The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
JCB 803 Saga
awemawson:
About five weeks ago I bought a 17 year old JCB 803 3 ton mini-digger which has given me a bit of grief :bugeye:
Having had a brand new engine fitted 200 hours before I got it, at least that area was sound, but the day after I got it, it developed a massive oil leak dripping from the area of one of the track motors. A bit of investigation showed that in fact the oil was leaking from the 'Orbiter', and running down into the lower chassis and exiting by the track motor. The Orbiter is a rotary hydraulic coupling that takes ten hydraulic lines from the cab and super-structure that rotates 360 degrees, down to the track chassis to feed the tracks and dozer blade.
I decided I was too long in the tooth to be crawling about in and under, so packed it off to a local (ish) commercial garage to fit a new set of seals in the orbiter. Seals duly arrived from JCB - chap fitted them and the blasted thing leaked worse than ever :bang: I reluctantly authorised buying a brand new one. New one needs a conversion kit say JCB as there's been a design change - all in not much change out of £1000 :(
I went to see progress on Monday to find JCB not only were not able to supply the conversion kit, they had no drawings of what it consisted :bang: While I was on site they rang up to say that at last they'd found a drawing and it would be a further 3 weeks for them to make it :scratch:
Time for a bit of research :coffee: I tracked down a breaker hundreds of miles away who had an 803 only 70 different in serial numbers, and yes it still had the orbiter and it was mine delivered overnight for £230 - a result. I took it to the garage yesterday and await results :scratch: The £1K one has gone back :ddb:
awemawson:
Now while this machine has been away I've been trying to source it's right hand servo control lever - just a two part plastic moulding as a hand grip - it contains also one button for the horn. Previous owner had broken / lost / been vandalised and had fixed a length of plastic pipe on instead.
JCB were happy to provide me with a handle for £180 :bugeye: :bugeye: :bugeye: and that didn't include the micro-switch for the horn, or the special rubber grommet that you press as a button to operate it - yes button thing available for £34 plus VAT !!!
Now initially my new friend the machine breaker was reluctant to part a handle from it's servo control, but a bit of sweet talking liberated what looked to be a bit of a grotty version, taped together with Elastoplast and missing switch and button for £20 - but beggars can't be choosers - no one else had one to break! Surely I can fix it. It even came with it's rubber gaiter (that was slowly falling apart) thrown in.
awemawson:
When it arrived, in fact it was far better than it had looked. The micro-switch and cable form were in place, just the button missing :ddb:
A quick bit of cleaning up and the handle is perfectly serviceable - even the gaiter was glueable using some magic stuff intended for fixing tears in welly boots. So what about that special grommet / button jobby?
The original was a domed 9 mm blanking grommet that had an extra rubber protrusion downwards from the centre of the dome to operate the micro-switch. I had some domed 9 mm grommets in stock - and tried gluing rubber cord to the under dome, but they were not flexible enough.
Then I thought, all it really needs is a piece of (say) 8 mm rubber cord retained in the handle hole - so a sort of dumb bell or diablo shape whose inner part is 8 mm and outer is 9 mm
Time to make a mould and get out the hot melt glue gun :ddb:
awemawson:
Now that button wasn't very well moulded - it sort of stuck a bit and was indistinct BUT IT WORKED :ddb: :ddb:
awemawson:
A bit of experimentation showed that with a light squirt of WD40 on the mould it produced far better results :thumbup:
So flushed with success I ordered some hot melt glue sticks in JCB Yellow just to be a bit of a poser
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