Mid 70's Owantonna ("OMC) 440 skid steer / drive belt /repair updates

   / Mid 70's Owantonna ("OMC) 440 skid steer / drive belt /repair updates #1  

aasrs

New member
Joined
Feb 2, 2014
Messages
16
Location
NE GA
Tractor
OMC Mustang 440
thanks to ssdoxie for the tip on the JD24 being the same as my older OMC 440! I found a shop operators manual for a jd24 online, ordered and it has been helpful, sure wish mine had a hyd brake like was available for the jd24

Today we put the new drive belt on, we ran into a bit of extra work (ok more than a bit) as the new belt would not pass over the hydraulic variable speed pulleys due to it hitting a hydraulic line, so we ended up removing the panel in front of engine compartment and floor boards, also had to remove the support brackets that the pillar bearing blocks for the rear drives mount to to get the belt over the front pulley (52" belt) wow was it tough spreading the spring loaded pulley, but I cut some wood pieces at angle then loosened the 3 retaining bolts counting the turns so I could at least put than back where they were and wedged the wood in, sounds much easier than it really was, Take your time so you do not damage those sheaves inside of the belt pulley)

it turned into an all day job, but while we were there we also had to repair the seat frame where it mounts to the hinges, someone had welded them before, but iut was literately tearing apart, so we cut a flat plate to go from side to side, fir it under the rear of the seat plate and welded it in, then drilled some holes and bolted it to he existing hinges (that are shot and will need replaced) I don't know how long one of these belts should last, but I sure do not look forward to doing this again, even knowing next time will be far quicker. (another tip) don't wait for one to break! mine was about to snap when I bought it and it broke the day I got it home and played with it for about 5 minutes!, it would had been much easier if the old belt was still in place! - Any how.....

During this we found the filter assembly very loose, it has a pipe union that was holding it to hydraulic pump, so we took that all apart and tightened all the pipes fittings up nicely, There are quite few things that were rigged up on this skid steer, I hate it when you see that , but its what we have to work with.

next steps.
Repair the starting issue, I was told when I purchased it it needed a ring gear, but im not 100% that is the only issue with the starter engagement. we will see
Repair the drive issues, seems the right side works for crudola, there is a ton of play in the lever and it really does not like to work that right side at all,
Adjust drive chains and hopefully not find too much wrong in there.
fix hydraulic leak in line behind frame of bucket, they had a hose clamped around the steel line,
BTW I did not want to run with low hyd oil seeing how it was leaking, so I checked the level, it did not touch the stick, it took a full 5 gl to reach the min mark on the dip stick. not sure what total capacity is of the system, but that bites as I want to change all the fluid out, so I am about to waste 5gl of fluid, oh well price I paid working on it where it broke down (over dirt to boot) I bought Lubraguard tractor hydraulic oil, then I see some recommend using automatic trans oil, hmm... thoughts on that anyone?

So, now that we could move this (since the old belt snapped ) down to the garage it will be much easier to work on, once I read up on this a bit more I decided not to put it inside as I cant loose that room for a extended period in case I run into parts problems, But now I can get it up on jack stands as it is on the slab not sure where to jack it up yet, but I have a good walker type 3.5 ton pro floor jack and heavy jack stands
So tomorrow it gets jacked up, wheels come off, and side plate get removed to see if this is something as simple as adjusting the clutches and drive chains. if so, we are going to move forward with repairing everything else, and doing a full service on it

Still looking for the correct repair manual for this machine
 
   / Mid 70's Owantonna ("OMC) 440 skid steer / drive belt /repair updates
  • Thread Starter
#2  
well today went partially pretty darn good, and partially failure!

we got the hydraulic line repaired, it was one for the front bucket tilt, so it ran up the arm and to the rear, dropped the ram and took it off and welded it up, got it back on fine.
Took the right side drive cover off and started checking that out, front drive clutch was only about a quarter turn off, rear was twice that, after making a make shift repair to the lever splined shaft (took shim stock and placed in there to take up the worn splines play) and after doing the clutch adjustment I now have 3.5: of travel for the bug marks on the hub to line up properly, I have not adjusted any of the drive chains yet, they need it but not as bad as I expected, however the the secondary drive chain is pretty loose, very loose!, the primary drive chain is pretty loose as well, so, i'll do those on both sides as well.

the killer was the, NO IS, the flywheel, we can not get it off, according to what I read on the Wisconsin engine it is a tapered keyed shaft, we worked and worked for hours and hours on that, heated it, even broke out my bud torch. broke a snap-on puller, snapped off the head of a 3/8 16 puller mounting bolt using a IR 1/2 drive impact on the puller (center large bolt), Set the puller (another one) a harmonic balance puller, and literally beat it so hard it smashed the bolt head, even cracked part of the threaded hole off in the flywheel casting. Tried to get a 10 ton puller on it I have, but bolts are so close it is near impossible, , I have pulled a bunch of stuff off tapered drive lines, pulleys, clutch hubs and never have run into this, I don't know what the heck we are going to do to get this flywheel off so we can repair the ring gear on it! We did find why we think it ate the ring gear, the whole piece of metal where the starter mounts flexes when you wiggle it, it is a fairly thin steel, not sure what we will do to make that rigid, IF we ever get the flywheel off!
 
   / Mid 70's Owantonna ("OMC) 440 skid steer / drive belt /repair updates
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Well after four days, the flywheel finally came off, wow what a job! we are now waiting for a new starter drive, have welded a plate onto the fan shroud and welded the starer mounting plate back in place,
 
   / Mid 70's Owantonna ("OMC) 440 skid steer / drive belt /repair updates #4  
Hi aasrs, I'm in quite the same boat you were in. I have a JD24 and the variable drive belt blew off on my "last 5 minute" move of an item before I headed to the outbuilding for noise examination and repair. I wanted to say thanks for your details about new belt. I don't mean to bother you, but do you have any way to annotate your pic of the belt pulleys showing what I need to mess with to add new belt? The manual says to first "raise the boom and install boom locks". How can I raise the boom if the drive belt is gone...no hydraulics work?
I also need to put on a new external alternator belt, but do not know where to "make the break" in the drive train to slip the belt thru. The book never tells how to get the belt around the drive shaft pulley. If you have any further advice for me, it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you Sir.
 

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