Loader 110 TLB Loader Boom Pins and Retaining Bolts

[V1BuzzBomb]

I bought my 2004 John Deere 110 TLB used. For certain, I have found issues large and small, not unexpected for a piece of equipment used commercially for nearly ten years. One highly stressed and vulnerable area appears to be the pins and retaining bolts at the top of the loader boom upright.

Upon receipt, I found the RH retaing bolt broke off. This spring, I rectified it. I pilot drilled it and tried easy-outs. I went as far with torque as I dare without popping easy-out, a worse situation. I determined that I would have to drill to ID of threads and pick the old bolt out. It was tedious, but I got it out and managed to maintain the original threads to the best of my ability.

I notice in the two upper pin positions that there can be some pin movement fore and aft. It seems that this can lead to fastener failure due to the load that the relatively small fastener is expected to handle to hold pin from moving.

I'm considering another way to retain those two pins that will allow some pin movement but still retain them axially. I'm not confident in the OEM design. The OEM flange head bolts will loosen and wear/elogate threads or break as I received my machine.

I considering using the longest stud I can seat in threaded hole to shank. Then install a flange nut and a belleville or wave washer. Nut woild be installled with threadlocker.

The other possibility is to use a shoulder bolt and a belleville or wave washer. Should bolt shank would not be much longer than the thickness of the pin plate. I may have to enlage the slot in the plate.

Ideas?

 

[whis]

pin is worn bolt only keeps it from coming out

 

[jd110]

Usually the reason for these retaining bolts fail is because of lack of lubrication in the grease fittings. If lubed properly and often enough, there is no much torsional strain on the bolt. As whis says, the bolt is only there to keep the pin from falling out, not to keep it from turning. My guess is the original owner did not grease it very well and now grease hole in pin is clogged with old hard grease, dirt, and rust and pin is still not getting proper lube. Remove the pin and clean out the grease holes or replace pin if excessively worn. On a 10+ year old machine, I wold expect to see a lot of grease in the picture. I see more rust than grease around the pin. I don't mean to criticize, just want to see your repair of retaining bolt to hold up. No matter what size the bolt, the torque being applied to an ungreased pin will shear off the retaining bolt.

 

[jenkinsph]

Usually the reason for these retaining bolts fail is because of lack of lubrication in the grease fittings. If lubed properly and often enough, there is no much torsional strain on the bolt. As whis says, the bolt is only there to keep the pin from falling out, not to keep it from turning. My guess is the original owner did not grease it very well and now grease hole in pin is clogged with old hard grease, dirt, and rust and pin is still not getting proper lube. Remove the pin and clean out the grease holes or replace pin if excessively worn. On a 10+ year old machine, I wold expect to see a lot of grease in the picture. I see more rust than grease around the pin. I don't mean to criticize, just want to see your repair of retaining bolt to hold up. No matter what size the bolt, the torque being applied to an ungreased pin will shear off the retaining bolt.

I agree with this ^^^^
I would add that if it had been greased properly over the last ten years then there would not be much rust showing either. Mine is greasy looking but if I wipe it down there isn't much rust stain showing.

 

[V1BuzzBomb]

I may buy a new pin to replace this one. Unfortunately, it's nearly $90 from JD dealers!

 

[jgayman]

I may buy a new pin to replace this one. Unfortunately, it's nearly $90 from JD dealers!

I see it for $86.92 at greenfarmparts.com. Free shipping. They have discount codes for 5% off.

 

[Scooby074]

The bushings (bores) are likely beat out of it too.

Before sticking a $90 pin in there, be sure to check the bores otherwise that is a waste of $90.

Does the machine feel "tight" in operation? The rest of the pins might be bad too. Usually if one is bad from wear and lack of lubrication, there are more.

As mentioned, that bolt should only see minor forces, IF the pin is lubed. Once you have it disassembled (or before) you can try welding a nut on the broken bolt to remove it. Might be better with the pin out if you have more easy access to the broken bolt.

 

[V1BuzzBomb]

Well, I never really got an answer to my question, just some 'fact of the matter' and 'shoot from the hip' comments. That's okay, John Deere and I collectively answered it, even so.

Yes, a lack of grease will lead to advanced wear and failure. Despite that, John Deere must accept some design responsibility as they have redesigned their loader boom frame pins and retaining hardware! In the original design, pin movement resulted in excessive fastener bending moment and loosening of bolt from friction and motion of retaining plate under bolt flange head. Oddly enough, their redesign was very close to my proposed redesign. Result in either case is a bearing surface to lessen the thread load of the fastener. Load on fastener is more tensile than bending in the redesign. I was considering doing the same thing with a shoulder bolt.

I found that my retaining bolt hole threads were stretched. With that in mind, I purchased a M8x1.25 bottom tap. My intent was to use the longest fastener possible. I actually used a John Deere 10.9 25mm long flange bolt, identical otherwise, but over 5mm longer than the original.

The new design pins have an enlarged hole and use a steel bushing that is longer than the retaining plate is wide. To limit axial movement, I actually sandwiched a belleville (spring wave) washer under the bolt head. John Deere also added a second grease fitting at the other end of the pin at the level indicator/anti-spill over mechanism.

On the opposite side, the pin was taking grease but I pulled it anyway. I took a die grinder and carbide burr and opened up hole to mimmick the redesign and installed likewise hardware.

This may be a modification worthy should anyone start noticing movement.

 

[jenkinsph]

Thanks for posting your fix, should I ever have problems such as you had I will see about this modification.

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

V1 I thank you greatly for starting this thread. I read it initially and thought you had more of an anomaly with this bolt breaking.
Well I noticed today that mine has the same issue on the right side loader pin. I'm hoping I can drill and easy out the bolt but I believe mine has the replacement style pin with the rounded out hole. So I'm not sure Deere's redesign fixes the issue. My 110 has a little over 750 hrs and wasn't commercially used. I feel kind of silly that I initially wrote your issue off as a one off. Thanks

Matt