As some of you may have read in my previous post I just got my 743 back from the dealer from having alot of work done. I have never ran this machine or used it so I'm not usre what is normal and what I should work on. Here are the items I have to repair and wanted to see what kind of suggestions you guys have on them while I'm looking at them. Problems: 1. When I raise the bucket off the ground it stays in place but over a few hours it will slowly drop a good 8 inches. 2. park brake does not appear to be working at all. 3. When I press the pedals to raise and lower the bucket and arms the pedals and pivot points levers are rusted and hard to operate to the point they are really stuck. To the point that I actually have to stand up and put all my fat azz weight on the pedal to get the arms to lower back to the ground. What controls this or is the best way to make this operate easier? Any tricks or is it just a matter of greasing and working.
Bobcat 743 several repairs?
- Thread starter cmb7684
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thetool
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- Mar 22, 2008
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Did the dealer tell you any of this and offer to repair it? Or did they just tell you it's ready, come and get it? Or was their bill already so enormous that they were skeert to tell you that it still had some additional issues? Whatever......
1. 8” of drift over a few hours is acceptable and normal. Check it with weight, though.
2. The park brake can be ajusted if it's not worn completely out. Tighten the nut on the rod from the pedal. If you run out of threads, you can pop the arm of the shaft and reposition it for a new bite, but not too much, 15 or 20 degrees max I would guess.
3. Your pedal problem sounds like more than stiff linkage pivots. Sounds like something is binding. The lift pedal linkage has a cross-piece with a bushing that pivots on the chaincase under the pump. That bushing could be worn. I don't know what they did at the dealer, maybe they didn't put something back together correctly.
1. 8” of drift over a few hours is acceptable and normal. Check it with weight, though.
2. The park brake can be ajusted if it's not worn completely out. Tighten the nut on the rod from the pedal. If you run out of threads, you can pop the arm of the shaft and reposition it for a new bite, but not too much, 15 or 20 degrees max I would guess.
3. Your pedal problem sounds like more than stiff linkage pivots. Sounds like something is binding. The lift pedal linkage has a cross-piece with a bushing that pivots on the chaincase under the pump. That bushing could be worn. I don't know what they did at the dealer, maybe they didn't put something back together correctly.
Thanks for the reply. The bill was already pretty high so I guess they didnt want to offer to do more as they were already eating over run costs. The 8" drift happened with weight in the bucket. The old motor is in it. I will check the adjustment thing of the park brake and see what is happening with that and post back. I'm hoping the 3rd things is just a lube issue guess I will find out soon enough. Thanks for the response.
I have to agree, the drift is acceptable.
I'd lift the cab and move the pedal and see if you can see it binding, it shouldn't be that tight at all. It should be smooth with a little resistance though. There are hoses in this area, hopefully its as simple as that.
A quick back yard fix on the brake is to remove the adjustment nut from the rod , put the next bigger size nut over the rod as a spacer , ( a lug nut works ) put the adjustment nut back on and adjust
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I have to be one dumb SOB ....... I hate to even admit this but as I said before this is a complete learning run for me. I have still not addressed the park brake thing as I had not havd the time to mess with it. However the other problems turned out to not be problems at all. You guys said the drift was ok so that is cleared up. The pedal issue was simply the safety lock not being released when the seat belt bar is pushed all the way down. Once it pushed down pressing the two safety locks down then the pedals released working the bucket and arms great. I will post back on the parking break issue as soon as I get a sec to mess with it but not the #1 thing on the list right now.
Don't worry about feeling dumb. I have gone throught the same thing, and probably caused some of my own problems along the way. Just take it one step at a time, then think about what your doing twice to be sure its right.
Fred
