Looseness in front end loader pivots

[atechbh]

What can I do to tighten these up. Is there bushings available.
Mine is a B21 and just the front loader pivots are pins are loose after 2000 hrs

 

[Tooljunkie]

Some loader frames have replaceable bushings, and changing pins will only take some of the slop out. What i noticed on some, the pins arent as hard as the bushings, so most of wear is on pins.
Grease grease grease.
Only way. That is what keeps wear in check.

I changed all pins on tractor where i used to work, operator said no time to grease. Flat out refused. So, ordered to bring tractor to yard once a week. Load machine and haul back 1-2 hours. Tune changed after that. But, only used one tube of grease all summer.

 

[ShaunRH]

If it does not have bushings, you could take the unit to a machine shop and have them line bore the arms to clean up any ovalness and put in new hardened pins and bushings for you. They will drill a hole in the bushings that will allow grease to penetrate both the bushing and get down to the pin. You can also have them drill the core of the pin and add a zerk on the outside end so you can grease the pin directly. This is fairly common machining work.

If you kept it well greased, you'd likely never live long enough to need to replace the pin and bushing again unless you work the critter daily, and other components would fail first.

Why some companies cheap out on hardened bushings and pins for loaders I don't know. I can't tell if my L3200's are hardened or not, the pin sounds like it is but sound is a horrible hardness test unless you have finely calibrated ears... mine aren't any more, too much rock-n-roll in my youth... <sigh>

 

[cerlawson]

The advice to grease a lot is important. Greasing only once in a while is worse than no grease at all. The reason is that the grease can hold grit in the joint and cause lots of wear. If any of you have ever ground valves on an engine, yoyu know that a little grease sure helps.

thus, greasing often to push out the grit is the reason, not necessarily making the joint turn easier.

Take a look at the pins holding grousers on crawler tractors. You don't grease them because that will cause more wear than no grease.

 

[ShaunRH]

The advice to grease a lot is important. Greasing only once in a while is worse than no grease at all. The reason is that the grease can hold grit in the joint and cause lots of wear. If any of you have ever ground valves on an engine, yoyu know that a little grease sure helps.

thus, greasing often to push out the grit is the reason, not necessarily making the joint turn easier.

Take a look at the pins holding grousers on crawler tractors. You don't grease them because that will cause more wear than no grease.

Yes and this is why some guys love the white lithium styles as you can see when they are dirty and when the new clean stuff pushes out. I have read that some of the graphite greases actually relieve some of the wear that is caused by grit as the graphite takes all the cutting edges off the grit and makes them more 'ball bearing' like. Dunno how factual that is but is reads good in print! LOL!

 

[Tooljunkie]

Could turn this into a grease discussion pretty quick. I prefer the heavy grease in summer, wont wash out and doesent run when weather gets hot. Wheel bearing grease.
Lithium base is for low temp operation. But here lows of -40 celcius to a couple days of +40 celcius is a big temperature swing.

Machine shop quoted 1200 to rebush and make new pins. Was a little much.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

To fix the play and slop simply replace the bushings and pins.

 

[Wbk]

What can I do to tighten these up. Is there bushings available.
Mine is a B21 and just the front loader pivots are pins are loose after 2000 hrs

I had to replace the pins and bushings on our la211 loader bucket. I went to a machine shop and bought a foot of 3/4" seemless tubing, drilled the lock pin holes then cut the lengths I needed assembled it all making sure the bucket was level, tacked it together, took it apart and welded it.I used a angle grinder with a cut off blade to remove the old bushings. I don't think it matters what type of grease you use as long as it gets greased about every 10 hrs.