Ford 540 vs 445... Now 545 D

[Ljohnsaw]

If you end up wanting a quick tach that accepts standard bobcat attachments let me know there's a company that makes them.

ohhh, and btw, a quick attach on the fel will bring a smug smile to your face every time you change attachents.

Can you guys post some picture of your quick attach setups?  Newoodguy78, can you send me some info on who you used?
Thanks!

[Andries]

Does your setup look like this?

[Andries]

Weld on a 'universal skid steer mounting plate' onto the back of the bucket.
I got a pro to weld mine - I didn't trust my little buzzbox welder, or myself, to hang 5000 lbs on that.

[Andries]

Pin the Quick Attach adapter to the FEL arms.

[Andries]

This is the tag on my adapter.



I'd estimate that model # on mine will fit on yours.

[Andries]

It'll be easy to switch from cleaning up cedar bark,



to moving, gently now . . .. a few canoes around.


 
:D ;D :D

[Ljohnsaw]

Does your setup look like this?

Yes.  I was thinking the adapter plate would pin to the bucket - not be so permanent!
Do you also have a set of forks on a quick attach plate?  Are they adjustable?

[Andries]

Forks in use.
The forks are manual for width adjustment, if thats what you're asking?
Did you get the PTO control fix worked up?

[Ljohnsaw]

Manual adjust forks are fine, that's what's on the SkyTrak.  Guess I'll have to call or email them for pricing.  Going up on Thursday to burn brush and tinker with the 545.

[Andries]

Heard about some barnburner storms from family in Victoria - take care and have some fun!

[newoodguy78]

Andries beat me to it as far as pictures. The quick tach here is the same brand looks identical but the model is QA-FO22. I ended up cutting the brackets and pin holes off our bucket and welding the female side of the plate to the bucket. Adding the quick tach plate and getting forks has been a huge time saver and worked out extremely well highly recommend doing it. 
Andries I like that grapple 👍

[Ljohnsaw]

Looks like ATI is a Pennsylvania / East Coast thing.  No distributor out here.  Might still check with them for price + shipping to see if they are competitive with local supply.

One thing I noticed on my tractor is when I have the Gannon raised up, it drifts down just a little bit and the auto control brings it back up.  I can almost not see it move.  Its more of a feeling that the back end of the tractor drops a tad as it raises up.  That Gannon weighs in a little over 1,000 pounds.  So sitting there at idle, it sort of takes a breath every 4 or 5 seconds.

Heading up tomorrow to do brush burn and play around on the tractor - install a light bar up on the headliner, add some side view mirrors, add some spiral wrap on the hoses, measure for the drive line cover and measure for the 3pt stabilizer bars.

[Andries]

The forks and the grapple are on the loader most of the time.
The bucket goes on for the winter to deal with snow.
The grapple is made by Erskine in MN. Its good for picking up all sorts of round stuff.

[Andries]

Stabilizer bar.


 
Axle attachment pin.





 
All installed.

[newoodguy78]

Do you recall where those stabilizer bars are from? Really like the design, had ones like it on a tractor we sent down the road earlier this year.

[btulloh]

Those telescoping stabilizer bars work well and make life better. I've seen that type on a lot of newer tractors of several brands. That same type is on my new kubota, and I know that new holland and mahindra have them as well. I think they originated on large JD tractors. In any case, they're well worth having and probably available as third party upgrades. 

Telescoping ends are also showing up on lower lift arms and make positioning to hook up an implement much easier and faster.

In any case, these new stabilizers are a big improvement over the old turnbuckles and can probably be retrofitted on any tractor. 

[Andries]

@newoodguy78 I think that Messicks supplied them.
The 3pt on the 545D is Category II hardware. I used to have a 2000 lb chunk of concrete hanging back there. Some serious junk in the trunk, as I needed to heft around some long and chunky logs. The first stabilisers were for a Ford (9n? 😆) and bent to pretzels pretty dern quick.
The ones shown above are holding up well.

[thecfarm]

My NH tractor has those bars. I have never adjusted them. Most times the 3 pt winch is behind it. I use to have a bush hog for it, but got one for the wife's tractor so I don't have to take the winch off.

[Ljohnsaw]

Got my burn piles going (wet wood vs. propane torch).  On to the tractor.  I started with the oil.  The rear diff was very low.  I think I put in about 1.5 gallons.  Transmission was good.  Loader tank was good.  Then I did something dumb today.  The power steering also uses the same oil.  I pull the cap and I can see the gears down there and no oil.  So I start filling.  Must have dumped a gallon in there - man that's a big power steering pump!  Then I notice oil bubbling out of the engine dip stick - Doooh!  Power steering pump is on the other side - so I filled that up, about a cup low.

So I pulled the dip stick and put a pan under to catch about a gallon of oil.  I was planning on changing the engine oil - eventually.  Now I need to get a new oil filter and some engine oil.

Next up is the side view mirrors and the front light bar.  Not too eventful and got it done.


 
Next I pulled the instrument panel to check the bulbs.  Well, my tractor is a bit newer and didn't use the bulb type mentioned above.  Uses the more modern flat glass blade bulbs.  Visually, they all looked fine so put everything back.  Must be fuses.  You have to pull the hood off to get to the fuse holder - someone just grabbed whatever was handy and use 1/4-20 grade 8 bolts :

I pulled one fuse at a time (11 total) and replaced 7.  Do you see anything wrong with these?


 Six of them have a little copper wire wrapped around the blades... :  Still no joy on the dash lights.  My goal is to get the torque lock light working.  There is also a 4 button membrane switch to control the dash light, head light, hazard flashing light and road lights.  That doesn't work, either.  Something to do on another day.

I bought 3 sizes of yellow spiral wrap for the hydraulic hoses.  Here is the new left steer hoses wrapped:


 I thought the yellow would look good with the tractor.  I had time and did the 4 bucket hoses and 4 lift hoses (1" wrap).  When I was up front, I notice a little work was done on the bucket linkage and evidence of some hard use/abuse:


 The right side was replaced and a bit of bent up bracket on the bucket.

I measured for the drive line cover.  52" overall length.  On yours, is it a one long cover, two short ones or halves split down the middle or some combination?  There are mount flanges at the front and rear and nothing obvious in the middle of the span.

One more thing - the PTO can be turned (I feel the transmission turning) with the engine off no matter which way the PTO lever is set.  So that means the brake is bad?  Moving the PTO lever, I do hear a snap-like noise, like that of a ball detent.  I didn't want to run the engine with too much of the wrong oil in it so I couldn't do the 2x4 test.  Maybe with enough oil in the rear diff it might fix it?? :-\

[Ljohnsaw]

I think that Messicks supplied them.

I only see a kit for a Kubota on their site (Kubota grey, not yellow).  I watched the installation video and I'm wondering if the hole on the tractor end is big enough for a Cat II pin.  They actually installed it with a bolt and self-locking nut.  I'd be concerned that would waller out the bracket on the tractor.  Not cheap! $194 + shipping for the kit.

[newoodguy78]

 

 
This is the guard under our 445 , suspect yours would be the same. Wish you were closer I'd give you this one, just made one good 445 out of two and this is left over. Might be worth considering a piece of 6" schedule 35 pipe cut in half?
Also not sure if you're aware but there's a filter in that power steering pump. Napa 1323 is the number for ours. To change just take the lines off and bolt out of the rear the reservoir comes right off . The filter should come with a new oring for resealing the reservoir. 

[Andries]

You had mentioned the Gannon box was moving up and down by itself - that could be because the rear diff was down one and a half gal? Did it still do that after the top up?
Here's hoping you didn't crank up the diesel after you had topped up the 'steering pump' ! . . . that would've sucked.
Steering hose covers and lights look good, nice work. Mine needs a pair of lights on the front, situated low and in tight, so that there isn't a huge shadow from the bucket when stacking up snow piles. The dark season is soon on us, up here in the North country
The drive line cover is made of two halves with straps welded to hold them apart. There's a grease zerk  about halfway along that drive shaft which is hard to spot, maybe for a bearing hanger? Other hiding spots for zerks are the two on the u joints front the front main shaft to the fel  pump. Another is the front axle centre pivot and then there's two underneath the rear most pins at bottom of the fel uprights. There's so many grease points on that machine - it's a bit like hunting for Easter eggs. 
The bucket pin brackets look a bit abused for sure. @newwoodguy78 said that he had cut them off to weld on the the QuickAttach plate. It's an even split in my mind, either way you do it, but it makes me think that the pins and zerks at the bucket took a matching beating. Some of mine were snapped off by stones/concrete spilling over the top of the bucket. 
I found that the more I crawled all over the machine, the more I liked it and felt like I owned it.

[Andries]

Just saw the post from newood, and the drive shaft and cover look the same as mine. Funny looking thing, and that one in the photo looks like it's seen a few rocks. Good thing it was there! 

[Ljohnsaw]

You had mentioned the Gannon box was moving up and down by itself - that could be because the rear diff was down one and a half gal? Did it still do that after the top up? Here's hoping you didn't crank up the diesel after you had topped up the 'steering pump' ! . . . that would've sucked.

I was going to take care of all the levels before I fired it up again to check the Gannon.  Sooo, no, I didn't fire it up yet.

I have a heavy metal plate from an electrical panel cover.  Probably 3/16" thick.  Thinking of slicing it up for the cover.  I also have some sections of pipe - I'll have to take a look and see what the diameter is on them.  The brackets on the tractor are 5" outside to outside where it bolts on.

[chevytaHOE5674]

Sounds like a worn PTO brake. But if you are ambitious enough to split it to replace it would be silly not to pull the clutch pack apart and see what it looks like and check for warped and worn disc's.

The 3pt drifting sounds like worn seals on the lift cylinder. Very common for tractors that see a lot of 3pt use with heavy loads. Removing the top cover off the rear axle isn't too bad a job if you want. 

I'll second replacing the PS filter and changing the oil. Cheap PM. 

1.5 gallons low on the rear axle isn't good but the overall capacity is like 6.5 gallons IIRC so 1.5 gallons isn't going to fix any issues IME.

Are for the quick attach I've done a few and always cut the ears off the bucket and put the plate right on the back of the bucket. Then use the ears off the bucket to weld to the quick attach for the tractor side. My goal is to add as little length as possible over stock as the farther you move out the less you can lift.