680K opinions / experience?

[racerx]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the board and this is my 1st thread. I'm looking to purchase my first backhoe - for ditch digging, timber clearing, bridge building with corrugated pipe across a small stream, filling in an old swimming pool, etc...etc.. on 12 acres of ground. I have my eyes on a 1987 Case 680K 2WD machine, up for sealed bid by a local municipality. It has 6250 hours, and has been owned by this municipality since new. I talked to the head wrench at the shop where it is kept, who has worked on the machine for the past 18 years. No major problems to report, and he showed me the maintenance history files. From what I can research, the 680K was made for 5 years? Any feedback on the 680K would be appreciated. What would a '87 680K in good condition be worth? She is one Big machine, but I believe I have the room to use it.

Phil & Tinkerer, Thanks for your previous responses on this!

 

[gggraham]

The 680K was a big machine but pretty reliable. The CDC 6-590 engine was solid, injection pump wasn't too bad. Cabs tend to rust out, especially the doors. The transmissions were no problem, odd shift cable seized. The anti roll back tends to seize up. All in all no major issues with them, we had one customer who had 3 of them and put about 12,000 hours on all of them before they went to auction.