been watching for a cheap skidsteer for a long time- and got one that was being scrapped for a locked up engine 
pans bent out so its def broke, hoping blocks ok and rebuildable- time will tell. its a old 763, looking it over, dont seem to be in bad shape. first lesson learned was you cant pull the darn things- batterys good, park brake pin pulls, but wouldnt roll at all...one side crept ever so slightly- guessing internal blowby in motor, but i men like a inch per minute, just skewing sideways on trailer...if other side was moving it was barely...had to lift front, put sheetmetal under front tires, then lift rear and pull, sliding on sheetmetal which stuck to tires/not wood deck... finally got it to back of trailer where my restored old clark gpx30 was only barely capable of lifting it off...
i'm a tinkerer- cnc retrofitter by trade, mostly doing design/programming/schematic crap- but love saving old stuff...its a sickness- but a bobcat would be so handy to have around... much handier than a freaking 10,000 pound forklift sitting in the garage... have a lot of dirt to move, want to add on to the garage eventually, this will come in handy moving the huge dirtpile left behind when excavation for garage was done near 20 years ago. looking thru schematics, if physical room allows, considering teeing a flow control across motor ports- opening two needle valves would allow slow recirc thru motor for towing very slowly at least enough to roll back and forth in c=garage or to trailer when dead- it was just no fun scooting that thing at all...
hoping to pull motor in coming weeks, see how bad its popped and if crank/block damaged- was told it started knocking, they shut off, tried cranking and it partially cranked over then locked. dent in pan is rounded, so not like end of a rod hit in my opinion - hoping maybe something really stupid like oil pump pickup or similar... maybe a cheap fix. probably more likely a big chunk of piston or cyl liner broke out- havent even drained oil to see if full of antifreeze indicating block is scrap... they were quoted 14k for a new motor and sat it out for scrap, as have several more units, didnt want to put any time/money into this one...thats right up my alley LOL.
heres the ol bobcat and the scrapyard forklift... the forklift really came out nice, only $800 bucks in it- but a month of evenings too- and its really a nice truck- poor thing only had 1500 hours on it but had been beat to death and weathered 30 years of mostly outdoor use- literally probably 50 pounds of greasy dirt were caked up under it, lots of oil leaks/brakes/steering/wiring- was put out to pasture for rear main oil leak- found it was only a loose oil filter under all the dirt, running along block dripping off end of oil pan- motor ended up fine, just needed timing belt/tuneup... found 87 mitsubishi montero tune up parts were much cheaper than from clark LOL.
did one more forklift- a 1963- but it took a lot more time and money...it was just too cute to see go in the bin though... had to do a ton of work fixing steering as box was busted-sectioned chassis/fabbed mounting box to put a chevy astro steering box in, ford ranger pump/bracket, jeep tj pittman arm with a howe racing balljoint to reconnect original draglink, had to relocate brake/shift levers...it was a bit of a chore... anyone bored, theres pics of that one here- https://flic.kr/s/aHsmDUhJya
anyways, heres 'the next victim'... lifes been crazy this year, lots of stuff going on, keeping distracted on 'projects' helps... wasnt planning on this becoming a possibility though, so lots of other stuff to get done first... but wilth any luck, will be moving dirt next year. BTW- when painting old stuff- i will never spray paint machines again: cheap 1" foam rollers... the neon green clark had me worried about overspray, so tried mixing up the urethane and rolling it on- son of a gun...has a very industrial/light textured look to it, zero mess- and of the gallon of sublime green urethane I bought- only used a couple pints of paint...not really much more time- disassembled, access was easy, roll on and soon as starts tacking up, go over quickly and bring desired texture, didnt spill a drop... get about 15 minute pot life, do a few square feet at a time, throw new roller cover on and keep going.. nice thick urethane,zero mess...still need respirator due to isocyanates in hardeners- that stuff literally will destroy lungs in one paintjob, but easy and clean if careful...
pans bent out so its def broke, hoping blocks ok and rebuildable- time will tell. its a old 763, looking it over, dont seem to be in bad shape. first lesson learned was you cant pull the darn things- batterys good, park brake pin pulls, but wouldnt roll at all...one side crept ever so slightly- guessing internal blowby in motor, but i men like a inch per minute, just skewing sideways on trailer...if other side was moving it was barely...had to lift front, put sheetmetal under front tires, then lift rear and pull, sliding on sheetmetal which stuck to tires/not wood deck... finally got it to back of trailer where my restored old clark gpx30 was only barely capable of lifting it off...i'm a tinkerer- cnc retrofitter by trade, mostly doing design/programming/schematic crap- but love saving old stuff...its a sickness- but a bobcat would be so handy to have around... much handier than a freaking 10,000 pound forklift sitting in the garage... have a lot of dirt to move, want to add on to the garage eventually, this will come in handy moving the huge dirtpile left behind when excavation for garage was done near 20 years ago. looking thru schematics, if physical room allows, considering teeing a flow control across motor ports- opening two needle valves would allow slow recirc thru motor for towing very slowly at least enough to roll back and forth in c=garage or to trailer when dead- it was just no fun scooting that thing at all...
hoping to pull motor in coming weeks, see how bad its popped and if crank/block damaged- was told it started knocking, they shut off, tried cranking and it partially cranked over then locked. dent in pan is rounded, so not like end of a rod hit in my opinion - hoping maybe something really stupid like oil pump pickup or similar... maybe a cheap fix. probably more likely a big chunk of piston or cyl liner broke out- havent even drained oil to see if full of antifreeze indicating block is scrap... they were quoted 14k for a new motor and sat it out for scrap, as have several more units, didnt want to put any time/money into this one...thats right up my alley LOL.
heres the ol bobcat and the scrapyard forklift... the forklift really came out nice, only $800 bucks in it- but a month of evenings too- and its really a nice truck- poor thing only had 1500 hours on it but had been beat to death and weathered 30 years of mostly outdoor use- literally probably 50 pounds of greasy dirt were caked up under it, lots of oil leaks/brakes/steering/wiring- was put out to pasture for rear main oil leak- found it was only a loose oil filter under all the dirt, running along block dripping off end of oil pan- motor ended up fine, just needed timing belt/tuneup... found 87 mitsubishi montero tune up parts were much cheaper than from clark LOL.
did one more forklift- a 1963- but it took a lot more time and money...it was just too cute to see go in the bin though... had to do a ton of work fixing steering as box was busted-sectioned chassis/fabbed mounting box to put a chevy astro steering box in, ford ranger pump/bracket, jeep tj pittman arm with a howe racing balljoint to reconnect original draglink, had to relocate brake/shift levers...it was a bit of a chore... anyone bored, theres pics of that one here- https://flic.kr/s/aHsmDUhJya
anyways, heres 'the next victim'... lifes been crazy this year, lots of stuff going on, keeping distracted on 'projects' helps... wasnt planning on this becoming a possibility though, so lots of other stuff to get done first... but wilth any luck, will be moving dirt next year. BTW- when painting old stuff- i will never spray paint machines again: cheap 1" foam rollers... the neon green clark had me worried about overspray, so tried mixing up the urethane and rolling it on- son of a gun...has a very industrial/light textured look to it, zero mess- and of the gallon of sublime green urethane I bought- only used a couple pints of paint...not really much more time- disassembled, access was easy, roll on and soon as starts tacking up, go over quickly and bring desired texture, didnt spill a drop... get about 15 minute pot life, do a few square feet at a time, throw new roller cover on and keep going.. nice thick urethane,zero mess...still need respirator due to isocyanates in hardeners- that stuff literally will destroy lungs in one paintjob, but easy and clean if careful...
