Re: 580b Case Backhoe Engine Serial Number
Argimiro Krishnamoorthy
Didn't post when I got it started.. Had a bunch going on day before yesterday but it was really warm.. just thought I'd give it another half hour of attention or so. Pretty odd actually. I finally found a good set of used rears on craigslist about an hour and a half away, cheap enough that I was willing to gamble on buying them and not knowing if it was ever going to run or not.. Called the guy, told him I wanted them but it would be a week or so before I could get them, and he was good with that. That next morning I got to really questioning how far I was going to go with this thing before I knew if I had anything or not.. there may as well be NO radiator, all but the bottom 1/4th of the thing just pours water out of it just when filling it... So that's gone. I was seeing $500+ as the price.. and finally found a source for about $310 last night, so that was a little better. Anyhow, got in there Tuesday late morning after doing some other chores, put a fresh battery in it, grabbed my can of go juice, cranked and sprayed and prayed. About the fourth try of about 8-10 revs, I saw a little puff or two of black. I let the starter cool for about ten minutes while I did something else, and got on it again, about the third try she coughed a couple of times and was "running" with the starter is the best way I can describe it. It wasn't just cranking, it was hitting, just not enough to sustain itself once you got off the starter. I let her sit again, about five minutes later, I hit the starter, no spray, and it took off like it had been running all it's life without ever being parked. Never once sputtered at all. I shut it down pretty quick as bad as I hated to, and filled the hydraulics up on it so the pump wasn't running dry and filled the shuttle and diff. to full level. Cranked right back up. I didn't want to run it long with no radiator, but I ran it for probably 3 minutes, took all of ten seconds to bleed the hydraulics. All boom, bucket and loader functions are 100%, the swing pedals are a little stiff to push right now, but when you get them mashed down the boom swings full speed. Loader controls are perfect. Throttle is responsive, throttle pedal is good, which surprised me. I figured it would be frozen solid or at the very least really stiff. Not the case. I left it for a couple of hours, then when I had some time, came back, cranked it, picked the front off the ground with the loader, picked the rear up off the jackstands with the stabilizers, (remember, one tire is off the rim and I removed both wheels for ease of working on things). With it up off the ground, I functioned checked the trans. Gears all engage smoothly, F/R shuttle works like a champ. Clutch pedal feels good and axle quits spinning when you press it in, which is pretty good but then again no weight on the hubs to make it want to keep turning. Real test will be when I get the tires from the guy next weekend and get them mounted, and put the weight of the machine on the ground and try to drive it out. Think I'll wait on the $300 radiator and $300 hydraulic cylinder seal kits until I see all that work, then I'm all in. I've been told the trans on those old Case machines is pretty easy to please so I'm not terribly scared at this point. If I can get the major seal leaks stopped, I can deal with a seeper here and there for now, after harvest maybe I can get the rest done, and slowly start replacing the worst hoses first (providing they make it long enough for me to space them out.) The best idea I had in this project was knowing that it would be a here and there project, with little attention devoted to it steadily, so.. I put it in a barn to do the work so as not to be in the way of any other work over the three months it was in there or so. The worst idea I had on this project was to put it in a barn to do the work. I'm not talking a barn with a smooth concrete floor or heck, even a smooth dirt floor. The best golfer couldn't make par from 15 feet in there if he had three stroked to do it in.. and I had to split the thing to get a new ring gear in it before I could even begin to figure the engine out. Splitting was no problem. Getting it back together by myself was nothing short of a miracle I'm sure. Thank goodness for front end loaders with long extension bars... Although the bar looked like a recurve bow with that engine and front end of that backhoe hanging from it when I tried to put it back together.. (no jack was going to roll on that uneven dirt floor.) So far, I have about $1,000 tied up in the thing, including the hoe itself. Looks like rad and seals, & tires will have me at another grand.. and I should have a $2,000 backhoe with 3800 hours on it with no more apparent problems than a $6-$8,000 hoe would have. It was a gamble, but I gave less than scrap for it, so there was always that route if it didn't show signs of life. I just have a soft heart for A: someone's junk and B: for trying to do things when people say it can't be done. I've been spraying hundreds of acres the past 5 years with a 220 spra coupe that the head had been warped on, they replaced the head with a NOS one, couldn't get it to start and run, they took it to a shop, they had it a month and never got it started either. I was told by many to stay away from it, that it would never run again. Dad and I looked at it, and the physics that it cranked freely and seemed to have compression said that it had to at least be ABLE to run.. so I offered the guy the money for his new head back for the machine. He was tickled to get it. Some crafty electronic troubleshooting and some NAT help that told me $80 oreilly auto parts electronics were the same as the $600 VW ones, and two months later it was purring like a kitten. I think everyone around here thought that was a fluke, so I got em all riled up again when I drug the old backhoe into the barn with the intention of driving it out. Maybe one day they'll all learn. hehe
When I get the tires on it and get it pulled out I will get some. None too pretty right now, not much rust, mainly on the backhoe portion, the sheet metal is just filthy from sitting. Needs a can of oven cleaner/engine degreaser on the block and a whole bunch of powerwashing.. probably won't put the sheet metal back on until I break down and buy a rad for it and have all that buttoned up.. needs seat cushions as well, the frame is still good, pedestal still lifts and swivels as it should, so a lawnmower seat should do for my uses.
The Case 580B Backhoe features a four-cylinder, diesel-powered engine with a maximum horsepower of 56. The backhoe has a maximum digging depth of approximately 14 feet and a maximum loading height of approximately 11 feet. The 580B also features a loader bucket with a capacity of approximately 1 cubic yard.
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