Well here I go again with another project. I think this is project # 3982 LOL. Anyhow made a purchase from a local block manufacturing plant that was getting rid of their back row equipment. Picked up two hyster forklifts, mack dump truck and a John Deere 544B wheel loader.
The Rubber tire loader is what I am most excited about as I have always wanted one. Ok so I need to move it out of their lot and get it to my location. I went down today and put new battery cables on it and did all the oil, coolant air filter and other necessary checks you would do when you try and start a derelict piece of equipment that's been setting for years. The story we had gotten is it was being used and working into a pile when it just felt like something gave way int it all stopped. I mean everything. Steering, hydraulics and transmission. it was then relegated to the weed patch to await my arrival. So today after fighting the wasps armed with cans of wasp spray and worrying about some rather large snake skins under the machine I managed to get the battery cables changed and a battery installed. Also had to change the key switch as the keys had long been lost. after pulling the inlet line to fuel pump and priming up fuel to pump with hand lever on supply pump we were ready to give er a crank. after a fair amount of cranking we had to bleed the injector lines and whammo off and running. It spit the usual amount of rust out the exhaust causing a rain of rust chunks but other than that it ran pretty fair for something setting so long and did not smoke at all. But just like previous owner said no gears hyd or steering. Oh also we tried dumping some coolant in radiator to find a serious leak in radiator bottom where the side frame tore loose from the tank. ERRG more work LOL. While looking at the whole thing while it was running I noticed the shaft from the back of the engine was spinning pretty lazily and sometimes would just stop. since the torque converter is in the trans this seemed odd to me. We packed up to go to Deere dealer to get some advice. I was not wanting to go and was sure we would only get some pimple faced kid that dont his ass from a hole in the ground to talk to. My buddy insisted so reluctantly we headed on over. Oh well at least it was air conditioned as it was getting rather warm. Well I am glad we di go as we found a fellow that was in his 60s and had been working on Deere for a very long time. when I explained the symptoms and the drive shaft situation he knew right away what was wrong with this machine. He was very happy to explain and even printed out for us the part of the service manual and parts manual we needed. Turns out there are some rubber isolator bushings in the housing that is on the output side of the engine that absorbs vibration and shock. It is not uncommon for these to tear loose and then you have no power coupling from engine to tranny. This all totally fits with what the previous owner has told us as when these fail you have no power to anything! It looks like its going to be a chore to change these but it wont be as bad as having to tear into a tranny.
Anyhow has any of you ever encountered this problem on a 544B?
The Rubber tire loader is what I am most excited about as I have always wanted one. Ok so I need to move it out of their lot and get it to my location. I went down today and put new battery cables on it and did all the oil, coolant air filter and other necessary checks you would do when you try and start a derelict piece of equipment that's been setting for years. The story we had gotten is it was being used and working into a pile when it just felt like something gave way int it all stopped. I mean everything. Steering, hydraulics and transmission. it was then relegated to the weed patch to await my arrival. So today after fighting the wasps armed with cans of wasp spray and worrying about some rather large snake skins under the machine I managed to get the battery cables changed and a battery installed. Also had to change the key switch as the keys had long been lost. after pulling the inlet line to fuel pump and priming up fuel to pump with hand lever on supply pump we were ready to give er a crank. after a fair amount of cranking we had to bleed the injector lines and whammo off and running. It spit the usual amount of rust out the exhaust causing a rain of rust chunks but other than that it ran pretty fair for something setting so long and did not smoke at all. But just like previous owner said no gears hyd or steering. Oh also we tried dumping some coolant in radiator to find a serious leak in radiator bottom where the side frame tore loose from the tank. ERRG more work LOL. While looking at the whole thing while it was running I noticed the shaft from the back of the engine was spinning pretty lazily and sometimes would just stop. since the torque converter is in the trans this seemed odd to me. We packed up to go to Deere dealer to get some advice. I was not wanting to go and was sure we would only get some pimple faced kid that dont his ass from a hole in the ground to talk to. My buddy insisted so reluctantly we headed on over. Oh well at least it was air conditioned as it was getting rather warm. Well I am glad we di go as we found a fellow that was in his 60s and had been working on Deere for a very long time. when I explained the symptoms and the drive shaft situation he knew right away what was wrong with this machine. He was very happy to explain and even printed out for us the part of the service manual and parts manual we needed. Turns out there are some rubber isolator bushings in the housing that is on the output side of the engine that absorbs vibration and shock. It is not uncommon for these to tear loose and then you have no power coupling from engine to tranny. This all totally fits with what the previous owner has told us as when these fail you have no power to anything! It looks like its going to be a chore to change these but it wont be as bad as having to tear into a tranny.
Anyhow has any of you ever encountered this problem on a 544B?