John Deere 310 SE Project

[boone]

The yellow paint that you used, is that from JD or where/what is that? Looking good!

It is JD construction paint. They have two shades. One is for 1992 and later. It's a darker shade of yellow. Took a gallon and a half and I could probably go over some of it again.

 

[boone]

Congratulations......good looking machine! Looks brand new after sitting out for a long time. Amazing what a little TLC will do!

Thanks Dad! Appreciate you tackling the basket case seat.

 

[edgephoto]

You thread has inspired me. I picked up an older Cat 426 and it ran and everything worked when I got her she has spent most of her life outside so she is pretty weathered. I have been repacking all the hydraulic cylinders and replacing all the hoses. Today I decided to cleanup and paint my loader cylinders. I had them off and I spray bombed them.

I am not going to get as detailed and as nice as yours but figure while I have things off I will clean and paint them. The rest will have to wait until I get my new home and shop built. Then I can strip her down and pretty her up. For now I need to get her in tip top mechanical shape. She was an old town machine so it is in good overall condition, just old.

 

[boone]

You thread has inspired me. I picked up an older Cat 426 and it ran and everything worked when I got her she has spent most of her life outside so she is pretty weathered. I have been repacking all the hydraulic cylinders and replacing all the hoses. Today I decided to cleanup and paint my loader cylinders. I had them off and I spray bombed them.

I am not going to get as detailed and as nice as yours but figure while I have things off I will clean and paint them. The rest will have to wait until I get my new home and shop built. Then I can strip her down and pretty her up. For now I need to get her in tip top mechanical shape. She was an old town machine so it is in good overall condition, just old.

Congrats on your 426! Great time to paint them while you have them off! I wish I'd painted my cylinder and stabilizer while I had the cylinder off. I really didn't intend on painting all of this machine which is why I didn't paint them the time. One thing led to another and I just couldn't help myself.

Got any pictures of your 426? Seems like most of those municipal machines are a good deal and good condition if you can find them.

 

[boone]

This weekend was the fun job of replacing the king pins in the 310. The seals on both my king pins were long gone. The zerks were gone, thrust washers gone on one side, no keeper bolt on one side. Looked like someone had beat the tops of the pins and gave up on them or something. I'm not sure what the story was behind them. The zerks seem a bit vulnerable in their locations on the very top and bottom of the pins. These had not seen or taken grease in years, unfortunately.

I ordered 2 king pin kits from Finney Equipment & Parts. Single kit included the pin, 2 bushing, keeper bolt, seal, thrust washers and zerks - $125/kit.

 

[boone]

Looking at the parts manual, the front axle seemed straight forward to remove and it actually was.

1) Crib up the front
2) Removed wheels and hubs
3) Removed tie rod
4) Remove steering cylinder (make sure you remove hoses first in case the axle just happens to fall off the jack).
5) Remove keeper bolt on the front axle pin

 

[boone]

My brother keeps our press at his shop and he also has a torch which I figured would be needed. So we loaded the axle up and headed down the road.



The Harbor Freight press almost met it's match today. The first pin extraction was a bit unnerving with each build up of probably the maximum 20 tons this press put out and then a BANG, pin moved a quarter inch. Small victories. I was glad to hear the pops because it meant the pin was moving.



We pushed out the bushing using metric sockets that were just under the bore size and just at the bushing size. Been better to use a seal driver, but this worked well.



We honed the bores a bit to knock the surface rust off. The old pin and bushings did their job in taking the wear.

 

[boone]

The other side put up a fight and required pulling out the heat. Notice the 2x4s replaced with C channel.



Also the press exploded. We're fortunate no one was hurt. We patched it back together where it broke and proceeded to finish the job.



Very glad to get these things out and replaced.


I didn't get any pictures of the old pins. They were really wore. Got the axle back on this eve, but still need to put the steering and wheels back together.

 

[edgephoto]

Congrats on your 426! Great time to paint them while you have them off! I wish I'd painted my cylinder and stabilizer while I had the cylinder off. I really didn't intend on painting all of this machine which is why I didn't paint them the time. One thing led to another and I just couldn't help myself.

Got any pictures of your 426? Seems like most of those municipal machines are a good deal and good condition if you can find them.

I will start my own thread and post some pictures. I don't want to hijack this thread.

 

[boone]

After being stove up for the last few days from the kingpin job, I finally got out this eve and put the steering cylinder and lube lines put back on. I sprayed off the burnt spots.



Hoping to reassemble everything else on Saturday.

 

[boone]

The early spring winds have taken a toll on an already weathered and rotting cupola on my barn. It seems after every strong wind it would lean over. I had already taken the weather vane off for fear of it punching a hole in the roof if toppled.

So I rigged up a wooden hoist for the 310 by sandwiching a couple of 2x6s.

 

[boone]

Planning to road this to the farm and a couple other places, so it was priority for me to fix the hazards. Bonus if I could fix the signal lights too, but I wasn't going to spend $80 for a turn signal switch. I would bypass it if necessary.

The "passenger" side front amber was busted out so I had to order a whole new new fixture from Deere - $80. Used ones with shipping were within 10 and 20 bucks so I just decided to go new. Bulb was out on the back drivers side.

The hazard switch was locked up, wouldn't click to activate or deactivate. Another $70 switch I didn't plan to purchase. Even bypassing the switch with a wired connection, the hazards wouldn't flash. However, all the ambers would come on if the turn signal switch was activated. The opposite side of the signal direction would light solid. So I at least new my lights were now working and were getting voltage.

Bought the OE flasher unit ($40) based on another members experience. Hard wired plug, new relay, and flashers are now working and the turn signals work too!

Now on to the switch.

The switch was locked up and so I soaked it in WD-40 for several hours. Still not working. The button just would not toggle. It was resisting the ON position. The switch toggle button easily prys out of the top to reveal a plastic ball socket. I don't have a picture, but inserting a screw driver and toggling seem to work nice and crisp. I greased the plastic rod of the toggle button and socket and put the button back on the switch and it started clicking on and off. Plugged it back and it surprisingly worked! Even the light in the switch now blinks.

On to the next item.

 

[boone]

Finally changed out the rear fluid. Was a pain to get the plugs out. I made sure to remove the fill plug first to make sure I could get fluid back in before draining. The square head on the plug limited where I could get my big pull handle. I had to use a jack on a smaller wrench break the fill plug loose. The craftsmen wrench survived.

Drained 3.5 gallons of dirty fluid. I'm sure brake material is a big part of that. The magnet had a good bit of metal sludge on it, but no big particles.

Filled with 3.5 gallons of Hygard. The brakes seem to work smoother and the brake chattering is gone. I had some amount of chatter before. I've heard Hygard has some additive to prevent this. Hopefully, it's not just a honeymoon period and it will stay that way for a while.

 

[JL Sargent]

Filled with 3.5 gallons of Hygard.

What did you use? Maybe a large funnel attached to a hose? I'm soon to do this one myself.

 

[boone]

What did you use? Maybe a large funnel attached to a hose? I'm soon to do this one myself.

Exactly, I bought some 3/4" clear tubing from the local hardware store. 5 feet should be plenty. Taped up the fill end (to prevent dirt) and fished it down to the rear axle. Removed tape, put it in fill hole. Then I just held the other end with a small funnel and zip tie. I mostly just held the tube and funnel while I poured, checking periodically for the overflow.

I also jacked up the rear a slight amount with the stabilizers so I could get the book value of 3.5 gallons in there. Sitting level it only held about 3 gallons, probably enough but wanted to get what the book called for plus that was what came out.

Good luck. I'd recommend it based on my short time with the new fluid.

 

[boone]

Valve Bank Woes...Again

Was helping a neighbor last week tear the remains of the trunk off a stump in his yard. His 16" saw nor mine with 18" bar wouldn't go all the way through the stump. So we cut as far as we could and I used the backhoe to tear it off the stump. Got the job done, but the valve bank leak reared it's ugly head again. It was near dusk and I could see oil spraying 3 ft out the back of the machine.

This morning, I got it out in the daylight and I had dad video the leak so we could see where it was coming from. I know it's leaking out the bottom of the return to center caps, but from the video you'll also see it's leaking from between the first and second valve body.

We have the bank off. Picked up a few orings today from Deere and have spool seal kits on order. Little back history on this valve bank...I had it rebuilt at a hydraulic shop couple of months ago. It came back with a sticking spool and two of the pressure reliefs leaking bad. Not impressed with their workmanship.

I was hoping I could get by with it till this winter, but it's not going to wait.

On the bench...

 

[boone]

The big oring between the valve bodies it pretty straight forward, however, the return center caps has me a bit puzzled.

I have a theory that the shop only replaced the upper and bottom orings on each spool. The parts diagram shows another small oring on the spring screw that probably didn't get replaced. Item #10 in the diagram. Perhaps this is allowing fluid into this cap (#3). When I park the machine and turn it off. I can relief pressure on the hoe and I hear and see fluid leaking out of the top of the #3 cap. There is what I assume to be a small vent on the top of this cap. I don't think any fluid should be in this cap. Correct me if I'm wrong.



To get to this #10 oring, the screw #5 has to be removed.



But when we tried to remove the screw, the other end of spool loosened.




The two outer valves have a removable end. So in essence, on two of the valves we have nothing to hold on to to remove the screw. Is the screw reverse thread? Any ideas?

 

[mg2361]

Just remove the spool from the section. Depending on what section you are working on there is a hole in the spool that you can place a punch through to hold the spool and loosen the spring retaining bolt (it is NOT left handed thread). Just be careful if the hole is in the finished part of the spool make sure it does not leave any ridges at the hole that could cause the spool to stick. If the hole is in the reduced diameter section of the spool you don't have to worry about that. When assembling, then the spool is in the section and and the seals are installed with the spool in place. There is a special tool to put the seals on with (JDG734).

 

[boone]

Just remove the spool from the section. Depending on what section you are working on there is a hole in the spool that you can place a punch through to hold the spool and loosen the spring retaining bolt (it is NOT left handed thread). Just be careful if the hole is in the finished part of the spool make sure it does not leave any ridges at the hole that could cause the spool to stick. If the hole is in the reduced diameter section of the spool you don't have to worry about that. When assembling, then the spool is in the section and and the seals are installed with the spool in place. There is a special tool to put the seals on with (JDG734).

Thank you! Got the spring screw out the way you suggested.

The shop which overhauled this the first time installed the poppet and spring in such a way that spring (#13 above) flared out and they sandwiched the valves together with part of the spring out of the port. This galled up the valve body.



When I brought it back to them, they replaced the bent spring with a bigger spring. But the poppet was wedged in the bore (unknown to us at the time). When dissasembling it today, the poppet put up a fight coming out. The others just dropped in. I'll be ordering a Deere spring on Monday. Below is what they had installed.



The big oring between the valve sections measured just a tad smaller than the seals we got from Deere on Friday. Not sure if they were just compressed or if they were actually smaller. They're maybe two months old.

Also, they didn't replace the wiper seals and the inner seal was just an oring. I don't have the seal kit yet to compare, but the service manual shows a special looking seal with a flange on it, not just an oring. Even this oring wasn't very snug around the spool. The valve bodies were dirty, gritty and poorly assembled. Really disappointed in $500 I paid to have this done.



It will be cleaned thoroughly and internals coated with hydraulic oil before it all goes back together.

Any other suggestions? We plan to make sure the galling has no ridges or lips on it. Will this have any affect on things after it goes back together. I figure the big oring between sections should prevent leaks, but the way it was leaking before, the big oring looked okay, just perhaps undersized.

 

[mg2361]

Also, they didn't replace the wiper seals and the inner seal was just an oring.

Deere uses lip seals. If the spools have some scoring at the seal area you may have some seepage. I have a stud I screw into the spring end of the spool and I mount the spool into a drill press. Run the press and I use Emory paper to polish the spool as best as possible. Sometimes in real bad cases where a customer does not want to buy a section I'll use 220 grit, then 400 grit and then 600 grit to polish the spools. Only polish where the seals ride, not where the working hydraulic part of the spool resides.

We plan to make sure the galling has no ridges or lips on it. Will this have any affect on things after it goes back together.

If the seat at the bottom is good and the poppet moves OK you should be fine.

I figure the big oring between sections should prevent leaks, but the way it was leaking before, the big oring looked okay, just perhaps undersized.

I'll get you the exact dimensions of that O-ring tomorrow. Again, make sure you use Deere parts here too.