Well... took me a few hours but I got her running. Had to drain out the fuel tank, which took a while because there was about 5 to 8 gallons in there already. It was definitely old fuel, hasn't been run in at least 1.5 years from what I was told. Put new fuel in, some additive, and a new fuel filter, bled the system.
The battery was indeed dead, while I was working on the fuel system I had the charger on the battery, and then used the jumper cables when trying to start the machine.
As for starting it, I need to do some work on the ignition. Apparently they disabled the ignition at some point because it would shut the tractor off when they put it in gear, or something like that. Instead they added a push button bypass to engage the starter. The bypass switch wasn't working, so I tried Crossing those wires, but they wouldn't allow enough current to engage the starter. Ultimately, I could only start it by jumping the starter solenoid. Not something I love doing but I didn't have an option. That will need to be addressed.
It took some starting fluid but she finally started. Once she was running and burned through the remaining old fuel in the system, she ran quite well. There is no muffler on the exhaust, just a pipe, and she is definitely loud. That will need to be addressed as well.
The Hydraulics felt strong, I was able to lift the machine off the ground. However, they were moving a little slow, though they did get better over the few minutes I was playing with the hydraulics. I will be changing out the fluid and filters anyhow, so I'm hoping that it's just old fluids and once I do the maintenance, the Hydraulics will smooth out. It took a few different attempts to raise the loader boom all the way, the first time it stopped about halfway, then moved a little higher on subsequent attempts.
The backhoe seemed to swing and move very smooth, although the swing control doesn't like to swing to the right. It seems like when you pull on that lever it wants to move the entire lever assembly, but once you hold on to the other levers, and stabilize the assembly, it works better. Probably just some adjustments that I need to make to the linkage.
The transmission seems to work fine, I didn't go through all of the gears but each gear that I tried had no problems moving the machine. I don't think the brakes work, and the parking brake lever rusted off of the assembly. The floor of the operators area is almost completely rusted out. Some work there will be required.
The tires also all took air. The front tires have tubes and seemed to be okay. The rears are pretty cracked so I'm assuming they will be low again next time I go back. But at least for now they took air enough so that I could move the machine around.
But for now the good news is that she does run, and the Hydraulics seem to work. I parked her on the edge of the parking lot and plugged her into the batteryminder. Hopefully that will recondition the battery so that when I finally get a chance to retrieve her, she will start up easier. My current trailer isn't Stout enough to handle her, but I'm still shopping around for heavier trailers at the moment.
Pics and a video... ( the 4th pic is the newer machine they replaced the old 550 with)
Ford 550 TLB first time operating - YouTube
