hoe by lowering the stabilizers. You may need to pry off the top link to the hoe (depends on the attach style). Gently, use the boom up/down to wiggle and loosen - align so the links can come off. I have a 3' cat's paw and 5' steel pry bar for pursuasion. When you have raised the hoe up so it is 3-5" above the mount - put the jack stands under and lower it (1/2" - 1") onto them.


Shut off the engine, take off the "IN" hose (smaller) at the hoe and the "Out" hose (larger) at the tractor. Mark them if you need to (and take pictures). Loop the "out" hose to the "in" fitting on the hoe and tighten it down to keep the fluid clean. Do the same thing on the tractor. Now listen up!! This is important. You MUST use the hoe "in" hose to form the loop on the tractor. It is high pressure hose. The "out" hose is low pressure hose. If you use the "out" hose, it will (may) burst as it is NOT high pressure hose.


Drive the tractor away.

Grease up all the exposed cylinder rods. Pressure wash the hoe. Inspect for structural cracks, repair as needed. Touch up the paint if need be. Then warn the kids to not mess with it. Using the controls may cause the hoe to fall over and that could squish some one or some thing. That's why you put it where there is nothing near by, right?

Your hoe's attachment may not be the same as what are discribed here, so take this with a grain of salt! And remember, you ain't superman so if the hoe does flop over. RUN! Don't try and stop it, that only leads to interesting scars - if you're lucky.

 

[MJPetersen]

John,

This post must go into the classic hall of fame as a humorous but fact filled practical post. Great job. Great advice! Those who have done this will be the ones laughing the loudest.

Mike

 

[RonMar]

In most cases you will use a combination of bucket position on the ground and outrigger feet(3 legs of a tripod with the subframe sticking out like a balcony) to support the hoe and subframe in the position it currently occupies under the tractor. If the bucket has drain holes, this is also a good time to position the bucket so those are on the bottom, and as mentioned, get any blocks under the bucket or outrigger feet. Once you get the weight off the subframe attachpoints, you remove those bolts. This will be tricky and you may have to play with the positioning a bit so the bolts come out without any strain that might damage them or the holes, or allow a sudden shift or drop. Ideally, once they are broke free, you should have the positioning so that you can turn the bolts by hand. Once the bolts are free, you can lower the hoe and subframe a little ways away from the tractor to give you clearance to drive away. It is probably better to lower the main hoe frame (between outrigger pivots) down onto blocks near it's installed height to prevent it from possibly sagging out of hydraulic hose/QC range while in storage. Once it is down solid, shutdown and disconnect the hoe hoses and connect in/conncect together any hoses that need to be to complete the circuit, then drive away. Usually the tractor side of the hoe supply and return lines are connected together or a jumper is used to connect these two points. The hoe ends should be connected together or bagged to keep them clean.

To reconnect, reverse the process. backup, hookup hydraulics then use hoe controls to lift/position subframe with attach points. Then shutdown the tractor and install the bolts. Be vary aware of your body parts during the hoockup and disconnect stage. A missplaced limb and an improper/excessive hydraulic control to the backhoe and something could get seriously pinched between tractor and hoe... The controls will allow you to move the subframe around quite a bit under the tractor, but, also as mentioned, a good straight backin will help quite a bit.

If you say the backhoe has never been off the tractor, it probably hasn't seen any use. If the gears in the PTO case have set idle for a long time, they may even have rust on the upper portion that hasn't been down in the gear oil in a while, which might explain the cyclic noise. If it is a woosh type noise, this could be caused by corrosion onpart of the gear. If it is a clunk type noise, it may be less expensive in the long run to figure out a way to access it for a visual inspection as that could indicate cracked or broken gear teeth. If it is corrosion, the sound will lessen with use and you will see signs of the rust in an oil sample from the gearbox.

 

[hazmat]

In addtion to John's great play by play you can aquire the manual from https://www.newhollandtechpubs.com/

 

[rooftrussman]

Thanks for the blow by blow. It will be a few weeks before I need to do this and it doesn't sound like it is useful to practice. I'll post when the day comes. Thanks

 

[john_bud]

If you are not going to take the plunge for a couple weeks, you should start with the penetrating fluid. It will be much easier if you give each joint, nut and bolt a good squirt every day or two. You can also try and loosen the bolts/ nuts up. You may find you don't have the wrenches / sockets needed. It's much better to have all the tools you need up front and not like I did having to run 28 miles to the store for a wrench because the PO had swapped out a fastener!

Most fords have only 4 bolts that hold the PTO shaft assembly in. All right around the back. Hard-ish part is getting the far end to align when going back together. But that's just general comment as I haven't done much with the newer machines like yours.

Hazmat - The manual? People read those things? Just kidding! I forgot that FNH has good support on the documentation side.

jb

 

[mrutkaus]

On my CK30/Woods BH-89x combination, the backhoe has to be a bit LOWER than normal to install, that is, the entire backhow when ready to install shoulc be sitting on 6" lumber. Even slightly higher makes it hard to install on the factory subframe.

Mike

 

[Corm]

You probably already know this, but if you pressure wash your hoe after parking it, don't forget to give each grease nipple a couple of pumps of new grease to force any water out of the joints.

Corm