My old 5C

[Baloo]

hello
i havent been here for a long time but retirement has finally arrived and i have time to work through my list of projects and collection of excavators, my old 5c is the first to receive some love, it had a failure where the boom rams connect to the main frame some 15 or 20 years ago and there it sat slumbering away till i needed to move it to make way for a new pond the other day, new battery and away it went just like that i thought i was going to be in for more of a fight but no it started and drove just fine but i need to tackle the repair, i pulled the main pin that locates the boom and disconnected the hoses and lifted the arms off with my sumitomo

[Baloo]

i am planning on stripping it as far as i can refurbing and repainting so i need to strip the arms down next
has any one got any clever ideas for getting the pins out that hold the boom and dipper together ? i think they have been in there 50 years and dont want to budge, ive soaked them in diesel and tried a sledge hammer but they dont move a millimeter
i was thinking of borrowing another excavator with a pecker on and seeing if that will hammer them out, do you think that will work ?

[Jeremy Rowland]

Hi Andy, my best suggestion in trying to remove the pins is a lot of heat from an oxy/acetylene torch, if that fails then they may have to be lanced out, if you can borrow another machine with a pecker, then heat and try pecking them out, it could put more force on the pins than you with a sledgehammer.

Jeremy

[essexpete]

Is the old 5 a long reach version? I notice the dipper ram is underneath.

[Baloo]

Hi Andy, my best suggestion in trying to remove the pins is a lot of heat from an oxy/acetylene torch, if that fails then they may have to be lanced out, if you can borrow another machine with a pecker, then heat and try pecking them out, it could put more force on the pins than you with a sledgehammer.

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy

i dont really have heat available where the arms are and you can only get at the end of the pin to heat which to my mind will just make the pin bigger/tighter will have a go with the pecker next week and see what happens, ive been tipping diesel on the pin every day and it disappears down the sides of the pin to somewhere it might come free, if no joy then i might look for some standard length arms must be someone breaking one somewhere

Andy

[Baloo]

Is the old 5 a long reach version? I notice the dipper ram is underneath.

Hi Pete
yes its a long reach a real old dinosaur but one hell of a reach, it spent most of its early life dipping in and out of the Thames with the Thames conservancy

Andy

[Jeremy Rowland]

Is the old 5 a long reach version? I notice the dipper ram is underneath.

Yes Pete they did a long reach version with a top mounted dipper ram and this type with the under slung ram.

Andy let us know how you get on with your pin removal.

Jeremy

[mechman]

Hi Andy.
I have a similar problem with the 3CX boom ram, I've used O/A several times on it ( 3 separate days ) plus a 7lb sledge hammer (broke the hammer) it did move 2mm eventually (It's still in). The trick is getting the heat into the surrounding area before the heat gets to the pin, just guess work if you know what I mean. Also need plenty of energy You'll probably need it trying to get them out cold. Let us Know if you get them out and how.
Norm.

[Baloo]

hi guys i will keep you posted about the pecker results, i am pretty sure it will knock them out with ease having used it to punch in 8" diameter posts into dry ground before and it never even murmured, just punched them in with no fuss, however it is my pals and his machine and i cant expect him to load it up onto the low loader and bring it down for an hour with me so ive got to wait till hes passing on the way to or from a job but im in no great rush i can get the 5c transported back to my workshop with out the arms so i can start the repairs and restoration, if for any reason i cant sort the arms then i will repurpose the machine either as a hedge trimmer or a well drilling machine as i need water lots and lots of water ,
ive been digging another pond with the 7.5 ton sumitomo and that is nearly finished and im probably going to have to find a way of drilling a 30 ft deep hole although it might be possible to just dig a hole as i hit water at 15 ft ....

for some strange reason ive ended up with 5 excavators over the years and im going to try and get them all back to the workshop to be refurbished over the winter, they all run or did, ive got a 5c obviously an 812, a 6d, a 3cmk2 and o&k which is a nightmare to operate as all the levers are different but you do get used to them eventually buts its dangerous when you go to curl the bucket the cab rotates and its not braked you have to stamp on a foot brake to stop spinning, i plan on converting this to conventional levers will be a lot safer,

pictures of my latest pond right outside my barn