New guy with a 450b

[camjeep3]

Saw this thread figured id update. I put the loader pointing down hill. Crawled under expecting the worst. Started looking how to remove the pans and saw a rubber hose loose. Reattached to the hard line and the leak was gone! Then my hydraulic cooler sprung a leak. It's repaired waiting to be re attached. Then I'll adjust the steering top off the fluids and do some clearing this winter. Then haul it home in the spring for some down time and preventative maint.

[77 Ford]

From my prospective, pulling the belly pan is like taking your loader nose off. It seems like a terrible idea and tons of work but once you do it you realize, wow that was not that bad.

Your pan won't hold oil there are holes in it for drain plugs and such. They will be slimy though. On the front pan I used a floor jack centered, pulled the bolts and held it steady on top and had my wife let the jack down. On the back pan, I held the front up with a floor jack took out the bolts let it down on a couple of jack stands went to the back and did the same. Then I just pulled it off the stands and drug it out from the rear. They are not nearly as heavy as I thought they would be.

[DrLoch]

Did you lift the loader or just crawl under there to get the pans off?

[77 Ford]

I did not lift the loader. I used my bars to lock the loader arms up, removed the nose and then I just crawled around under it. The rear bolts are kinda hard to get too because of the counterweight but very doable.

Including taking the nose off it probably took me an hour to get it tore down. I did have access to an impact but there is only a hand full of boats and like a previous poster said, they are well lubricated.......