IT62G broken bucket quick coupler.

[HeavyMetalRepair]

IT62G, AYA prefix. The hooks on the MP bucket are extremely wore out, so are the tubes on the coupler. This caused an excessive amount of movement in the coupler to bucket joint. The “fix” was welding them together with filler pieces in between. And someone (not me) really stacked the welds on there, which are all cracked now. And the tubes are cracked all the way through. Boss man wants a better repair but doesn’t want to special order any tubing, just fix it with what we already have at the shop. Good thing we already have a pretty good selection of tubing. Here we go…
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[HeavyMetalRepair]

Some flat straps were welded in on top too. Those didn’t work out well, both cracked.
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[HeavyMetalRepair]

Got the bucket off. The coupler actually worked! Apparently it’s been welded for a few years.

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The tube is actually smashed flat.

 

[HeavyMetalRepair]

Got the bad tubes out. Torch, air arc, grinder.
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[HarleyHappy]

I need to do the bottom of mine this winter. Going to just cut the bosses off and weld new ones on. Nice work.

 

[HeavyMetalRepair]

I was kind of surprised to see the tubes flattened like that. I figured the hooks and tubes were just worn out. I don’t think that size tube was up to the task from the get go. Thicker wall would be much better.

 

[HeavyMetalRepair]

I was going to put a tube in a tube in a tube to get to the 3” coupler diameter but I found an old conveyor pulley shaft that fit perfect in the quick coupler so I decided to use that. Made a sleeve out of some 2 1/2” DOM and pressed it into the 3” DOM.
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[HeavyMetalRepair]

Cut holes in the coupler to plug weld the shaft in. Put it all together and welded it up.
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[HarleyHappy]

Nice work. Looking at the old tubing, that had been work hardened over the years and there was no fixing that, other than what you did. Prep is the name of the game and you aced it!

 

[HeavyMetalRepair]

Thank you! I lucked out on finding that shaft. But glad I found it, I think this will hold up pretty good. And we are in California so this machine is limited to 200 hours/year.

Now onto the bucket hooks.

 

[HeavyMetalRepair]

Nasty stack of welds on each side.
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Cut the welds off, ground smooth and installed the bucket. The fit with the new tube was much better but still a 1/4” gap on the front side of the tube. The top of the hook was not worn down and the lock pins lined up with the bores.

Added a half tube and gussets for some extra support and help spread the load.
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[HeavyMetalRepair]

Cleaned up and painted.
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And done.
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[HarleyHappy]

Looking good!

 

[HeavyMetalRepair]

Thanks @HarleyHappy. With the tubes being solid now the hooks will take all the beating. And they will get beat. We’ll see how they hold up.