Attaching the mounting brackets for 811 backhoe on 863 F turbo.

[Stonehands]

I recently found a great deal on a early 2000 811 backhoe. Very clean, tight and not a single dent or spot weld. $3,500.00 and came with brackets, nuts and bolts, both street pads and dirt pads and manual. I knew where the brackets attached but not how to get inside the frame to puts the bolts through. No matter what I read and looked for I could not find out how to the the access plates off the inside of the machine to get access to the bolt holes. Here is what I found out and was able to get done. Thought someone might find this useful. 1. The access plates on both sides of the machine by your feet and at the front of the machine have to come off. There are 3 bolts per side. The top 2 are easy to get to and the bottom one does not have to come off but loosened so the plate can slide off of it. A long handled ratchet open end wrench works great. Found a set at Sears. Bolts are 9/16'th. 2. Once you have the top two bolts off and bottom bolt loosened, the access plate with a little tilting will actually be able to be moved inside the frame and turned to get it out past the foot pedals and lap bar brackets. I found this out by accident. I could not bend, squeeze, swear or manipulate a way to get that damn plate out without taking out the food peels and linkage. This access plate is behind the food pedal and linkage. 3. As it started to take the linkage off on the right side first, doesn't make a difference as both sides are treated the same, The plate fell into the frame cavity somewhat and I was able to lay it on its side and remove it. I then, drank a beer, put all the linkage back together and proceeded to do the same to the other side and it was a snap. 4. I found that this was the easy part in the process. I wired up the bracket to the side of the machine where it goes by looping heavy gauge wire though a mounting hole to hold it while I put bolts and nuts on to hold it. Didn't work. Too heavy. With my son at my side, he held the bracket and I put the bolts and nuts on all at once. 8 per bracket. The hardest part now was tightening the nuts. They are lock nuts. Tapered to be impossible to get on without someone on the outside of the machine with a a ratchet or impact wrench and someone holding the bolts on the inside of the frame to keep them from turning. Once we got the hang on the first one the second bracket went on in about 20 mins. 5. Key point here. The bolts go in through the inside of the machine and the nuts must be on the outside of the machine. Thats what the I was told. Something to do with room for you feet on the outside of the machine and the nuts do not protrude that much on the outside. There you go. Hope this helps someone in the future as many of you have helped me in the past.