Here's some of the issues we've had this late fall/winter logging season. The coupling that bolts to the crankshaft pulley on the Iron Mule's engine went bad which in turn stripped out the splines in the coupler for the pump and damaged the splines on the pump itself. New coupler, a nice neighbor with a lathe to make the obsolete part and a new pump and we're back in business. Down time was beautiful weather too. Get back up and running again for about a week and the mast breaks. It's a piece of shaft about 6" through and it broke inside the head that the boom and lift cylinder pin to. Another week down for us to disassemble it, have it repaired at the iron works which involved a new shaft, cutting the gears off the old one and welding them on to the new one, welding the whole mess back into the head, $$$$ and us putting it back together. We ran about another week and decided to replace the bearings in the main articulation pin before it got any worse. It's the only one the previous owner hadn't done and kept getting worse for us. We knew it was coming. We ended up driving the old pin out as far as possible, turning it out some more with a 2' Ridge pipe wrench and 6' of cheater bar (we bent the handle on the wrench), and then cut one part off with the sawzall which took 6 blades, and then ground another part thinner, cut it off with the torch (we couldn't use the torch in the other spot) and drove it back down after we separated the machine. I got the new bearings which my local tractor dealer had in stock as they are an old Iron Mule dealer
. They also had the pins which they'd had made. Cool, got it all. Got everything lined up with the bearings in place etc, pressed the pin in (maybe pounded is a better word
) and low and behold it's short by an 1 1/2". The only way to get it back out was to cut it in pieces also because of the tight fit in the top collar. We tried a hydraulic jack to push it back out and no go plus pounding on it with and without pressure. It's hard to lay on your back, hold a big drift pin and swing a big hammer upward
and that would've ruined the threads and thus the pin anyway. So we cut it up and got it out while my neighbor who made the hydraulic pump parts is making me a new pin. I was going to go to him to make a pin but the dealer had one and I didn't want to make a nuisance of myself either. He also made a shim for me when I put the new bucket on the machine. All he's asked for is firewood in payment which is fine. I always offer cash. The dealer says he'll work with me on the pin as he told me when I asked that they all take the same pin
The old pin was 17" overall with 15" of 2 1/2" shaft, an 1 1/2" of thread and a 1/2" thick cap. The new pin was 15" overall. I think that all their pins are wrong and whoever made them got the dimensions mixed up. Luckily we didn't damage the bearings getting the pin back out. We should have measured it before we put it in but didn't even think about it. It was the right pin afterall
and the old pin was cut in chunks so there wasn't an easy comparison without laying it out and hindsight is 20/20
Added to this list is a blown up 372 and a mashed 395. I'd still rather work on a 30 year old machine than worry about a payment on a newer one
