'73 - 450B Crawler/Loader/Hoe Restoration

[cordlesscarpenter]

B Town,
Yes, non-turbo 4.219 engine.

My TD-8E is a turbo but I'm kinda glad my Deere is non-turbo, it would have given me a few more horses but would have definitely added to an already long and expensive build, plus it's one more thing that needs maintenance and repair.

[cordlesscarpenter]

Ok, the alternator pulley arrived and all measurements are correct EXCEPT the width and how it lines up with the rest of the belt path (it sticks out too far). I tried a few things including removing .100 from the surface on the pulley that stands it off from the alternator's fan but that didn't work. Gonna try a few more things to get it into the right position but so far I'm striking out.

Got the exhaust manifold mounted as well as the air intake and worked on the ether injection system. Spent most of the day messing with this stinkin' pulley.

[cordlesscarpenter]

Still fiddly farting around with the alternator alignment... this isn't really the pulley's fault to begin with, the alternator itself is sticking out too far. By that I mean when it is bolted up in the original bracketry positioning and the belt pulled tight and in line where it should be, it lines up over the alternator's fan by maybe 1/8". I have since elongated the holes in the lower rear bracket enabling me to stuff three 3/8" gr8 washers in between the lower front bracket and the alternator. Next I'll be putting a very slight Z bend in the upper bracket where you slide adjust, to bring it over by the same amount. **This is taking entirely too much time away from other things.

Got my tubing bender in the mail this afternoon and will be playing around with it as soon as I make it past the alternator mounting.

Painted my brake lock lever red today too so there's at least 1 thing complete lol. Had to give it a pop of color... plus it should help me quickly locate it, if it were yellow or black, it would match everything else on the floor.

[cordlesscarpenter]

Alternator is now 100%. It is perfectly aligned to within .001, not that I was going for that level of accuracy but am delighted that is what the end result was. The Z bend went exceptionally well and looks professional.

Speaking of bends, after I finished up with the alternator, I started playing around with some old salvage line just to get a feel for the bender. I don't have a lot of time on this bender but I will say that when it comes to benders, this one is about the best you're gonna get for a 'happy medium" VERY good quality tool for the money when you consider what a professional bender costs and I've held both in my hands. This one can bend 3/16", 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2", most quality benders are dedicated for one size and will cost ya 5-12 times what the Imperial 370 FH 3 head bender costs.
I didn't have any 1/2" salvage tubing to play with and most of my 3/8 tubing is actually in superb condition (good enough to re-sell) or it is so far gone it would just crumble in a bender. So I used 1/4" tubing and was able to replicate the complicated pump supply line twice and on my first two attempts. Then family called and I ran out of time. Should be able to get a LOT done over the next few days.

Ordered the muffler yesterday too, ouch. I went with the $650 aftermarket version from Finney. I'll let y'all know if it's any good once I get it.

I also got my new ether tubing (1/8" OD, 1/16 ID), will get that all put together and installed once the 90* fitting (that goes into the intake) gets here. The nozzle for the intake on the engine I put in had a plug installed in it. Good news was the OEM fitting was only $5 and the tubing was only $5

[cordlesscarpenter]

Received the battery cable parts and built the long 7' positive run to the starter as well as both grounds today, will install tomorrow. That was a first for me and a fun little project.

Another first was bending the tubing for the power steering. After about 3 dozen trips back and forth from the bender to the machine I finally got the relief line completed and it turned out way better than I hoped... it fits perfectly where I want it and how I want it. It is a cool feeling when everything you're doing is getting a little closer each time but is still not what's needed then you make the one right bend, which might only be 1 bend by a few degrees, and all the sudden it slides right in where you want it and everything is bliss. It's been sanitized, capped and prime'd/painted and is now roasting nicely by the fire and will get installed tomorrow as well.

Unfortunately I will not be able to make the power steering pump supply tubing as the bender I bought has too large a radius to match the original design. Normally a larger radius wouldn't be a big deal but it is such tight quarters there that it must be a super tight bend, plus it is greater than 180*. After staring at the run for about an hour, looking for a different but still safe route, I deemed it was best to go with the original design so I called the guys at GEI and told them I would be in Monday morning to have them give it a go. I do have the piece (what's left of it) that came off the original engine that caught fire (I had to grind it off with a cutoff wheel), it's in good enough condition (but delicate) to use as the example so they'll be attempting to duplicate that for the new one.

I also mapped out the where the 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/2 Tee will go, then cut the trans cooler return line, built out the Tee (big blocky brass affair... brass but very beefy) and fit up the 3/4 hose going in one side and out the other towards the outlet of the filter base. I also cut the hose and tied in the trans cooler supply line.

Lastly, I jammed some studs into some pretty sweet knurled stainless steel knobs I got from a machine shop for the hyd box side door (that bothered me that I couldn't just open the door without a wrench).

[cordlesscarpenter]

Got the power steering line I bent hooked up tight and connected to the trans via a hose routed along side the fuel supply line to keep it out of the way

I then removed all the rust bubbling paint off of the brand new radiator (I know right!) and gave it 4 coats of the good stuff. It seems to be a running theme with people that make and or rebuild mechanical stuff can't paint to save their life. Oh well, that's how the cookie crumbles I suppose.

Got the batteries situated and hooked to the starter but need to make a different positive paralleling cable because the forward battery tray had been cut out at some point and I needed to make a wooden block to span the old tray brackets for the battery to sit on (so I made one from 3/4" Iroko wood, which is as strong as oak but with the characteristics of teak with regards to rot and bug resistance), all too often I've pulled out rotten pine plywood from underneath the batteries. Anyway, the 3/4" wood base now raises the battery height of the front battery and the paralleling jumper I have has a vertical connecting terminal that sticks up even further and all that mess now sits too high for my sweet original tool tray's wooden base to sit flush on the brackets. A horizontal terminal at this point will solve this issue.

With not much of the day left after messing with the batteries all afternoon, I went ahead and polished up the aluminum hyd/batt box badging and screwed them to the box. What a difference a 10 minute addition makes lol.

I'll be headed north soon, hoping to come back with the final piece to the power steering puzzle and finally be able to finish assembly forward of the engine.

~ Darrell

[cordlesscarpenter]

Went north and they were able to bend the final line most of the way. I tweaked it ever so slightly and put a final bend into it (in the direction of the Tee for a short and straight hose run), it turned out perfectly! Then painted it

Before I left, UPS dropped off my muffler and again, it turned out to be a crappy paint job. All I had to do was think about acetone and the paint practically fell to the ground. I literally wiped all the "paint" off in 2 minutes and gave it a proper paint job at the same time as the tube. They are both chilling next to the fireplace

In between coats I made some progress on working out the kinks forward of the engine... the radiator and transmission oil cooler are new but aftermarket and aren't an exact fit and the fan shroud was a salvage yard find which isn't perfectly aligning either. Made some tweaks to the upper radiator bracket and tomorrow will elongate a few slots to make room for even distance between the fan blades and the inner ring of the shroud. A little more this and a lot more of that and it'll be GTG.

Also worked on the right side tower hyd lines, should have that complete by tomorrow.

Couldn't find the right paralleling connection for the batteries in town so I'll have to order them.

I did receive all my hose clamps so that will be getting worked too.

Getting closer!

[cordlesscarpenter]

Question: What do you all run for lube in your final drives? I've always run gear oil in the past (think 80-90W) but the book says 303 which makes me think HYGARD which is much thinner isn't it???

[Jim B]

My 450E runs Hy-Gard in the finals. Hy-Gard is the replacement for JD's 303. As you are likely aware, there is no 303 oil on the market, made by any company these days meeting the outdated JD 303 formula, regardless of what they label it. As one gets into machines newer than your 450B, the sump became one common sump, sharing fluid for the HLR, steering clutches and finals. Hy-Gard is the recommended fluid.

[cordlesscarpenter]

Copy on the Hy-Gard Jim, I'll give it a shot. In Montana it's be freezing temps more than half the year anyways so a thinner lube will likely perform better in the first place, plus I don't beat on my machinery.

Got the last power steering line sorta installed along with the muffler but cut the day short to deal with the monster I've been avoiding for months... filing taxes 🤮

Back at it tomorrow!

[cordlesscarpenter]

Battling through a major toothache... pumped myself full of IBP and grunted through some good progress.

The intake hose is all wrapped up and clamped in... it might not be a $200 hose but it sure looks like one lol, the only thing left for intake is the ether injection which I have all but one part for it and that part is on the way.

All power steering hard lines are routed, tightened down and gtg.

New fan is on and torqued to spec

Alternator nut is good and loctite'd and alt is locked in position with the belt tight. Hyd pump drive/disconnect assembly is back in position and hyd pump is bolted but not tight (gonna leave it off during startup for obvious reasons as well as being able to make sure the drive/disco is working the way it should).

I've put the radiator/trans cooler assembly on and off more times than I'd like to remember but it is on for good now as well as the shroud and all supporting brackets nice and tight. I had to do a lot of adjusting, shimming and even drill a few new holes in the "salvage find" fan shroud but now have good even gap all the way around between the fan blades and shroud and it's all squared up with even reveal to everything else. Radiator hoses are installed and clamped.

Trans cooler inlet is hosed and clamped. Tomorrow I just need to mock up where the filter base should be and finish all the hoses for that side of the trans cooler/filter loop, tie the power steering pump inlet into the return line and all that should be left before firing it up is to finish wiring and adding all the fluids.

Still need to finish the right side tower's hard hyd lines and rebuild all 4 bucket and loader cylinders

Once she's running, I'll be rolling on the new SALT chain and bolting on all the new triple grouser pads (with snow holes)

Lots left to do but definitely getting closer!

[cordlesscarpenter]

Yesterday I was able to finish up the right side tower hydraulics and got both sides all bracketed down.

Also finished building out the trans cooler and filter system loop so the transmission oil to the cooler as well as return (with the Tee for the power steering pickup) is now complete... and I finished a few little odds and ends like missing hose clamps, brackets, stuff like that.

So I'll have to run through my checklist again but I think all I really have left to do is finish up wiring and she'll be ready to crank over.

Today I went to the dentist (no relief yet, unless I yank it)... it might be 2 more weeks of pain if I want to try and save the tooth . Anyhow, while I was in town, I stopped off and picked up a 5gal bucket of HY-GARD for the finals and 4 gallons of COOL-GARD for the cooling system. I'm praying for no leaks, that stuff can get really expensive quick.

Not looking forward to the wiring but it should be pretty straight forward with the harness I had built. We'll see

[cordlesscarpenter]

Still feeling like doo doo but got the dash all wired up and will do the tractor tomorrow if I feel better. I'm on a regimen of penicillin so it should knock it out with haste.

[cordlesscarpenter]

Feeling much much better today

Got the rest of the tractor all wired up. Just gotta clean up some routes, zip tie solos and stuff some runs into conduit... that sorta thing, add fluids and it's go time.

Hoping to give her a crank tomorrow!

[LeonardL]

Dude if you haven't put your coolant in yet then put water in first to check for leaks. Then when your satisfied with having no leaks you can drain it and then put the coolant in.