Oliver 77 Industrial

[fatjay]

Bought an Oliver 77 Industrial tractor. Seems to be the rarest machine on earth, I can't find anyone else with one. The closest is Steve W. here with his 770 industrial.

Original motor was replaced with a super 88 gas motor quite some time ago. Auto-choke and auto-throttle, fires up right away with no smoke almost immediately.

Brought home Monday, was 75F and beautiful April day. Immediately followed by 3 days of rain with a high of 42. It's in the garage though, so at least it's a dry place to work.

Thus far I've hit every grease fitting I could find with grease(around 30), and replaced 2 that wouldn't take any. Oil and coolant look brand new from the previous owner, oil is still semi-transparent like when you pour new oil, the coolant is still green. The hydraulic fluid looks like coffee with cream, and lots of it.

Tomorrow it'll be 75F again, but spotty showers. I'll try to get a good walk around video of it, but for now, some pictures.

Had to load backwards, the backhoe frame bottomed out going on forward. In hindsight, this was a great idea since the machine has no brakes. Coming off forward without brakes was enough of a rush, I'd rather not do it backwards.

I thought the trailer was oversized, but it definitely was not.

Unloading was exciting without brakes, bounced right down the road.

Managed to get most of it in the garage so I have power and dry space to work.

 

[fatjay]

Video of my first attempt at running the backhoe, and first time running a backhoe in general:

 

[3930dave]

Nice find. I esp. like the size of the front wheels, and the grill guard.

That hyd. fluid has a ton of water in it..... It's one thing many people don't change. That, and antifreeze.... green is usually only good for about 2 years.

For a first timer, you looked pretty smooth with the hoe !

One symptom you can get with a lot of water in hydraulic fluid is erratic movements, esp. under heavy load (like a full FEL). Change the fluid b4 you start suspecting/changing valves.....

That's a solid looking machine.

Rgds, D.

 

[tcreeley]

Nice tractor- when you are tired of it- drop it off!:laughing:

 

[fatjay]

The movement is quite eratic, I'm going to pick up about 20gal of cheap fluid and run it, change it, repeat.

 

[fatjay]

Think I figured out the issue with the bucket, the valve linkage is messed up so I'm only pushing it half way, so the other half is blocked. Would explain slow movement and engine laboring. Can't wait to try tomorrow!

 

[3930dave]

The movement is quite eratic, I'm going to pick up about 20gal of cheap fluid and run it, change it, repeat.

Good to do a flush, and filter change(s).

On my oldster, I wasn't dealing with that level of water, so went straight to Chevron 1000 THF.

https://cglapps.chevron.com/msdspds/PDSDetailPage.aspx?docDataId=77320&docFormat=PDF

It was a price I could live with, here.

Rgds, D.

 

[fatjay]

Second dig went better. Learning how to use it better. Got 10 stumps and a few shrubs up. It's hard work though.

 

[fatjay]

Finally got around to making a walk-around video while I was draining the hydraulic fluid. That fluid was horrific, too.

 

[fatjay]

Testing the hydraulics after dumping and filling with 10 gallons of fresh fluid.

 

[flusher]

Nice old Oliver.

I'd check those hydraulic hoses over thoroughly. A few look pretty old and worn. Also would replace those elbows on the backhoe control valve cluster. They look like common plumbing fittings--not what you want in a high pressure hydraulic system.

Good luck and be careful out there.

 

[fatjay]

There's quite a few that look like plumbing fittings, but I dismissed it thinking they've also been there probably been there forever. Some of the hoses look rough, but I am not making a living with it, so down time doesn't cost me money. I'll probably replace the one loader hose that looks bad before it pops because I can tell it's coming, but the rest I'll probably replace as I go unless it becomes obvious.

 

[fatjay]

Made a quick music video of the machine in action. Was warming up the hydraulic fluid so I could put the new filter on.

 

[fatjay]

Trying to clean up shrubs and stumps and smooth things out. This machine has been a heaven-sent. Up until now I've done it all by hand or with a garden tractor, but they can't hold a candle to this machine.

Starting to grade stuff.

And the azalea/weed bushes that have been there 30 years.