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Ford 6500 Tractor Loader Backhoe

Chevy305

Chevy305

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Just acquired this old 1974 model Ford 6500 backhoe. It was parked 4-5 years due to a transmission pump leak issue. Now the owner was selling his house and needed it gone so made him a deal of if you can move it you can have it.

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Put a fresh battery in and after a bit of cranking she came to life. Hydraulics all work however there's a few hoses hanging on for dear life that need to be changed before I attempt to dig any holes.

Now the bad part is that indeed there's a bad transmission pump leak and to move it I had to keep dumping oil into it. I'm looking into fixing this right off the bat and having trouble finding seals for this. I bought the parts and service manual and the part numbers for all the seals, gaskets, and even the whole pump assembly are discontinued and backordered everywhere. Anyone know where I can find old Ford tractor parts?

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gonna be a lot of o rings, quad rings, might have to make gaskets.

cool machine, that's a money maker right there, hope you get it going
 
Not sure what kind of AG industry you have around you parts of the woods. But can tell you how I'd approach it.
Find a tractor repair shop. Go in and see if they can order parts for you.
Many times they will know of sources you just won't find online.

Second you might try to find a new holland dealer.

Ford combined with new holland. Then later case IH.
But I'm fairly certain case IH won't have what you want..
But if you can find a new holland dealer, they might be able to source your parts.
(In all fairness they would probably be using the same line of parts from a aftermarket tractor supplier that the repair shop would order)

3rd option.
Heavy duty truck parts.
Many times tractors ans heavy duty parts are not all that dissimilar.
Take the pump apart and figure out what you need to replace and walk into a a heavy duty truck place truck repair place.
Not talking about one of these fancy truck stops with a diesel shop.
But some place a bit off the beaten trail.
If you a see a couple dead semis out back your will get better service. Lol.

4th Option. McMaster Carr/msc/grainger.
Size up the o rings. Make new gaskets as needed.

Those fords are not all that rare.
Sure the ford's didn't have the staying power as an international or john deere. But there is no reason that tractor can't work again.
Now, how well it works.... Might be a different thread....
 
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beags86 said:
Not sure what kind of AG industry you have around you parts of the woods. But can tell you how I'd approach it.
Find a tractor repair shop. Go in and see if they can order parts for you.
Many times they will know of sources you just won't find online.

Second you might try to find a new holland dealer.

Ford combined with new holland. Then later case IH.
But I'm fairly certain case IH won't have what you want..
But if you can find a new holland dealer, they might be able to source your parts.
(In all fairness they would probably be using the same line of parts from a aftermarket tractor supplier that the repair shop would order)

3rd option.
Heavy duty truck parts.
Many times tractors ans heavy duty parts are not all that dissimilar.
Take the pump apart and figure out what you need to replace and walk into a a heavy duty truck place truck repair place.
Not talking about one of these fancy truck stops with a diesel shop.
But some place a bit off the beaten trail.
If you a see a couple dead semis out back your will get better service. Lol.

4th Option. McMaster Carr/msc/grainger.
Size up the o rings. Make new gaskets as needed.

Those fords are not all that rare.
Sure the ford's didn't have the staying power as an international or john deere. But there is no reason that tractor can't work again.
Now, how well it works.... Might be a different thread....
Click to expand...
That's basically the plan in my head. But thought I'd ask around first. Or maybe if anyone has any experience with these machines.
 
Find yourself a gear and seal supplier. We have one here who claims they can mic any seal and find it or an alternate to fit it.

Bought seals for the cavitation plate adjuster rod carrier, through the transom, on a 1968 Steven's flat bottom boat.
 
So did a little wrenching on the transmission pump. My biggest leak was between the pump and filter housing. It turns out that the previous owner tried to replace this gasket and installed it backwards! Go figure. It's a metal gasket and it only had a small mark in it from being backwards so I flipped it around and solved 1 leak. The other is the pressure regulator is blowing past some orings. Lucky for me, the one part I did manage to find was a whole pressure regulator assembly. Some new old stock found on eBay. I'll swap that on next, then do a fluid and filter change.

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For reference: Also anyone looking for the pressure regulator D2NN7A135A it comes the oil pump shaft seal installed which is D2NN7R195A which as you can see in the photo compares to National 450567R
 
Got the pump and pressure regulator assembly removed and there's definitely some sealing issues.

The pump shaft seal was installed wrong and it's blown out. This is the same seal that comes pre installed on the regulator assembly. It's not supposed to be installed on pump itself.

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Also one of the o rings is the wrong size and is a little loose in it's hole.

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The good news is that I was able to pull enough info together to find all the gaskets and orings online between ebay and Messicks. So hopefully in a week or two I'll have it all back together with all new seals, new filter, and fluid.
Also the pump itself seems to be in good shape and has a 2010 date code on it which is interesting.
 
Sounds like someone had been in there already and didnt make things any easier on you.
 
JoshHefnerX said:
Sounds like someone had been in there already and didnt make things any easier on you.
Click to expand...
Yes I'm told the previous owner tried to fix the leak by replacing a seal and it blew out immediately. The seal was blown but that's looks to be a combo of install it in the wrong spot and doing it ham fisted.

My hope is that there isn't damage to the clutch packs because the pressure has been so low to the trans.
 
Good news. Got all the gaskets and seals and got the pump assembly back together with the new gaskets and orings. I did an oil change on the transmission and installed a pressure gauge on the pump to verify pressure as mentioned on the service manual. Unfortunately the battery was dead so I guess there's some kind of draw with the machine off. So I put in another battery that I had and she fired up. She drives! The pressure is around 250-270psi which is right where it should be according to the manual.

Now that I know it runs and moves under it's own power, time to tackle a few other issues with it. Next things on the list are figure out why the steering is so sketchy, remove the massive mouse nest from the heater in the cab, greasing all the fittings, changing out some very questionable hydro hoses, new fuel filter, and fix the loader combo valve leaks as that spews oil.
 
Awesome!

You’ll get er figured out. Big following on old ford tractors , I’m might be getting an old Ford N 2 did a bit of research and I get almost anything for it of Amazon of all places.
 
Finally got around to giving this machine a little more love. Changed the fuel filter and it has to be the worst filter I've ever seen...

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That was a whole lot of rusty water in there. I'm surprised the engine even ran! I ran the fuel from the tank until it came clean. There's still a small amount of trash that I can see in the tank but for that I'll just keep an extra fuel filter on hand. I poured in 5 gals of fresh diesel with some injector lube and cleaner.
I also changed the air filter which was pretty dirty. Now it runs a bit smoother and I can tell the engine is much happier. I greased just about all the pivot points and put it to use with some minor bucket work. Now as I use the machine more it seems happier and operation has improved.

I figured out the steering too. It was mostly just air in the hydraulics. I lifted the front end with the bucket and and worked the steering back and forth until it felt consistent. That was a massive improvement but the king pins have a ton of play and the tie rod is bent. And the power steering pump still leaks. It probably won't be a road going machine anyway, it's good enough for now.

I ordered a cheap set of gauges for it so I can see what the engine is doing because the only thing on the dash that works is the tach. I also ordered several hoses for the front bucket. The backhoe hoses will need to be taken off and brought to a hydraulic shop as they are more specific.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the machine so far and my kids love it too. They begged me for a backhoe ride this morning and so of course I had to oblige them.
 
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More progress.

After running it a number of times now the crusty injector return lines started leaking so I replaced those.
It also has a bad drain if you leave the battery connected too long so rather than fixing that I just installed a battery disconnect switch and ran new battery cables as the old ones were rough.

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I didn't grab a picture as I didn't want to touch my phone in the process but I removed the heater panel in the roof of the cab as it smelled terrible and shit would drop on you as drove over bumps. I definitely opened Pandora's box and as the ENTIRE heater cavity was packed full of years of mouse nest. I filled a whole trash can with everything I removed. Unfortunately there isn't much saving the cover as the years of mouse sludge that accumulated have rusted the sheet metal in spots and even after scrubbing and power washing I still can't get it clean. Plus I found the heater hoses cut and the fan motor is completely missing so I'm tossing the what's left of the heater assembly. I followed the removal up with power washing the whole inside of the machine and which improved things for sure.

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82355 said:
Are you going to use it for snow removal?

Martin
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Potentially only to push the banks back. I still have my '78 GMC plow truck that will serve as the main plow rig. The issue is that the backhoe is 2wd which would be okay if my dirt driveway doesn't turn into an ice rink like it usually does.
 
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