Buyer advice JD 450

[jlbrewer]

Hey guys, I've been reading up a lot here, and thanks for all the great info.

I am looking at a 1969 JD 450 with backhoe. The machine originally had rippers, and I get those too if I buy it. The engine seems strong and everything is functional. Some new hoses, some I will have to replace soon.

My main concern is the U/C. I took the measurements that were listed on here and found just a little less than 25.5", or about 50% wear. But from what I've read on the sprockets, the points indicate a good bit of wear. So my question is, what do you all think about the condition of the sprockets?

I am looking at this for farm use around my place. Probably 100 or so hours the first year, pretty rare after that. The price is at $9500 and he won't budge. I've known this guy a long time, and he's pretty savvy on heavy equipment, but I still believe in buyer beware. He has all of the manuals and showed me the adjustment point for the brake band.

Anyway, all opinions welcome. I personally feel like it's probably worth the price if I can get some good use before the U/C goes, but not worth it if I am going to immediately have to sink 5K on top of the asking price.

[Willyr]

Yes it can be used. Be careful on your turns, dont try to spin it on a dime too much. To me it looks as if it may have had pins and bushings with old sprockets. Those sprockets may work for a 100 hours. I would not work it on a stone pile. It looks as if he has power washed it in the past. Ask if he would be kind enough to wash off the undercarriage before you take more photos.

To me 9500 for a 450 isnt a bad price but I would not call it a good price either.

I dont see the owner having done much about the lubrication. Some of those joints look some what dry. No grease near the front idler

More pics would help us give you more info. Right and left of engine. Take your camera and try and get a picture of the underside of the tracks above the under carriage. Rear shot of tractor. Swing the backhoe to one side and let us see the joint. Extend all the cylinders out.

Just curious. Why did he need the hammer that is on the tracks?

[JWB Contracting]

I always pay extra attention when buying a machine with a hoe, as they do put a lot of stress on the machine, here's a couple of things I look for:

- how much play between the hoe hooks and the hoe, they can get sloppy and if so should be fixxed before doing lots of digging

- are the hoe hooks tight on the tractor

- check the mounting of each side frame section, more susceptible to broken frame mounting issues both to the cross member, bell housing and at the rear to the clutch housings

If you have all of the above issues, the next thing to look for us a cracked transmission case, tell take sign is milky tranny fluid. We've only been burnt once on a broken tranny case and once was painfully enough.

The undercarriage is not new but still usable in my books for intermittent use. I find a set of rock guards allows you run a set of undercarriage well past where you should. If your doing loader work, best to drop the hoe. Will result in less wear on your undercarriage and you'll be less likely to throw a track. The trick is to not cause additional wear to the rest of the undercarriage by having some poor components, such as using worn out sprockets with new rails. If everything is worn, no harm in running it untill near failure. Trick is to pull the machine out of service before it craters and causes damage. Keep on the look out for good used undercarriage, I try and keep some ahead for our working machines.

If its a 9550 hoe it looks like a good deal, if it's a 9300 I'd say about right. Really depends on the condition, number of oil leaks, etc.

If you buy it watch for hydraulic oil sales as when you blow a hoses mostly likely will take a pail at each occurance.

My power is out tonight, so lots of time to type long winded messages on the IPhone

[jlbrewer]

Thanks for the replies, those are exactly the kind I was looking for. I am going to look it over once more in the next few days before I make a final decision.

Lubrication- I'm not sure about the U/C lubrication, but I saw grease on all of the fittings for the loader arms, pivot points etc.

The hammer was there because we had to knock the pin out of the backhoe arm when he gave me a demo. It looked to be a transport pin that locked the main arm in the upward position to steady it when not in use. Appeared to me to be a factory made bracket, is that accurate?

I don't know which model the 'hoe is, I'll check on that. The seller did tell me he installed it on this machine, as it came factory with the rippers. The pin locations for the backhoe and rippers appear to be the same, solid pin on the bottom that sits in a "J" on the base, removable pin at the top, 4 point mount. I did notice a small bit of movement between the base and backhoe while he was digging, but it looked like just wear in the pin to me. The base did not move on the machine. I will inspect that area more closely for cracks.

As I said before, I think the price is borderline, too. I have just recently taken an interest in crawlers, and this one is just about on my doorstep, so to speak. But I have been looking at wheeled backhoes for a while, and most of the older JD's and Fords in my area are starting at $7-9k in pretty rough shape. I guess my thoughts are that this is a lot more machine for the same kind of money.

Thanks again for the input, and keep it coming.

[jlbrewer]

Well, just to let everybody know, I ended up backing away from this crawler. I went as far as to get the money out of the bank, but couldn't bring myself to part with nearly $10k for a potential money pit, not with us planning to build a house in the next year. I figure for $2-3k I can get all of my excavating done and let someone else worry about the equipment maintenance.

Thanks for the replies to my post.