Check those loader bolts!!

[countrybumpkin]

Just a reminder to check all the loader bolts fairly often so you don't have to do this.

My stepdad called me to look at his tractor yesterday because the cooling fan fell off and he found the bolt but it was broken off. I had him bring it to me so I would have a place and tools to work on it, when he showed me the Hugh broken bolt I said that was a bit big for a fan bolt. So I started looking and found only 1 bolt left in the front end where it bolts to the block and all the loader mount bolts severely lose. I ended up having to roll the front end out from under it so I could drill and easy out the broken bolts. The fan came off because it had hit one of the bolts as it backed out and damaged the blades and also damaged the radiator when it come off. He had no idea all this was going on , he just thought the fan came lose. So I just wanted to remind everyone CHECK THOSE LOADER BOLTS.

 

[Wagtail]

OK... what's a 'loader bolt'?

'Cause I get the feeling your not referring to my FEL.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I think he is referring to the mounting bolts that attach the loader to the tractor.

 

[countrybumpkin]

Yes the front end loader bolts, are the main ones I'm talking about, but in this case it became worse and let the front end mounting bolts to loosen and break two off enforce he realized something was wrong.

 

[eanjay]

I can relate to this. Noticed movement in the FEL supports. When I checked, four out of five bolts on each side were either missing or completely sheared off. What a pain getting the support arms down and bolts extracted! Makes you wonder what else is working it's self loose.?

EanJay

 

[countrybumpkin]

Yep if it had not been for the fan blades coming off it could have turned out a LOT worse in the near future with him getting ready to start moving a lot of round bales with the loader.

 

[tbrooks26]

Check all bolts on occasion! I'm dealing with 12 sheared off bolts that were holding the BH on!

 

[Grateful11]

Our L3940 got it's Spring pressure wash bath several months ago and I immediately noticed one bolt had the head broken off. Just happen to be near the dealer the next day and thought what the heck just go in and get a bolt and be done with it. Well they sold us a bolt marked 6 instead of 8.8, I asked about the marking as I'm not all that familiar with metric bolt grades and the parts guy said that it was the same as what came on the loader. I removed the old bolt and noticed it brought quite a bit of metal out with it, I blow the threads out and put the new bolt in and torqued to whatever was in the manual. Then I noticed the other 2 or 3 bolts lock washers on the rest of the bolts on that bracket weren't quite closed up but they torqued to to the right numbers. I took them out and come to find out they installed bolts at the dealership almost a 1/2" longer than what the parts list called for. They had bottomed out the bolts at the dealer. I went to the local bolt supply and bought all new bolts of the correct length. I asked him what a metric bolt marked 6 was and said basically it's about equal to a Grade 3 general use bolt not something you want to run in a loader. He sold me 3 bolts marked 8.8. I took one of the bolts that were too long, ground the bad threads off and ground a couple grooves in the threads near the end, made it look sorta like a tap. Ran it in all the threaded holes and cleaned them up because they boogered up the bolt threads by bottoming the bolts out and when I backed them out did some damage to the threads. Anyway they all torqued down and is holding fine now. The L3940's loader gets used everyday on the feedlot.

 

[countrybumpkin]

Sounds like you caught it just in time and got lucky to have figured out the bolts were bottomed out instead of tight against the frame. The ones in the front end are 10.9 s but he bought 8.8s yesterday, but I'm going to pick up some 10.9s.

 

[oosik]

I check all the bolts on my tractor 2X annually. Its a PITA to get at some of them. Never found a loose one though.