Front end loader pin replacement

[Husaberger]

My L4740 is a bout 10 years old now and has seen moderate use. There's about an inch to two at the most of slop in the bucket. At point should I start thinking about replacing the pins and bushings? Any thoughts to replacing the pins alone which would be relatively simple and quick?

 

[Rock Crawler]

Are the pins visibly worn when you pull one? Often times the pin is spec'ed by engineers to be the softer material, so if you religiously grease the pin joints the welded in pin boss will be harder and significantly less worn. I would hope that this is a 100% followed rule of thumb, but it may not be. But I would say that step one is a pin or 2 and clean/inspect and determine if the pin is the worn item. If so, order and replace. If not, you'll need to ream and bush down the bosses and replace the pins as a set.

 

[Husaberger]

Thanks for the quick reply RC. Will pull and measure them. I assumed there were pressfit bushings in the loader frame. Is that not the case?

 

[Rock Crawler]

Thanks for the quick reply RC. Will pull and measure them. I assumed there were pressfit bushings in the loader frame. Is that not the case?

Could be, but I highly doubt it. Typically you'll ream and bush down to pin size or weld in new bosses. If the pins are getting worn they will absolutely increase the rate of wear and deformation of the bosses. You do want to get things tightened up again as much as possible.

 

[Husaberger]

Thank you again RC

 

[Rock Crawler]

How many hours are on the 10 year old machine? Is got to have more hours than average I would guess.

Are you a religious greaser? I'm sure that keeping them wet with fresh grease every 10 or 20 hours goes a long way in pushing grits out and preventing wear. I try to grease often, but we all kind of get busy and let these things go more than we should.

 

[the old grind]

Likely no replaceable bushings in any part of a FEL. A piloted reamer is all but a necessity to assure alignment (square) if done on the machine vs say plopped onto a milling table of adequate size. Consider what's called 'stress proof' for pins as seen here at McMaster, but check your local steel supplier as it's pretty common stuff and often for pins.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

It's not rare or high priced, tools nicely and has a hard, drawn finish with tolerance of <.005" up to 1 1/2" dia. It's only sacrifice for all its goodness is that little is worse to weld. That said, there are many mechanical means to anchor pins to keep them from sliding out.

 

[Husaberger]

How many hours are on the 10 year old machine? Is got to have more hours than average I would guess.

Are you a religious greaser? I'm sure that keeping them wet with fresh grease every 10 or 20 hours goes a long way in pushing grits out and preventing wear. I try to grease often, but we all kind of get busy and let these things go more than we should.

About 1300 hours on the clock
Haven't been a daily greaser but for sure every 10-20 hours
More often now that I got the DeWalt battery powered grease gun which I should have purchased when I got the tractor

 

[Husaberger]

Likely no replaceable bushings in any part of a FEL. A piloted reamer is all but a necessity to assure alignment (square) if done on the machine vs say plopped onto a milling table of adequate size. Consider what's called 'stress proof' for pins as seen here at McMaster, but check your local steel supplier as it's pretty common stuff and often for pins.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

It's not rare or high priced, tools nicely and has a hard, drawn finish with tolerance of <.005" up to 1 1/2" dia. It's only sacrifice for all its goodness is that little is worse to weld. That said, there are many mechanical means to anchor pins to keep them from sliding out.

Thank you TOG

 

[Smokeydog]

I had one pin break on my M59 loader. Considerable wear probably from lack of lubrication from previous owners.

Agree the pins are the designed economical weak link. Replaced 4 pins at the ssqa. Reduced some of the slop. The loader does have replaceable bushings. Haven’t tried replacing bushings yet. Have a few more pins to replace.