4500 Backhoe Hyd Line replacement help...

Yesterday I'm mulching leaves and dumping them in the loader. When I was done I parked it and "lowered the boom". Tried pivoting the bucket and a line blew.

Today we got 8" of snow.

The line is one of four that connect at the valve and go out into the boom about a foot or so. There is an acess hole on the top face of the boom but very little room to get at the closely fitted hoses.

Anyway, I bought all four short lines. $32 a piece.

Now I'm looking at how close all the fittings are to each other at the valve and in the boom at the access hole.

What is a good way of disconnecting the fittings?

At the boom, can they be shifted for and aft after loosening the big clamp?

At the valve, do you have to simply remove them all in sequence to get to the ones you want?

I would hate to have to remove the hoe cause I have a full cab that would have to come off too.

Thanks!

Also, various types of crows foot type wrenches come come in real handy as well. The standard type simply looks like an open end wrench with everything except the head cut off. In its place is a square slot for installing a breaker bar or socket extention. These can also be had in a 12 point flare nut type style that makes it even more versatile.

I checked and it is 1-1/4". I have a standard wrench. Looks like I'll be doing some tool shopping.

Looking at the fittings in that hole in the boom. Man, they are so close together. It almost looks impossible unless they can be repositioned to get a wrench on them.

What do you do? Loosen the clamp (2) bolts, and try to move the lines so the fittings aren't all next to each other? Is there some sort of magic required?

Also does anybody know if it's required to remove the hoe from the tractor. It looks like I should be able to get to the fittings through the access holes. I would have to remove the cab to get the hoe off, something I'm not too keen on doing.

Thanks,

Mike

I just got done with this very same job, replaced all 6 hoses, 4 below that you're looking at and the 2 above that go to the lift cylinder. I agree with Bern, angle heads are a must.

yes, loosen the clamps and you can get your wrenches in and remove the hoses. The boom end access hole unfortunately is the easy part. Getting the hoses off under the control valve is the real bear.

My job was a little easier since I had to remove the lift arm from the swing post, since I had a pivot pin wallow it's way out of it's hole that had to be repaired.

The job can be done without removing the hoe, but it will be tight. Be really careful with dirt on both ends of the hoses. Lots of gunk buildup in there. Good luck.

I will get the crows foot and angle wrenches.
I already pressure washed the area so dirt shouldn't be a problem.
Looking closely at the control valve I saw one hose had been replaced. It was one of the middle ones. It looks like they used a center punch to tighten it.

I removed all six plus two extras (stabilizer) on the right side (as you're looking under toward the front of the tractor). That way, I could remove them one at a time right to left, and put them back in left to right and have enough room to actually use a wrench to loosen/tighten. I drew a schematic on which control valve hole went to which hoe tube/hose.

I highly recommend marking the hoses and drawing a diagram so you hook them back up in the right place. It would really be a bummer to have to do it again.

Also, each hose has an adapter as it enters the control valve which converts it from a JIC #12 to an O-ring boss. I removed all these as well, cleaned them up, and replaced the o-rings. I went the extra mile in the hope this will last a long time. I don't want to revisit it ever again if possible. As near as I could tell, most of my hoses were original from 1967, so they'll last if taken care of.

Lastly, you'll probably need a 1 1/4", a 1 1/8", and if I recall there were a couple of times I needed a 1", and a 1 1/16", for under the control valve.

Let me know how it goes. good luck.

Luckily I have a manual that shows where the hoses go. It's funny how the instructions say to simply "remove" the hoses.

I'm gonna wait a week or two. I'm searching out some tools and hoping for a warmup.

Thanks

I'm not even gonna attempt this untill i have everything on hand and an above 40 deg day.