Tuning up a 3pt

[Cliff_Johns]

After I got my backhoe off, I installed the 3pt and the iMatch. None of this equipment had been used before and the 3pt stuff had sat the whole winter at the dealer.

The ball joints (is there a better name) at the ends of the arms and on the lifter were frozen and took some liquid wrench and a BFH to move, but once they were a little loose, i applied some oil and moved them around until they would spin freely. Looking back in TBN, it looked like WD40 was a popular choice for lubing these little balls, but I used a light coat of machine oil.

The spacers and the tubes that slide over the big pins which the 3pt arms attach to were in pretty bad shape as well. I cleaned the corosion off and oiled them. and cleaned and oiled the big pins while I was at it.

I took apart the turnbuckles which were very hard to turn out, oiled the bolts and put that back together.

I cleaned the pins thouroughly and put a light coat of oil on them.

I then tried to put the arms on the wrong side, but found that didn't work very well and did it properly.

Then I attached the iMatch, which went on very easily.

All in all, it took two and a half hours to get the 3pt hitch setup and ready to go. It should take much less time next time. (I hope)

Cliff

 

[smilingreen]

One type of lubricant I found to be pretty handy is Mortorcycle chain wax in a spray can. It takes about 15 minutes after you spray it on for it to solidify, but it doesn't seem to collect half as much dirt as grease or oil and it doesn't stain your hands like grease or oil does. I spray it on my PTO spline shaft, the TPH balls, any bare exposed metal surface. It definetely keeps the moisture from rusting any exposed bare metal part and acts as a good lubricant.

Anybody else use this stuff??