Jcb 3c mk3

[Martyn Henley]

no wonder they progressed over to the power shift set up, constantly depressing the clutch and changing from 1st to reverse or vice versa certainly builds up the muscle in the left leg even if the clutch mechanism is all nice and free!

That was the fun of the machine, imagine 9 hours loading lorries with muck away non stop but that was the nature of the beast, thankfully one was not working like that a lot, the torque converter version was good, however it lacked power and if it got to warm it would pack up... and as for the brakes binding, well that happened a lot when tracking from one job to another, that is if you was lucky to have good brakes in the first place, ... the other fun time tracking was if the steering had a bit of play in it, you was turning the steering wheel to the left and the right franticly just to keep in straight line oh they was fun days on the MK2's

Martyn

[Dieseljimmer]

Wow,
I have to take my hat off to those that worked them on a regular bases!! I can imagine the steering though and I'd like to think my steering is pretty good but it still floats around Progression is a wonderful thing, sometimes!

DJ

[MrF]

Someone wanted me to road mine, cabless, 15miles to go dig a big hole for freemans. Ive politely declined and I have the 3c3 with the shuttle torque converter and its the middle of nowhere here with hardly any traffic! Braver man than I am. Im building myself up to a 3km trip to the other house once I get a bit nearer legality.
Having good brakes will come in handy working on your house though, everyone I met in real life told me not to bother trying to fix the brakes as they were all like that, but scooping the gunge of ages and greasing the splines so the brakes ran free and work was one of the things I did last year that made a real difference. The other was getting rid of a tyre with low tread and fitting a good secondhand one. If your just rolling round a tarmac'd yard, it'll be fine, but get it on any soft stuff and you'll curse when it starts spinning the tyres when it gets a bit soft.

Today I had to get down the bottom of a slope to finish the end for the pipe trench carrying the rainwater and fosse system outlet into the garden (no mains sewerage or drains here!) and it was a joy to hold her on slope with the brakes while I got the buckets bit into the slope properly to anchor myself before levelling out, and at one point when a wheel was bogged, to be able to move the un-locking pin and dab the brake on that side and get drive to the other wheel is really handy too, poor man's diff lock
But all the above will be obvious to some of the chaps who worked them full time for a living, but I'm just learning its foibles the same as you I guess

[CHM123]

I've a circa. 1976 JCB 3C MkII, the steering pump takes its supply from the side of the "oil tank" (which is also more or less the frame of the machine), the take off point is marginally higher than the take off point for the main pump, so low oil seems to hit steering operation first. The steering system also has its own filter at the front that can get blocked; at least it was on mine. It’s a steel filter; you just remove it and wash it out, then refit it. The only problem is stopping the flow of oil while you do that, in my case I drained the system and replaced the main filter when I was at it, plus washed out the area around the filer, as it was full of muck. It was easy enough drain the oil, as there wasn't much in it to start with. I assume the MkIII is similar.