New member. 77 JD350C

[Eurotrash]

ive gotten tired of running the trails in the forest behind my place on the quad and dirt bikes. Decided rather then wasting $1500 on a renting a machine for a week, I'd see if i could get someone to trade my old bmw e30 for a smaller dozer or skidsteer. This way i could cut an actual track and still have something more then a track to show for it when i was done. After a few let downs i got an email asking if i was interested in an old john deer dozer that had been ran dry of diesel "two" years prior. I later learned that two and six are apearently the same number. Ive never delt with anything diesel but after spending much of my 29 years tinkering and putting big engines in things they dont belong (last one was a ford 302 in an e30), I Agreed i'd go try to get it primed and if it everything worked we would trade.

Got there about noon sat with my dad. After looking over the machine we noticed it missing a starter soleniod. No big deal just engage the bendix by hand and arc the starter so we can get it primed. Got air free fuel to the injector pump and spent the another hour and a half trying to get fuel past the ip. Gave up for the day and headed home off the mountain the machine was sitting on where i had some cell service so i could do some research. Turns out all power runs through the soleniod. Cool now we know. I get ahold of the guy who was gonna help me transport it and he agrees to head up with me sun morning with thd spare soleniod from his skidder.

Get up there sunday morning and have her running within 5 min but its super rough because all the injector lines are leaking after screwing with the lines the day before. Get it running long enough to realize it wont turn left. Pass.
I sat on it for a week and talked to a few heavy equipment buddies who all told me to go pick it up. Fast forward to the following fri afternoon and shes on the truck headed home. Sat morning cleaned the lines cranked them down and she purred. Realized it pushed fine under load and didnt wander left to right. Did a bit more research and realized the clutch was in fact stuck. Stuck her against a tree. Pulled the lever and popped the clutch a few times. Broker her free and ive now got myself a $3000 jd350c with 2650 hours and what i think is an ok undercarrage. Tensioner is missing the cover on the left side and both tensioners are super pitted. Ill be getting a grease gun and lubing the undercaggage back up then hitting the back forty hopefully this week.

As it sat in the field



Finally home

[whiteclipse16]

Pretty cool story and a pretty good looking machine.

You better post pics of the track and the bikes.

[77 Ford]

Your spring is broken in at least 2 places, you will probably want to address that pretty quick. My spring was like that and I kept throwing tracks..

[Eurotrash]

Your spring is broken in at least 2 places, you will probably want to address that pretty quick. My spring was like that and I kept throwing tracks..

Ya figured. I think my top idlers are bad too. Guessing track has to be removed along with pully and tensioner to do the spring?

[shinnery]

The two rollers under the broken spring have problems also, they should be in alignment with each other. It looks like the left one is out of position.
Bryce

[Eurotrash]

Hoping to make it through the track build as thats the entire point of picking up the machine, then pull the tracks and replace/repair as required. If theres anything else please feel free to point it out. Im taking notes at this point. I literally have no idea what im doing with this thing as far as maintance goes.

Pushed a little bit of dirt today. Im def going to have to borrow the skid steer to do alot of the lip work and berms. Even with the baby dozer these woods get way tighter then i expected and its hard to get the right angle of attack sometimes. Wish i had a bit more power and weight for traction but so far the ol girls done most that ive asked it.

Anyways started roughing things in and clearing some of the trees/underbrush. Seems anything over about 8-10" is gonna take alot of digging. Taking things slow and trying to be as easy as i can on the old machine so i dont throw a track.













Also the current stable. Quads mine and the rest are buddies bikes. My wife has a crf150 also but guy that owns the 300r is currently using it to teach his sife and daughter how to ride.


Just for kicks some of the old trail system
http://s19.photobucket.com/user/87a2cru ... 6.mp4.html

[Eurotrash]

Also discovered the alt isnt charging. Guess ill have to tear into that later. For now ill just throw it on the trickle charger between uses.

[whiteclipse16]

Looks like you're making good progress. Things are making a little more sense now that I see you're doing more of a GNCC style track, I was initially thinking MX style.
Before you go digging into the alternator too far, put a voltmeter across the battery terminals when the dozer is running. If you're reading around 14V or 14.4V maybe (the readings vary) then the alternator is working, you just have a bad gauge.
Make sure the meter is on V - (for voltage DC).

[Eurotrash]

Pulled the terminal while running. It dies. Ive gotta double check that im getting anything out of the alternator to make sure its not something with the soleniod wiring.

Its gonna be what i call a "woods track". Plan is to criss cross the hill as many times as possible (3 actually) using the hill for step ups and tables. I wanna design a couple rhythm sections where you can quad the two tables (think two smaller tables at the top of the hill) with like a 80-100ft hit if youve got the skill. The landings and berms at the bottom are in a valley on either side so it should allow for some higher speed bowl turns for those that will need the speed. Theres gonna be a very wide variaty of skill levels so everything has to be a table or very rollable for the beginners(got a 9 month old baby girl that will need to be able to roll around on the 50 when the time comes) i wanna keep as many of the trees and underbrush as possible. As much as i love the wide open tracks it seems like a waste to have this dense forest and clear cut it for dirtbikes. This way i can also maintain some of the trail system also.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Alternators require voltage from the battery (via the regulator) to the field coils to produce output. No perm magnets like in a generator. So, losing power by yanking the battery only proves you don't have a generator at this point. The voltmeter will tell.

Stan

[Eurotrash]

Well. Bad news. Got what i think is a leaking seal between the left sprocket and the final or clutch housing which ever that is(im new to this and have no manuals for exact ref of parts and their location yet). I figure its between about a gal and a gal and a half/hour. Not awesome but i can deal with it and just watch it til the track is done. It'll cost me like $35/hou in hy-gaurd but thats cheaper for 200/hour for a rental. The fluid is also a bit milky.

Found that the right top idler is def seized and has been for a long time. The top is completely flat and the inboard edge has clearenced itself by about and 1/8". Looks like they just ran the track super tight in an attemp to keep it off the idler as much as possible. I figure its been used this much the way it is so ill watch it closely and again pull it when im done cutting the track in.

Prob just push the smaller trees and under brush and leave as much of the dirt work for the skidsteer as possible now. Id pull it into the shop and fix everything first but i really dont have the money to spend on a new top idler and spring. Plus whatever is leaking at the sprocket.


I did grab a bunch of new button fittings, cornhead grease and have the grease gun adaptor on order. Also did a new fuel filter and she runs a bit smoother now.

The clearanced/flat top right idler


The front right idler alignment


Left rock gaurds riding the bottom of the track



The lovely mess the sprocketseal is leaving me




I feel like the love hate is coming on real fast. Im sure its only gonna come faster once its time to remove the 40year old tracks and bolts that come along with them. Def wish i wouldof known to look a bit closer at the idlers when i went to look at this thing. Oh well now i know.

[Eurotrash]

On a brighter note

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

The rock guards riding on the pads tells me the rollers are shot. With the chains that tight, they will wreck the final drive bearings. Might be why it leaks oil.

It certainly appears to need a full undercarriage job. I hope it holds out long enough for you to get the main job you bought it for done. What would scare me is the issue of getting it back out of the woods should it catastrophically fail.

As far as terminology goes, that is the final drive housing. The steering clutch pack is at the top. It drives a pinion gear, which drives a bull gear, which drives the output shaft. That is attached to the hub, which the sprocket is attached to.

Stan

[whiteclipse16]

That's frustrating about the undercarriage. On the plus side, at least the engine and trans seem to be running good, so I think that's a big plus. I know what you mean about the love hate thing, I put all new seals in mine when I redid it and things still leak, drives me crazy.
Keep your eyes open for another 350 that isn't running but has a good undercarriage. I'm pretty sure you can still get most of the undercarriage parts for the 350's.

[Eurotrash]

The side thats riding is actually not the tight side. The sprocket is misaligned to the outboard side on that left track. Everything else other then the riding lines up and works ok.

The right side seems to have everything misaligned. The more i dig into the machine the more i want to finish what i need to and either trade it off for a skidsteer or sell it cheap before i wind up with 10k worth of undercarriage rebuild. If that happens it bound to sit for another 6 years till i can afford it.

Would greasing the crap out of the top of that stuck idler help for the remaining use i have for it. I know its just a band aid or is that just bound to make a mess with no real result?

Lol first week into my first piece of heavy machinery and its already agrivating. Mind you i figured id have to put some love into it after sitting that long. just didnt want to be replacing major componants right away.