LA 524 broken nut/bolt pivot pins

[Mountain Hill]

I ve managed to shear off both of the bottom nut/bolts on the Pivot Pins on my new LA524 FEL, I had order a couple as I had noticed one was bent. I'm assuming this is a common issue, especially when working in rocky ground, and it's a matter of having extra on hand for replacement. However, if anyone has any thoughts , it would be appreciated.

 

[Benhameen]

Can you post a picture of the problem?

 

[gpreuss]

If I'm thinking correctly, this is about a 5/16" keeper bolt that holds the ear of the pivot pin to stop it from turning? I had the same problem with my old L185DT with several of the pins. The pins get dry, or sand works its way into them and eventually wallers out the sleeve. At some point you are asking the small bolt to keep the 1" pin in alignment, and it can't do it. It is a surprisingly small amount of waller to cause the bolt to work loose or break.
On the 185, it took a couple of years of digging in rotten granite to do it. I'm surprised you are having the problem so soon, although if you have really done a lot of hard digging, it could work out to the same hours. I tried plastic insert lock nuts to keep the hardware from working loose, then eventually went to cold-rolled pins with clips on them. And a lot of grease. The fittings on the old tractor were on the sleeves, not in the pins as are the L3800's.

 

[Mountain Hill]

Took some photos, now to figure out how to upload, hopefully new computer will solve that problem, keep up with phone tech! Regardless, I've purchased 6 extra nuts/bolts today! And, yes I have alot of granite rock. I worked a few today without the bolts, just kept an eye on pivot pins.

 

[Bulldog]

Not trying to offend so please don't take it that way but that part of the bucket should never be in contact with the ground. I have seen this happen many times and it's related to operator error. Either going into or back dragging a pile with the cutting edge turned up. I've been using loaders on tractors and heavy equipment had a problem with worn or broken pivot pins.

On a side note when working in granite the pins need greased daily. The super fine grit that type stone produces is murder on any kind of moving equipment.