Ford 445c Broken casting for lower top link

[ddfarmboy]

Morning everyone. New member but long time lurker. Appreciate the wealth of information found here.

I purchased a ford 445c recently, but didn't catch that the lower attachment had been pulled out of the casting. It has been "fixed" but I don't have a lot of faith in the repair. It doesn't look like it was preheated based on the paint. It does look like nickle rod to me.

I would like to put a counter weight on the back and use a 3 pt blade for snow. If this fails... any design suggestions on making a sub frame to support the lower pin? Plan is to use it as is, but I am not optimistic!

My thoughts were tie into the axle housing/trumpet bolts and either down to the drawbar frame (is it strong enough?) or out to the axle housing where the loader mounts.

Has anyone done this? Or any other advice. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the whole rear end. Will add one tonight. Thanks.

 

[ovrszd]

Welcome to TBN.

I agree it doesn't look very pretty. Even appears to be crooked.

Looking at my 3910 I'd say you could build a bracing bracket off the axle housing bolts. It would have to be very rigid. Would want to ensure you aren't putting the axle housing bolts at risk?

This will be a tough fix. Hopefully some of the excellent fabricators here will see this and chime in.

 

[Gary Fowler]

If welded correctly, a weld will hold nicely to the cast steel tractor bodies, they aren't cast iron so no need for a nickel based rod-7018 works nicely. Yours seems to be welded fairly well on the top but a little ugly on the bottom and the steel "nut" seems a bit thin. If it were mine, I would just grind off all that crap, fab up a nice attachment from some thick plate and weld it up with 7018 or 8018 electrodes.
Clean all the grease and oil up and acetone it down well before trying to weld it. You may have to heat it a bit to get the impregnated oil out of the steel but that should be all you need to do before welding.

 

[ddfarmboy]

If welded correctly, a weld will hold nicely to the cast steel tractor bodies, they aren't cast iron so no need for a nickel based rod-7018 works nicely. Yours seems to be welded fairly well on the top but a little ugly on the bottom and the steel "nut" seems a bit thin. If it were mine, I would just grind off all that crap, fab up a nice attachment from some thick plate and weld it up with 7018 or 8018 electrodes.
Clean all the grease and oil up and acetone it down well before trying to weld it. You may have to heat it a bit to get the impregnated oil out of the steel but that should be all you need to do before welding.

Thanks for the input. If it is cast steel, then I can comfortably weld it up. I had some else say it was cast iron, I guess I need to do a spark test to be sure.

My other thought was even if I have to rebuild the link to the draft spring, it is better to get this attachment strong enough so I don't get the opportunity to fix it again!

Dan

 

[ovrszd]

Looking forward to your repair Dan.

 

[mike48130]

Have you looked at swapping out the housing? Might be a "fun" weekend job.

 

[ddfarmboy]

I saw another post that said the center housing was different for the torque converter drive tractors like mine, so that might make it hard to find. Haven't looked beyond that. But that would be one long weekend!!

 

[Gator6x4]

When I first looked at the posted image I thought to myself that is the top link tractor connection point, but where is the other side. I then went looking for a 445c and it looks to me like, you only have one side of the top link connector.

https://cdn.ironpla.net/i/1997/282/1997282_1_0_0002.jpg

 

[ddfarmboy]

Correct, that is only the bottom pin. The top of the bracket attaches to the draft control. I have the other parts. Will try to get better pictures tonight.

 

[ddfarmboy]

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