Found loose bolts and fittings

catdozer · Oct 9, 2011

As crawling under the 235 tonight and found the 2 of the 4 step bolts missing on the left side, then also found the FEL fitting on the tractor side a 1/4 off on the blue, the other 3 were only about 1/8 off, they tightened right up. Also found a brush guard bolt missing. Has anybody else had these go loose or other parts uncommonly missing

jrpat · Oct 9, 2011

I had hydrostat/hydraulic fluid leaking underneath the tractor near the rear axle. All of the bolts between the rear differential and the clutch housing were loose (about 6 or 8 of them total). Tightened them up and no more leak. Figured it out right before I was going to go borrow a trailer to haul it in for warranty work. Two years old and 156hrs and it has yet to go back in to the dealer. Crossing my fingers. Dealer is halfway across the state!

galaxie428 · Oct 10, 2011

I have not checked mine for anything loose (maybe I should) but it seems like there was a post on here a while back about loader mount bolts coming loose also.

wallace · Oct 10, 2011

YES THEY DO!

catdozer · Oct 10, 2011

I got 436 hours and have not had any problems with the loader mount bolts. I'm going to do a complete inspection tonight and see if I find anything else

BigBoyinMS · Oct 10, 2011

Not a Bobcat (Yanmar) but the main loader mount on my Montana attaches with 3 bolts on each side of the tranny and 2 on each side at the engine. When I bought it used all of the rear bolts on the right were missing along with a stack of spacers and on the rear left, one was missing, one was there but broken and the last was loose and I broke it trying to remove it. And the PO had a piece of 2x4 for a spacer on that side! I'm probably going to have to get the spacers made at a machine shop. I'm thinking that using 3" of spacer instead of welding an actual bracket to the mount gives it a bit more flex than it should.

bcb · Oct 10, 2011

put the bolt back on whit some lockthight as it vibrates alot

catdozer · Oct 10, 2011

Found about a dozen random loose bolts, I marked all the tops of the loose ones with some green paint and see if they come loose. Most were by the rear end. And 2 up front by the motor. my dad has a large project coming up for me to finish about 14-20 acres of yard. so I don't want any break downs. Might be thinking of a brillion seeder, what's the largest can you run on a CT235

kco · Oct 11, 2011

My Kioti manual for the KL351 loader (on a DK35) calls for re-torquing the loader bolts every 25 hrs. I'm at 164 hrs and retorqued as recommended. I never found any loose bolts but I did have a few of them turn slightly while being retorqued.

Just yesterday I reinstalled the 20 bolts connecting the loader frame to the tractor castings using Blue Threadlocker. My dealer told me they now use blue Threadlocker for installing loaders.

catdozer · Oct 14, 2011

Been four days and 13 hours later no bolts gone and still running great. I think it was just poor dealer ship assembly. Photo from cutting and splitting about 5 cords of wood.

hench861 · Oct 14, 2011

after 20 hours of mowing with my new ct122 the power steering hose sprung a leak it was not tyed up after the dealer installed the MMM and pto shaft wore trough,dealer did not like it but he finally gave me new hose and some fluid to replace

SPYDERLK · Oct 15, 2011

Bolts on accessory items seem to be supplied insufficiently tight or downright loose as a general rule. I had to tighten every single fastener on the loader and backhoe of my 7520 after it was delivered. None of them have loosened in the least since. The tractor is closing on 1000hrs and my loader use is heavy. If you are having trouble with properly tightened bolts coming loose it is a design issue. If you can, go to a stronger bolt and tighten it more.
larry

Canada_CT230 · Oct 15, 2011

I have a sneaking suspicion that the dealers have a great big list of things to do on the PDI and torquing bolts is one of them. I think that ***some*** dealers cut corners on things that the customers won't pick up on. I have 257 hrs on my CT230 and never had anything loose. A large quantity of bolts had marking paint on them. I suppose to mark what was torqued.

wallace · Oct 17, 2011

SPYDERLK said:
Bolts on accessory items seem to be supplied insufficiently tight or downright loose as a general rule. I had to tighten every single fastener on the loader and backhoe of my 7520 after it was delivered. None of them have loosened in the least since. The tractor is closing on 1000hrs and my loader use is heavy. If you are having trouble with properly tightened bolts coming loose it is a design issue. If you can, go to a stronger bolt and tighten it more.
larry

DO NOT DO THIS!
Bolts that are used to mount attachments usually thread into a trans, engine block or some other part of a casting!
What do you think will give first, a bolt or a taped out hole in your engine block?
This is not a design flaw!
I have touched just about every brand of compact tractors and whether it had 50 or 500 hours I can assure you there has been a loose bolt somewhere.

the6shooter · Oct 18, 2011

:2cents:I don't know about how any of you do your maintanace, but when I do my P.M. I am on a flat floor and a creeper I roll under my tractor once a month more when running it hard, along with the grease gun and check all the bolts and check for leaks of any kind. when you run em' hard something always shows up loose.
old or new, it's just a fact of life I suppose.
david

SPYDERLK · Oct 18, 2011

wallace said:
DO NOT DO THIS!
Bolts that are used to mount attachments usually thread into a trans, engine block or some other part of a casting!
What do you think will give first, a bolt or a taped out hole in your engine block?
This is not a design flaw!
I have touched just about every brand of compact tractors and whether it had 50 or 500 hours I can assure you there has been a loose bolt somewhere.

Well, the hole thread depth in my castings are more than double the bolt diameter. They wouldnt strip if you tightened a Gr8 til it snapped. I would start to worry around 1.3 times the bolt diameter in a casting using gr8 strength bolts to their max. It is a design flaw if bolts loosen. Its possible on some tractors you may have to live with it. Too bad.:confused3:
larry

horticattleman · Oct 19, 2011

I have a 440 with cab now but I had a 335 before this one and when they delivered it on the job, as I was working I noticed some shiny things on the ground. I got off the tractor and noticed the Rear wheels were COMING OFF. Almost all of the lug nuts/bolts had come off as they were not tightened.

catdozer · Oct 19, 2011

My dad has a few cat backhoes 416c x2, and a 416d. When they delivered the 416d they had only put 5 out of 8 lug nuts on the front tires, the other 3 were broke off. This happened in 2004 when it was brand new, my dad started taking a look at other broken bolts around the bucket and boom and it was the most crappy assembly ever!! Called the dealer and the semi had to turn around and come back and get it. 2 days later dealer got a completely different machine to us and never had any problems to this day with it. But why would they torq em that tight, break off and not fix it

catdozer · Nov 6, 2011

Yesterday morning when doing some disking for food plots I noticed the foot control pedal loose! The two bolts holding the pedal on were loose. So tightened back up called bobcat and their gonna do a complete service and inspection for free, also he said while they have it he'll bring out a CT335 for me to use! But I'm going away for a few days and a buddy wants to buy a bobcat so he's gonna use it and possibly buy it! So Monday their picking up the tractor and dropping off the 335