JD450C third head gasket This is getting old

[oldmetalmender]

Hi,

Time for me to point out my tag line!

Stan

Ha ha, a man of great wisdom! I have been cleaning the living heck out of my shop the last three days. I have a pretty big box of parts both new and used from this build. I bet that box is worth a lot of money.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Cubic Money!

Stan

[oldmetalmender]

[oldmetalmender]

Well I wanted to post a follow up. My Stewart Warner gauges have failed. The IGN post was grounding out to the dash and only when the terminal nut was tight. That kept me busy for a bit to find that. With yet another set of gauges with crooked faces crimped in position, I decided that I am done with S/W gauges. Their quality has tanked and they are to much trouble for the money.
Having used Isspro before and not having one issue ever, I decided to see what they had. I ended up talking with Don at Isspro at their Portland Oregon office. I ended up with their EV2 sealed gauges and despite being double the costs of the S/W gauges, I know it was a painful but good choice. The EV2 sealed gauges will work under water and that is how they display them at SEMA and other conventions. These gauges come with a small red warning light in the bottom with a programmable set point for when they turn on.
The tool to set them is 68 bucks but Don saved me the expense by discussing each gauge with me on the phone and deciding on a set point for each one. I received them and took the time to install them in the dash panel on the bench. I was held up by a lost order for the woven wire loom that just arrived. I had used up all the small stuff on my new wire harness. The post office lost my order for two weeks. It is now here. I can now shorten the sender leads and get it in the crawler. I ordered these gauges nearly a month ago and yesterday Don called me to ask how I liked them. Now THAT is customer service. I decided to update this build with what happened to my gauge set and post up my experience with Isspro. I need to change the sending units and land the dash panel. I will post a picture of the gauges and what they look like shortly. The quality is top notch and worth every penny. They will never fog, they are totally sealed and will tell me with a warning light if things get to warm. The crawler has been down since moving it outside. It will be nice to be done and use it here.
Cheers...
Al

[oldmetalmender]

I finally got to use my crawler after a full winter of rebuilding everything forward of the key switch. The motor did not even get a full revolution before firing off. It purrs and is amazing compared to what it used to do. After a pretty disappointing experience (again) with Stewart Warner I can say the replacement isspro gauges are as good as it gets short of something from an aircraft. I changed the sending units out and got all of the gauges hooked up. Everything works as it should. I am pretty pleased with them. I loaded the motor up by removing the top 10 inches of part of a field that needed lowering for snow melt drainage. It probably still needs to work for a full break in. I will get to that later when the ground dries up some. It's muddy.

So here are the gauges. They look great and work great. The green indicator to the left of the oil pressure is on with the battery switch. To remind me to hit the switch.



The warning light from no oil pressure as the engine was off. Each gauge has one except the volt meter.



The gauges are sealed completely and will work under water. The back side plug.



As mentioned Don from Isspro called a week ago to see how I like them. No one does that anymore. They were expensive, and knowing I will probably never need to replace them ever again, worth it in my opinion. So Don at Isspro in Portland Oregon is who to call. Now to get after an idler replacement and eventually the brakes and most likely steering clutches. Everything works but one brake is spongy. Maybe next winter.
Thanks to everyone that helped with this major repair. I learned a lot.

Al.

[Al Swearengen]

Absolutely gorgeous! What a wonderful job you completed!

[B Town]

Absolutely gorgeous! What a wonderful job you completed!

Second. Superb

Best regards, Bruce

[oldmetalmender]

Thanks guys.. I wish I did not have so much on my plate. I would like to get after the brakes and check the steering clutches. I see in the notes from two owners ago had issues adjusting the left brake. Probably issues in there. But the crawler just purrs and starts instantly. I will do some work with it this summer and maybe this winter I can funnel another million dollars into it.
Thank you and stay well all.

[nelstomlinson]

So what is the secret for removing a stuck liner? I definately need and in frame rebuild.
It would be nice to get the liner out to see if the block is any good. Any tricks to try?

I did an in-frame rebuild. I don't think I'll ever try that again. It was a huge pain. Mine is a loader, and the arms are in the way of everything. Maybe it would go better on a dozer. When I started several years ago, I didn't have a gantry crane, so in-frame was my only choice. Now I have a 2 ton crane, so next time I'll just pull the engine.

I built a puller that sat on the head and bridged the jug from some very heavy channel, and some 7/8 threaded rod I had lying around, and some lighter channel that I cut to just fit the bottom of the jug. It was a huge pain to get it out, because I couldn't remove the crank; there was undercarriage in the way. I had to hammer upward on bottom of the puller, around the crank as best I could, while my son cranked on the puller nut above. We got a LOT of stress on the 7/8 all-thread, then finally the old liner let loose and jumped up 1/8 inch. It sounded like a gun went off!

[oldmetalmender]

They don't want to move easily. Mine were a regular tug O war too. I am sure you probably saw what I made to get the liners out.
I have a drawer with several crawler specific tools in it now. Most custom made and a couple bought ones. I will probably never use them again. I better go knock on some wood.

[Artisan]

Hi oldmetalmender.
Congratulations on your beautiful reconstruction.
I just found out, and followed it with great interest.
Thank you for this post.

[oldmetalmender]

Funny, I just wandered into this site to see what was up. I was surprised to see this build thread on the front page. I enjoyed the build. It still starts with less than a full revolution. I have only put about two hours on it since getting it running. It is under a tarp next to my old JD400 backhoe waiting to come to the rescue if we get the 12 feet (no kidding) of snow they claimed we will get. I think we have about 6 inches out there...LOL I have more plans for it this coming summer. Thanks for the words.

[oldmetalmender]

I want to apologize to the folks that have sent me PM's. I have not been back in a while and assumed I would get an email notification when a PM came through. Not so, I will check back more frequently. I have sent out responses and again, sorry... I will be back with more 450C projects this summer. I keep tripping over a new idler. That is just one of the fixes...

I hope everyone is having a good holiday despite the issues in the world we are facing. Keep your movie good!

al.

[Tye Reay]

Where did you buy the idler mentioned.

[oldmetalmender]

Track man Spokane Wa. Nice folks. I would have to find the file for the price. 500ish? It is built better than the one that is coming off. I need to change it out. The track pin removal is keeping me from proceeding. That and a truck build occupying the shop space needed to wrestle with the machine. I still have less than 3 hours on the new engine. I wanted to rotate a shipping container 90 degrees while the ground is frozen. So I just might fire the thing up soon.
4 degrees this morning. Cracking rubber bands here.