Here’s a closer shot of the rear differential and PTO areas.
After taking this picture, I put in 10 gallons of 80/90 while the reservoir was off – so much easier than pouring through the fill plug and took about a third of the time.
After putting in the oil I moved the engine hoist into place and lowered and adjusted the chain several times on the reservoir so as to get close to level with the tranny. Wanted a slight upward incline on the reservoir so that I had some “play” to work with. Satisfied with the angle of the reservoir, I put down a good think bead of RTV and applied the gasket.
I then moved the hoist into position and started lining up the holes. There are 8, about 1/2” dia (metric of course) bolts plus (2) long probably about 3/8” bolts that held the reservoir in place. I lowered the reservoir until it was almost touching the gasket at the back of the tranny. I then worked from the back getting the rear two bolts lined up and loosely tightened. Then went to the front left bolt, lowered down a little and got the bolt started. I then lowered the reservoir on the tranny and removed the chain. I then snugged down all the bolts working diagonal from one another – left front, right rear, left rear, right front, etc. After they were all snugged down I took the ½” breaker bar and really tightened them down using the same pattern.
After the reservoir was on, all the connections were made and I filled up the reservoir. The moment of truth – my worst fear was to do all this work and then it not work or have fluid leaking all over the place. I fired her up and let her run for a few minutes. I then started working the FEL. It was jerky, as expected while the lines and cylinders filled up, but after a few movements of the FEL and bucket, all was working great. Then, the next test. I did not have anything attached to the 3PH, just wanted to see if it would operate without any load. I raised the 3 PH and nothing! My stomach sank. I started looking through all the connections and did not see any leaks. Checked the front cover and looked well.
I started re-tracing my steps for connecting and remembered going to the garage for a new cotter pin to attach the “feedback rod/link” to the arm and got distracted. Could not remember attaching and when I checked the link, it was just hanging there. Went and got one, attached it and pulled the 3 PH lever. Up she raised as smooth as could be! I then climbed on top of the arms and jumped up and down on them to see if they would move and it never budged (I am over 300 lbs). Took her up the road for a drive, came back and all was working well. Before quitting for the day I noted the fluid level in the reservoir and headed in.
The next day I checked the fluid level and it was right where it was the night before. We went out of town for a few days and the first thing, yes the very thing I did when I got home was check the level and it was right where it was when we left 3 days before. Next day I attached my 6’ box blade and the 3 PH raised and lowered without any problems. I raised it all the way up and lowered a couple of inches but it wouldn’t raise back up. I had to lower all the way down to get it back up to the max height. At one point when I lowered all the way down it would not lift at all. I started looking for leaks, check the level and poked around. I noticed that the link for the feedback looked more vertical than I thought I remembered. I gave it a push and the 3PH raised right up. I adjusted the link and the plate that was in question previously in this thread and she was working great.
Yesterday I moved about 2 to 3 feet of dirt of 10’ by 30’ dirt pile without any issues. Believe I am good to go. Felt good to be back tractorin’ again.
Just want to say thanks to everyone for the help. Really appreciate all the advice and willingness to help. This is one of the very few areas that I know of where really knowledgeable and experienced people really try to help and I sincerely appreciate all the knowledge that was shared.
Thanks again all,
Eddie
