I’ve owned my JD 855 for close to 30 years. 2nd best money I ever spent. I bought a JD 755 for my father about the same time, who was able to use it for over 25 years until he passed. Best money I ever spent. I purchased a No.7 Backhoe along the way with a set of mounting brackets and a rear hydraulic kit for my 855 and later added a rear hydraulic kit and brackets (which I fabbed up using originals as templates) to the 755. I have been fortunate that I have not needed to make any serious repairs to either one. I treated myself, or at least I thought I did and bought a new out of the showroom 2720. Complete disappointment from the minute I got it home. I was lucky and got most of my money back when I sold it. I have since amassed a collection of implements and attachments for the 55 tractors.
Now to my issue, the backhoe got minimum use by me and more use by my father. He used it for a few hundred feet if trench using the smaller bucket for a drain project. Other than that is has been in storage for about 12-15 years. I was bored and I decided to get it out and play with it for a while. I found some of my rodent tenants built a nest on the top of the spool valve. I soon realized this has caused corrosion on some of the spool shafts. Before moving anything, I cleaned up each shaft as best as I could finding the swing spool stuck. I gave the handle a pretty good tug a couple of times but knowing I’ll never find parts to replace it, I decided to slow down and break out the penetrating oil and start soaking it down. I’m on day two and she’s still seized. I’m going to take it slow for a while hoping the oil will do it’s thing. Anyone have any suggestion? Sorry about the long post. I always say too much when it comes to the 55 series JD’s.
Now to my issue, the backhoe got minimum use by me and more use by my father. He used it for a few hundred feet if trench using the smaller bucket for a drain project. Other than that is has been in storage for about 12-15 years. I was bored and I decided to get it out and play with it for a while. I found some of my rodent tenants built a nest on the top of the spool valve. I soon realized this has caused corrosion on some of the spool shafts. Before moving anything, I cleaned up each shaft as best as I could finding the swing spool stuck. I gave the handle a pretty good tug a couple of times but knowing I’ll never find parts to replace it, I decided to slow down and break out the penetrating oil and start soaking it down. I’m on day two and she’s still seized. I’m going to take it slow for a while hoping the oil will do it’s thing. Anyone have any suggestion? Sorry about the long post. I always say too much when it comes to the 55 series JD’s.
