As I have posted in the past, I like old vehicles. Apparently, not only do I like old rustbuckets falling apart for cheap, I also like them heavy. 14,000 Lbs heavy.
Before your very eyes is a fresh Ford 555B Backhoe. No, I don’t need it; no, it isn’t part of the minimalist lifestyle; and yes, I love this heavy metal mess.
I picked this piece of machinery up for an astonishing $5,000. I say astonishing, because if you search online, most people are trying to sell backhoes in this condition or worse for closer to $10,000. This is the only vehicle I have ever bought that actually ran when purchased.
So let’s talk specifications before getting into the repairs this old girl needed. The 555B sports a 3.0L 3-cylinder diesel motor cranking out around 62HP. It weighs around 14,000 Lbs as already mentioned. The front bucket can pick up roughly 2 tons. The front bucket on this model is actually a so-called 4-way bucket that makes dumping dirt or even grappling objects easier. It has a 2 ft excavator bucket installed on the rear. It is also 4 wheel drive.
It has an oddball transmission: it is a 4-speed manual with a torque converter like an automatic would have. Suffice it to say, it is clutchless; simply select the gear you want with the manual shifter, then move the Forward/Reverse lever to engage the transmission. Then, it drives like an automatic car in a parking lot, never gearing up on its own. Its really quite strange, and I didn’t like it at first, but it makes total sense as a backhoe operator. Moving dirt from one place to another, it makes flipping between forward and reverse easy with no clutching required. Though I cannot ever think of a good reason to be in 4th gear in reverse. That sounds suicidal.
The rear of the machine is super cool, especially if I can get it all working. You’ll notice in the picture that the 555B has upright stabilizers instead of the traditional kind that sort of tripod out from the machine. This allows the hoe to work in tighter places than most. Furthermore, the excavator arm is sliding! You can actually reposition the whole arm without moving the vehicle. How cool! Mine doesn’t work. Yeah, I need to figure that out.
Repairs
If you’ve read any of this website, you know I don’t buy actually working vehicles. Its like a fetish for cheap junk that must be satisfied. As such, the hoe needed a number of things.
Easy Stuff
- It needed a battery. It takes one of these huge industrial sized batteries that’s about twice the size of a normal car battery. Twice as heavy too. Because of course it is. On the bright side, it cost about half of what car battery costs. Weird.
- Tires. One front tire was shot, the other was on its way out, but the rears were good. I had to call a mobile tire service to come out and install the tires, which they did with great difficulty. The lug nuts were rusted to the hubs. In fact, I busted 2 breaker bars trying to do it myself, that’s when I decided I needed help. Not cheap, but I didn’t have much choice.
Hard Stuff
Yeah, the easy stuff list is short. Get ready for a pretty miserable excursion into the wonderful world of dirty old diesels.
Fuel
I said the machine ran. Yeah, kind of. It died soon after running it for the first time, as if it wasn’t getting any fuel. My fuel experiences with this tractor have been nothing short of cataclysmic.
Firstly, the fuel in the tank was filthy. The fuel filter was ancient and practically stopped up. It took many hours, but after cleaning the tank with every dangerous chemical known to man, replacing the petcock in the tank, changing out the fuel filter twice, and bleeding the fuel system an embarrassing amount of times, the big triple runs without any hitches. Oh, I also needed a gasket for the injector pump, but that was no big deal; except for both the post office and FedEx losing my package! Twice!
The Transmission
I swear, I am marked for transmission issues. If it isn’t a busted front bearing, its a leak in a tranny hose, if it isn’t that it’s a gear shifter jam-up in the Kubota. Well, the 555B blew a hose in the most obnoxious place it possibly could have. The hose was maybe 4 inches long, but it was ancient and blew the transmission lifeblood all over the place. Luckily, I noticed before I did any real damage to the transmission.
I had to, with a tiny cutting wheel, carefully remove that piece of hose in the tightest place on the hoe and graft in a new hose using traditional hose clamps instead of those satanic factory quick-connects.
After all that, it drank about 5 gallons of generic tractor transmission fluid and it has been happy ever since.
Hydraulics
All the hoses close to the operator were in detestable condition. They were actually fraying like an old rope. I had a local hydraulic expert make some new ones for me just for safety’s sake. I really didn’t like the thought of blowing a hose of hot hydraulic fluid into my face while operating. This would be considered and easy fix if the fittings holding the old hoses on weren’t so incredibly rusted. It took a while breaking them loose.
Off the Wall Repairs
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The thermostat housing leaked. Being a good boy, I figured I ought to remove it and replace it since it had a pin hole in the casting itself, not just a gasket leak. That’s when I discovered I would have to take apart most of the front of the tractor to do so. Instead I mixed up some JB Weld, slathered the housing with it, and called it a day. It hasn’t leaked since.
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The loader arm almost fell off! This happened as I was repositioning while digging up a massive stump. When I dropped the front bucket to lift up the front tires, I noticed a large bolt sitting on my hood. I then noticed a huge 2 inch wide or so pin trying to walk out of place from holding the loader arm to the tractor. I quit what I was doing, bought some red threadlocker, slammed the pin back in with a hammer, coated the giant bolt with the threadlocker, and cinched it down with my big adjustable wrench. Hopefully, that won’t ever happen again.
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The brake seals on the transmission leaked. I’m not explaining the brakes, but they live in the transaxle and the operating rods must pass through these rubber plugs on the transaxle. They leaked badly, so I had to replace them or lose a bunch of transmission fluid.
To Be Repaired
What Electrical System?
I haven’t mentioned so far that I suspect this machine was vandalized. For no apparent reason, almost every wire on this old girl has be cut. It doesn’t charge itself, no gauges work, and none of the niceties it once had work. Only the starter works, and nothing else. This backhoe is a candidate for a total rewire, but I want to have some fun with it before I go to all that effort. As a mechanical diesel, it really only needs electricity to start. After that, it is purely mechanical.
Leaky Cylinders
There are a few leaky hydraulic cylinders on the machine but most are neglible. There is one however that pours like a keg at Oktoberfest: one of the 4-way bucket cylinders. Luckily, that is hardly a mission critical cylinder, but it would be nice if it worked.
Cool Stuff I’ve Done with the Hoe
We have a lot of roads in our woodland, and one of those roads doesn’t drain well. As my inaugural backhoe job, I took the hoe down to that road and deepened the gully so the rainwater would flow off the road rather than sit on it.
I dug a deep and wide hole to bury some stuff that I didn’t know what to do with. Don’t tell anyone.
I dug out a huge stump courtesy of hurricane Helene. While I have broken the stump free from the ground, it is simply too heavy to pick up. My next plan is to burn it and cover up my big mess.
Cool Stuff I Plan to do with my Hoe
I need to build up the firing range backstop. Its been there for a long time now, and erosion is getting the better of it. I’ll steal some dirt from a few mounds nearby in the woods and dump it on top so shooting is safer.
Dig out any trees or terrain I don’t like. This beast can seriously dig; couple that with its 2 ton capacity front bucket that I can attach huge forks to, and I can do just about anything.
Slowly clear out more land as needed. While not a proper bulldozer, the hoe is still no slouch for land clearing. I can easily push down small trees, and I can dig up big ones.
The Story So Far
I bought this pile of junk back in July and I have had a bad time with repairs, but it seems that it might be worth the trouble after all. It’s a monster that I can imagine using for years to come. With some land to maintain and modify to my heart’s content, I’m sure the 555B will get used.