FEL is crooked

My FEL has been crooked since I got it, one side of bucket is about 1.5 in lower than the other. The dealer noticed it in my barn when he dropped it off and told me to check the tire inflation, but it slipped my mind. I thought it sat crooked on the barn floor because the floor was sagging, 200 yr old wood floor. But I asked them to check it last month when it went back for service etc last month.

It still seemed crooked when it came back, so I took it onto the concrete by my garage and put a level on the concrete, the top of the rops, the floor of the operator's station, the bucket and a horizontal bar on the loader. The loader and the bucket are definitely not horizontal when the others are. When I talked to them the tech said he lifted the tractor with the bucket, and loosened the bolts on the frame, let it level itself and retightened the bolts, and that it must have slipped again. They will come out sometime and try again with a bigger wrench, but I am wondering is there usually this much play in those bolts or the holes they go in??

After the comments in another thread about bellhousings that sounded like putting a lot of stress on the tractor with the loader frame was a bad thing, I have started to be a little worried about the situation. Any general information about loader to frame issues would be appreciated, since I am somewhat clueless. Thanks everyone!

dandeman said:

My BX2230 FEL is a bit crooked too.

Had not thought about loosing the bolts on the frame attachment point with it on a level floor...

Going to try that...

Click to expand...

I just came in from trying to make sure all of mine were tight, and that was a joke. According to the loader manual, they should be torqued to 166 ft lbs. My 24 mm wrench is only a foot long, and I weigh 130 lbs. adding length with a pipe on my crummy wrench looked hazardous to adjacent engine parts. Hopefully you are better equipped!

North Idaho Wolfman said:

sheepfarmer,
Any chance you could load a picture of it?

Click to expand...

I'll try, I lost Photoshop along with all the rest of my software with the virus episode, and I haven't scrounged up something else yet. Native file size of tablet photos is too big. Need to solve problem on general principles. What views are you interested in seeing?

Kennyd4110 said:

Sounds stupid, but check the REAR tire pressure

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No not stupid, dealer told me to do that in Nov when he delivered it and noticed it was crooked. I forgot, but assume they checked when it was in for service last month, and I complained about the crooked problem, but just for ducks I was going to check it again. It is crazy busy in the spring at that dealership, and something might have got missed. It makes sense...one higher than the other in the rear would tip the diagonal front corner down.

The tires are loaded, so even if the valve is at the top, I'm a little apprehensive my gage will get all stickied up and not give a good reading. Or worse yet it will start to leak.

Ok, so I did some of the suggested tests, and the Tesla award goes to Kenny! Or at least part of the problem is due to the rear tires. Here's what I did, and pictures attached because without pictures it didn't happen right?

Measured the height difference at the lip of bucket on concrete, all 4 wheels on same piece, 1.5 inches.



Measured the height difference at the lowest pt of the loader where it meets the bucket, 0.9 inches.

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=406&pictureid=2226

Put a level on the concrete, the bucket, the loader cross piece, and the bracket that makes up the brush guard. The loader and the bucket are way out of level, the bracket slightly out of level. The concrete is pretty level.

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=406&pictureid=2225

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=406&pictureid=2224

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=406&pictureid=2227

Then, per Ray's suggestion, measured cylinder rams, and they seemed to be equal in length, pin to pin. Didn't see anything else that "looked" like it could be out of whack.

Finally, the tires:

Measured the air pressure in the front tires, both equal at 38 lbs.

Tried to measure the air pressure in the right rear tire: moved tractor until the valve was at 12 o'clock, left it sit for 15 minutes (watched the Preakness), got a pair of pliers to get cap off, applied gage and got a geyser of coffee colored fluid. Decided I needed more info about measuring pressure in filled tires. Thought that wasn't supposed to happen. Maybe you use the little point to clear the valve first? While googling that idea I ran across the piece of information that you can estimate pressure in filled tires, or other big tractor tires, by measuring the distance from the ground to the top of the rim in the center. So I tried that, and sure enough, that length is 35 inches in the left rear tire and 34 3/8 inches in the right rear tire, about 5/8". Moved tractor and rechecked, and difference was again about 5/8".

So I think that that tire is part if not all of the problem. I am kind of disappointed that they didn't figure it out at the dealer's (the bill was quite scary ), but maybe it has two problems. The tech said that the bolts slipped quite a bit when he loosened them and retightened when the bucket was holding the tractor. The problem is, if he did that when the tire was underinflated, if I fix that problem is it going to be out of whack the other way???

And then there is the problem of fixing the tire, I am doubtful my dinky compressor used to inflate car tires etc is going to muscle through the RimGuard or Espresso, which ever was used, to inflate it. And do I need to take some of the RimGuard out first? Hopefully the dealer will feel obligated to solve this since it came that way.

Anyway the piece of information that is useful to other folks is to check the tire pressures all the way around, and that it is way easier to measure the distance from ground to upper rim than to mess with filled tires, especially when the valves are inconveniently located on the insides of the wheels.

Thanks everyone!

Thank you for the compliment D2, I find the greatest pleasure in learning new things and in sharing them. My biggest source of frustration is no hand strength left, and coordination is going down the drain too. I would like to have had more practical experience growing up, and I envy those whose parents taught them how to do stuff from the ground up. But I can still climb up on my bota .