555A no movement or hydraulics

[jonesrj]

Thanks. I can imagine that the dozer frame would be easier to work around than the loader as the loader arms have already been a nuisance just in my efforts to get the engine running. We thought about unhooking the loader right off the bat, but I was reluctant as some of the pins looked like they'd be hard to get to. And at that time I was still hopeful that the engine was the only problem... But it seems like if I'm going to be pulling the engine possibly twice, dropping the loader would be the place to start.

Even raising the loader up out of the way was difficult with all the cylinder leaks (internal and external) we have on both the 580 backhoes sitting on the property. Had to go get the Case 455 loader to get it raised up enough to get at the injection pump.

[jonesrj]

Ok, we worked on the 555A again today, made some progress and still got issues. I will try to give a chronological synopsis.

* Started by pulling the top off the torque converter housing. Once in there, saw right away that the torque converter spider gear drive on the input side was stripped and all the spider gear teeth were broken off. Some pieces on top, all the rest in the bottom of the housing. So engine definitely needed to be pulled to further assess damage. Also noticed very quickly that the top bolts holding the engine to the torque converter housing were loose and there was probably a 3/16 inch gap there... This very well could have helped disintegrate the drive coupling.

* Next up, I wanted to check the transmission filter for clutch disk or metal debris to get some idea about the state of the trans. Good news here as there was no sign of foreign debris in the filter or housing.

* Then after lunch we started gearing up to pull the engine. Needed to get some 3 inch square tubing and cut out a sidewall to prop up the loader out of the way. After about an hour on the bandsaw, tubing was cut to length and another little while with the torch and grinder the loader was propped up.

* Many of the bolts holding the nose cap were already missing...so it was moved out in short order. We disconnected all the wires, lines, etc off the engine before lunch, so then pretty soon we had the 50lbs of dirt, rats nests, and other debris dropped from the belly pan and scraped out of the frame rails. So just a couple hours after getting the loader propped up we had the engine out.

Up to this point, all was going pretty well. Once the engine was out of the way, started scraping out all the broken teeth and rubber bits from the converter housing. According to the manual and everything I thought I knew about the machine, the torque converter should slide out, but no such luck. We wiggled and jiggled, pried and twisted, and the thing never acted like it wanted to slide forward.

By this time it is getting almost dark (shadetree mechanics...), and it was time to clean up tools, etc. We kept thinking some of the aluminum debris was wedged in somehow blocking it and with no good grip or place to really get a good pry we took two nuts off the drive spider on front of the converter and put a small chain on the converter to try to pull with.



I was thinking this would surely work, put a big pry bar through the chain and pried against the cross member, but it didn't budge forward. So we went bigger. We put a timber across the tracks braced against the frame rails and hooked a farm jack in the chain and the other jaw over the timber. We stroked the jack and put a good bit of force on the chain pulling and it STILL didn't move. It is like there is something bolted up that we are missing, but multiple reviews of the manual give no help. We are sorta baffled... What are we missing???



P.S. I took a few pictures, tried to post two here...hopefully it works.

[west25346]

stop!!! pulling on the converter, you need to pull the control valve and sandwich plate to unbolt the converter stator carrier . There are (4) 12 point bolts holding the carrier to the transmission front plate. Once removed there is a slip fit diameter about 5/16 deep you will need a small bar to move converter forward. Did you get the 2 pieces of steel to lay in the bottom of the housing? Might not need it to remove damaged part but it helps hold it when installing the new parts.

[jonesrj]

Thanks west. Kinda embarrassing to admit, but after getting home last night and writing up the post I took a fresh and clear look at the manual again. And almost immediately I read (and understood) the part about the 12pt head bolts holding the stator to the transmission front cover. I had read over this section probably 5 times, but never really understood it was necessary to take the converter out. I thought that step was only needed for removal of the housing... It seems the manual -- like a lot of the engineering on this crawler -- leaves quite a bit to be desired. Either that or I need remediation in reading comprehension.

I thought about editing the post, but decided to leave it alone, in case somebody in the future makes the same mistake...

I guess I'll chalk it up to being in the heat of the battle and not seeing the forest for the trees. With all the spider bits in the housing, I got hung up on that being part of the problem. I think my Dad and uncle both were on the track of there being some kind of connection on the transmission side of the converter, but I probably talked them out of it...

We did have some flat metal scrap laying around to put under the converter, but I didn't put a lot of stock in that. You're probably right about it being more important for putting back together.

Did you open up the torque converter when you were working on your 550? I think we probably will this one since that's where the problem is on my machine, just to make sure the vibration, etc didn't do some damage to the guts of the converter.

After inspecting the trans filter and pulling the engine, I am now thinking I will leave the transmission alone and just try to fix the converter.

[west25346]

I did not disassemble the converter. I had no reverse when the machine became mine. Had a chance to run it forward all 3 gears were real strong. Had one service guy tell me the converter housings had an issue with cracking so it may pay to take a close look at that component. Seems odd you had a gap at the top... there are 2 dowels and 2 bolts besides the 2 bolts you found loose. If the mating surfaces are good I would investigate a little further, or were the bottom bolts loose also?

[jonesrj]

I have seen someone else post about cracked converter housing. I haven't noticed any cracks in the housing, but it was getting dark last night and the converter is still in the way. As many of the bolts as were missing on this machine -- nose cap practically loose, half of the floor pan missing, only one bolt on either side of the belly pan, and gap at the top of the engine to converter housing mating surfaces, I'm starting to think someone had pulled the engine fairly recently and found the problem only to throw it back together to sell. Of course, if that is what happened, they did an excellent job of packing it with 15 years worth of mud, trash, leaves and other debris.

It seems the top left bolt from converter side through into engine is either stripped or the wrong size as no threads were engaged on this bolt. The other on the top was "tight", and both of the lower bolts seemed tight. So I'm not sure what the problem is there, but I will be inspecting it all closer.

I'm not sure exactly how wide the gap was, but after noticing it from the top, you could look through from the side of the machine and see flywheel teeth clearly through the gap, so it was significant...