Loader Upgrade and Paint Kama 554

[3RRL]

Well, I got the tractor back to work after the throw out bearing repair.
The creeping in neutral seems to have gone away. I guess it was normal after all so I'm not worried about it?

I got a lot of little things fixed on the Kama before getting it out of the barn.
But not before I painted the loader red. I've always liked the way Brad's Koyker 195 looked, so I decided to copy him. I ordered new decals from Koyker and they are on the way. It was a good opportunity to clean all the pins and bushings and check for wear. I've had the loader on for 3-1/2 years and never taken it off before. As usual, Loretta was out there helping me clean it all up. Then she helped me mask off some parts and we started painting the components.




Rob-

 

[3RRL]

Just before that, I've always had a problem getting a grease nipple to the end of the loader arm. To get to it you have to raise the loader up a certain amount. It was always a problem getting the grease gun on and then getting it off. So I added a couple of Zerk fitting on top where I could get to them easily. I added 2 per bushing because I could not put one in the middle because of the seam there.



When I got it all together, it looked pretty good.
Here are a couple photos of it cleaned up and ready to work. I didn't wast any time getting back to that spot where the clutch went out. After moving some dirt, I got to the logs we wanted to saw up and split for firewood.



I also replaced a busted rear tail light, a busted front headlight and fixed some puncture holes in the grill. Then I repaired the brake light switch and adjusted the brakes. I also got a mechanical oil pressure gage since my sending unit was broken. There was a lot of wear and tear over the last 3-1/2 years, and this was a good opportunity to get some of the well needed repairs done.

 

[Dyer retired]

Rob,

Excellent work, as always! You sure make it look easy. Dyer, retired

 

[Diamondpilot]

Very nice Rob. What did you paint the Loader with? Was it sprayed via the compressor or just a rattle can?

Chris

 

[tommu56]

Rob it will now match shoes on the back hoe.

tom

 

[milkman]

I like the way you fixed the grease fittings, the paint job looks good and matches the tractor. When the decals come in, they will finish it off, good job. I followed your TOB thread, another amazing job, amazing to watch your attention to detail and you always finish with the item engineered way better than original. Looking forward to your next project, not that I'm wishing you any more bad luck

 

[3RRL]

Hey you guys are kind!
I do try hard to keep things up to par except my golf game. I too am glad to have the tractor back up and running good again. I found out that Brad's loader is black like mine was and it was pj's loader that's red. Sorry about that pj.

I used a rattle can spray job.
Masked off, primed and painted ... actually, my wife Loretta did most of the masking and that's why it turned out pretty good. Looks good like that I think.
Those grease fittings underneath used to give me fits. I'll bet I filled up one arm before I noticed I wasn't on the nipple. This was an easy 10 minute fix.

OH, did you see what I did this morning? I spit shined the wheels ...
I can't wait for the new decals to come in.
Rob-

 

[3RRL]

Just to finish off this thread, here are the photos from earlier today.
I already got the logos and safety warning labels and put them on this morning. There are a lot of safety stickers.
Tomorrow morning Huge Kama goes back to work pulling out some boulders for my neighbor.
Rob-

 

[3RRL]

I'm reviving this thread for a little update.
When I removed the Koyker loader arm mount (right one for checking and adjusting the clutch) and splitting the tractor to replace the frozen throw out bearing, I did not remove the left loader arm mount. I left that one bolted to the tractor. After another 80 hours of working the tractor, (665 hrs now) I heard a loud "POP" while doing some loader work. I was filling the bucket completely heaped over so it was at maximum lift capability which I think is around 2,500lbs or so. Anyway, I stopped working and started to check things out to see what busted.

I couldn't find anything until the next day.
My well driller guys were over looking at the tractor and they pointed out that a couple of the big bolts that hold the Koyker loader arm mount to the tractor were backed out. One of the heads had popped off and was missing. I pulled the tractor into the barn after taking the loader off. It was very easy to do that now that I know to leave the bucket on. You need the bucket to tilt the loader arms out of the mount easily ... It took literally about 5 minutes to take off.



Once I removed the right loader mount, I realized all but one of the bolts had broken off. You can see that in the last photo. Only one bolt was holding mount to the casting. One bolt broke off at the threads, right at the casting, so I was worried about getting it out. The others where only the head broke off, I was able to get out with a pair of vise grips. I cut a slot in the short one and was able to remove it with a large screw driver blade.

Of interest is that of all the Koyker loader parts, only these bolts were Metric. All the others were SAE. They are Metric because they screw into the cast bell housing. Anyway, a quick trip back to the hardware store and I had all new bolts. It only took me about an hour to repair and get the loader back on. I'm sure it could've been worse, but I was lucky.
Rob-

 

[valley]

Rob, Glad you were able to get that fixed without more trouble. I read earlier in this thread you refering to a throw out bearing. I bet that was a bear! You had to split the tractor for that. I'm going out to check if the bolts on my loader are tight. Richard