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jdemaris
01-24-2005 20:01:36
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Re: JD 350B Reverser Bolts in reply to JSherman66, 01-24-2005 14:06:25
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We fixed lots of them at our Deere dealership. It was a common problem with 350s. What causes it originally, from what I've seen, is the first time the reverser has to be pulled, and then put back in, the bolts never get tightened properly - it's darn near impossible. We had many discussions about this with Deere engineers. When the 350s were assembled at the factory, the reversers and transmissions were bolted together first and then installed as a unit. This way there was better access to the fasteners for tightening. Not the case once it's in the crawler. I had many opportunities to remove a reverser for the first time on a fairly new machine. It was near impossible to remove the bolts since they were so tight. A conventional box-end wrench would usually strip, bend, or break before the bolt would come loose - and you cannot get a socket on it. We made several types or wrenchs, some with chains hooked them, but often we had to heat the bolt heads cherry red and ruin them in order to get them out for the first time. If we had some way of putting the crawlers high in the air we might have had better success, but that was not the case. We usually had crawlers on blocks, maybe two feet off the ground. That does not give you enough room and leverage with a 1 1/8" wrench for the bottom bolts. On the top, the nuts on the studs were not a problem. Now with your problem, there are two studs with nuts on top, and two bolts on the bottom - so four fasteners all together. They all can be helicoiled once - but . . . if it's been loose for awhile - it has worse problems. There are two locating dowels between the two cases. If it's been run with the bolts loose and/or stripped, the dowel holes will be egg-shaped. And, once that happens, there's not a bolt in the world that will hold that thing together properly. We has a special reclaiming jig for boring the holes and installing oversize dowels. Also, a few times we sent cases to a machine shop, had the holes welded and rebored. Very exspensive proposition. Sometimes it was cheaper to install new -or good used replacement cases - or sometimes we'd scrap the crawler and part it out. Also, as the other guy mentioned, the sideframes are usually broken but can easily be fixed. They will keep on breaking though unless you get those cases tight.
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