My first track loader!

[Welder Dave]

That glow plug looks way too big to get into a tire backing out of a garage. Would almost have to have been leaning on the tire to be able to get pushed right in like that. Somebody mad at your wife? Only reason I ask is because I worked at a shop where nobody liked the lead hand. One guy ( that was leaving anyway) disliked him so much he cut a 1/4" welding rod into 2" pieces and sharpened one end and then leaned 2 of them on the guys tires. The manager came in the lunch room showing the 2 pieces and said it would result in immediate termination for who did it or if anything like it happened again. We pretty much knew who did it but he was already gone. I saw the guy again and he denied doing it but another guy said he talked about doing it. The guy with the 2 flat tires was good at his job but also thought he was king chit. The really odd thing was the foreman there was awesome and kept things pretty calm for the most part.

 

[Nitelite]

I am going to reveal the key to a fifty year old mystery.

I carried a 45 cal automatic pistol back when I was a military game warden in the army. I always carried the weapon with an empty chamber but a full magazine inserted. At lunch one day myself and several others were discussing how many safety positions there were on the model 1911 military 45 pistol. My pistol was passed around and discussed. Someone ratcheted a round into the chamber chamber unknowing to me. That afternoon, as required and as usual practice, I removed the magazine and pointed the pistol at the target painted on the arms room door and pulled the trigger. The round in the chamber went off and put a hole right in the bulls eye of the target. That is an automatic court marshal offence!

I locked the weapon up in the arms room and went to a hardware store where I bought a small can of red paint and some plastic wood to repair the hole in the door. There was to be an IG inspection the next morning. The patch was perfect. The only problem was that my military jeep spare tire was behind that door and in the line of fire. On the way in to the main post tire shop with the flat tire I saw a empty M14 rifle cartridge (308 caliber) laying on the side of the road. I stopped and picked it up and pushed it into the hole in the sidewall of the flat spare tire, perfect fit and no explanation necessary!

When I picked the tire up the next day the fellow was scratching his head. He said that he found the 308 hull that had penetrated the tire sidewall but could not explain, for the life of him, the 45 slug that was found inside of the tire. I shook my head and offered no explanation for the dilemma. I just needed to get my new tire and get out of there having very little conversation with the private in charge of the tire shop!

 

[boone]

Looks like a glow plug to me.

http://www.carid.com/images/motorcraft/ignition-spark-plugs-wires/diesel-glow-plug.jpg

That's it! You guys nailed it. I was thinking since the heat pump guy had just been there the Sat before it might have dropped out of his truck. It definitely looked thermo related.

 

[boone]

That wouldn't be a glow plug from a DT466 would it?:cool2

LOL, I kinda wish. At least the mystery might be solved.

 

[boone]

That glow plug looks way too big to get into a tire backing out of a garage. Would almost have to have been leaning on the tire to be able to get pushed right in like that. Somebody mad at your wife? Only reason I ask is because I worked at a shop where nobody liked the lead hand. One guy ( that was leaving anyway) disliked him so much he cut a 1/4" welding rod into 2" pieces and sharpened one end and then leaned 2 of them on the guys tires. The manager came in the lunch room showing the 2 pieces and said it would result in immediate termination for who did it or if anything like it happened again. We pretty much knew who did it but he was already gone. I saw the guy again and he denied doing it but another guy said he talked about doing it. The guy with the 2 flat tires was good at his job but also thought he was king chit. The really odd thing was the foreman there was awesome and kept things pretty calm for the most part.

Nah, her enemies would've just slashed the tires. JK! Thankfully she's not a drama queen that stirs up stuff. You did get me to thinking though. I had her recount the exact events. She said she did do something she didn't normally do. When she picked up our oldest from pre-k, she was driving into the drive/garage and noticed the mail carrier coming down the road. She backed down to the mailbox (couple of hundred feet) and got off in the grass. I guess this is where she picked it up. A few minutes later she went to take the oldest to karate. Backed out and that's when she heard something on the wheel and felt it. She just pulled straight into the garage.

I would've expected it to be much rustier though if it had been buried in the yard. Hmmmm...

 

[boone]

I am going to reveal the key to a fifty year old mystery.

I carried a 45 cal automatic pistol back when I was a military game warden in the army. I always carried the weapon with an empty chamber but a full magazine inserted. At lunch one day myself and several others were discussing how many safety positions there were on the model 1911 military 45 pistol. My pistol was passed around and discussed. Someone ratcheted a round into the chamber chamber unknowing to me. That afternoon, as required and as usual practice, I removed the magazine and pointed the pistol at the target painted on the arms room door and pulled the trigger. The round in the chamber went off and put a hole right in the bulls eye of the target. That is an automatic court marshal offence!

I locked the weapon up in the arms room and went to a hardware store where I bought a small can of red paint and some plastic wood to repair the hole in the door. There was to be an IG inspection the next morning. The patch was perfect. The only problem was that my military jeep spare tire was behind that door and in the line of fire. On the way in to the main post tire shop with the flat tire I saw a empty M14 rifle cartridge (308 caliber) laying on the side of the road. I stopped and picked it up and pushed it into the hole in the sidewall of the flat spare tire, perfect fit and no explanation necessary!

When I picked the tire up the next day the fellow was scratching his head. He said that he found the 308 hull that had penetrated the tire sidewall but could not explain, for the life of him, the 45 slug that was found inside of the tire. I shook my head and offered no explanation for the dilemma. I just needed to get my new tire and get out of there having very little conversation with the private in charge of the tire shop!

Would like to have seen you face as your exited the tire shop with a shoulder shrug. Reminds me of Barney loading a round in his revolver unknowingly to Andy. Andy lectures on gun safety and accidentally fires the round off in the jail.

My twin and I have a story that's not so serious, but to couple of 17 year olds at the time was equally unnerving. Back in high school, someone brought a potato gun to school. After lunch, the French class teacher was notoriously late. Late enough for mischief to ensue on any given day. That day was the potato gun. We took it outside and loaded the chamber with lighter fluid, inserted a tennis ball and fired it outside the class room while everyone was gazing out the windows of the class. As soon as it fired, we ran back in. We propped it up on the desk while all the students were looking the thing over. The barrel was pointed to the ceiling. My brother (from my recollection it was his fault of course), dropped a ball in. Since we didn't load the chamber with any more lighter fluid, we figured it might burp at most. He lit the lighter at the ignition hole. It sounded like thunder in the class. We all looked around and checked where the ball went. It went up but didn't come back down. There was a perfect size tennis ball hole in the ceiling tile above the teacher's desk. Trying to think quickly, we ran next door to the corner of the lab where no one would see and swapped out the ceiling tile. Not a minute to spare. The teacher walks in, flustered that's she late and starts the class. I would imagine to this day, that ceiling tile is still in the lab with a hole in it.

 

[fullchoke]

This is a very interesting and entertaining thread, especially since I just bought a International 175b. This is my first piece of heavy equipment, that and the fact it's very old and that I'm not a mechanic could get frustrating and expensive. I bought this machine sight unseen off the internet. Everything has been done the wrong way, if you say I rolled the dice, you are correct. I wanted a machine to clear some land, remove stumps from a recent logging operation and I have limited funds. My 1st problem is it is bigger than I expected. Sitting in the seat makes it look even bigger! I have a 12 ton trailer and I thought I could haul it home, but being 15 tons, that cost me right of the bat. My 1st mistake.... $850 to deliver.
The good part is the engine runs. I only had it back up my driveway, but it sounds good.
The bad...
1)Major oil leak while running. It is difficult to see where the pool of oil is coming from, I don't know yet. I hope it is not the main seal.
2) tracks on left side slip. Grease is leaking out of the tensioner.
3) won't turn right very well. You have to pull very hard. I knew about this before I bought the machine. I had hoped that could be adjusted, but I talked to the fire dept that owned it after I bought it and was told they worked on it a lot without success and thought it was an assist problem, but only on one side?
I just got the machine home, I haven't even been able to crawl under it yet, with all the freezing rain and now rain today.
How do you figure the % of track life?
Boone, can you show a picture of your sprockets? and anything else that is used to figure track life?
I just remembered I did buy a International 1947 T9 dozer for scrap a few years ago so technically that was my 1st, but it has never ran. It is still at a friends place. It has a winch on it. I wonder if that could be put on the 175? Lots of questions.
Thanks

 

[boone]

You jumped right in fullchoke. Congrats on the machine. From the sound of it, you have yourself a project. Just think of this as tuition for mechanic school. Of course you don't want to dump too much money in it, but you'll have to figure out what you've got. Minor oil leaks are going to be normal. The big one's you definitely want to address. Best thing to do is the get the pans off. Clean out under it best you can. I'd recommend removing the seat frame, batteries and then pressure wash. Then clean from below as best you can. This will also help with identifying any binding on the linkages and pulleys. You can eliminate several things before you do adjustments. I'd also recommend a manual if you decide you're going to invest yourself in it.

Here's an IH guide to help you with track life. http://www.tractorparts.com/PDFs/undrcarguide.pdf

We never had any trouble with slipping or tracks coming off. I have a picture on the second or third page of my thread of the sprocket. Even with a few hundred hours, it hasn't changed much. Our rails and rollers are in poor shape. We actually priced a new undercarriage a few months ago. About $8000 for everything minus the pads.

 

[fullchoke]

I found your pictures. Your sprocket looks better than mine. Mine is sharp. I think the track life is between 10 and 20% on this machine. The first thing I need to do is fix the chain adjuster on the left side. The left track is very loose. So loose that I don't think the loader will move from where we parked it. I did buy a manual, I need to study it. My biggest problem is I don't have a good place to work on it. All outside and nothing flat.

 

[fullchoke]

I forgot to add that the track is 16" wide. I thought I read they were 15".
Thanks

 

[DMiller]

Shoes look reasonable. Did you actually measure the rail wear? pick any four links when adjusted out, pick the side of one pin as sits in the link and measure to the fifth pin away to the same side of the pin. That will give a measure across four full links, divide that by four and you can see the wear from your chains when new. 175B can have 7" or 7.5" dependent on if they updated to the C style rails.

 

[fullchoke]

It was 28.5 across 4 links which is close to being worn out from what I found. Track adjuster needs to be fixed, find the oil leak, then figure out why so much pressure on the stick is required to turn to the right. Any thoughts on that problem? The Fire Dept I got it from thought it was a steering assist problem.

Thanks

 

[DMiller]

I was going to try 6.906 Cat 953 rails on my Allis as a last ditch alternative to NO rails. Mine is also 7" pitch as yours where a few others have tried and used Cat rails as these with smaller bushing diameter with little consequence on worn sprockets. Far as the turning, may have to go to the Redpower site and pick a few brains. Judging from the cylinder up front and the counterweight you also got lucky with a 4/1 on it.

http://www.redpowermagazine.com/forums/forum/9-ih-construction-equipment/

 

[boone]

That's not a bad looking 175 there fullchoke. The 4-n-1 and limb risers are nice additions!

Warm Feb day seemed like a good excuse to crank up the machines at the farm. While there, it also seemed like a good excuse to smash an old cabinet in the barn and add it to the scrap metal pile. I'm sure what paint was left on it was lead based so I didn't want to touch it much with bare hands.

 

[Mike Legg]

That's not a bad looking 175 there fullchoke. The 4-n-1 and limb risers are nice additions!

Warm Feb day seemed like a good excuse to crank up the machines at the farm. While there, it also seemed like a good excuse to smash an old cabinet in the barn and add it to the scrap metal pile. I'm sure what paint was left on it was lead based so I didn't want to touch it much with bare hands.

Boone
I was recently looking at Nitelite's comments on the type of oils he is using in his 951C. What do you use in your 175C? Any problems?

 

[boone]

Hi Mike,

Much like Nitelite, we use the TSC stuff in the hydraulics and rear. The main thing it being IH Hy-tran compliant. No problems to date. For daily used machine, I might spring for the name brand oil, but for farm use, it's been fine.
For the engine we do use CaseIH No. 1 15W-40 with Case IH filters.

 

[Nitelite]

You been hiding out boone?

 

[boone]

Been hiding, Nitelite. I still lurk around here often reading yours and the others threads to see what's happening. Enjoy seeing the progress others are making. Still settling into the house we bought. Trying to get concrete in the barn this weekend. They came and formed it Friday, but the truck never showed. Hopefully they'll hit it next week. Going to be cutting season soon. Looking forward to getting over to the farm. Dad used the loader the other day to move some dirt behind the old shop building which he and my brother have been restoring. I haven't had time to help any on it. We still use the loader, but she's got an easy life now. My brother may be using it soon as they start house building plans. He wants to use it to cut in their drive and maybe some demo work. Have a few projects at the farm I'd love to do with it, but just not enough hours in the day.

 

[Nitelite]

good to hear from you!

 

[boone]

It's been awhile since I've updated this thread. Thought I would post up some pictures of a driveway project that my brother did this weekend. Dad and I helped a little, but my brother did the bulk of it. Even though we don't use the loader that much, it continues to shine on projects like this. With the tank topped off, we headed toward the road to await the lowboy.

Local contractor met us at the farm Thursday around 6:30am. It was perfect timing. He pulled up at the gate same time the loader did.

Early morning fog in the hills

I rode with the driver and my brother followed. Took us about 20 minutes to get there. I enjoyed talking with Mr Thomas (the driver). He remembered delivering gravel to this farm a couple of years ago when we had the driveway spread. I have pictures of that somewhere on this thread.

Arriving at the destination...traffic on this back road seemed to pick up as soon as we were unloading.