New Holland L425, a case of buyer beware.

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4seasons

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Greeneville, TN
I recently bought a used skid steer for what I thought was a fair price given the few issues that I needed to fix.
I knew going in that the engine (Wisconsin VH4D) had been recently rebuild and the hydraulics were strong. However the bucket was rusting out, the exhaust was leaking, it needed a new seat, and the tires were bald. All the bad was stuff I could easily fix, and it started and ran well as I inspected it before buying.
After I got home with it and fixed the few known issues I put it to work. After about 5 hours of moving dirt it abruptly quit. It would not crank fast enough to start back. I put the battery charger on it and let it sit for the night. In the morning it started up but only ran for 10 seconds before stalling out again. Once again it would not crank. On further inspection I noticed the alternator belt was broke.
After fighting the boom all day to raise it enough with a floor jack and some 4x4's I could access the engine enough to pull both the starter and alternator to have them checked. I had the starter rebuilt as the bushings in it were shot. After putting it back together it still wouldn't start.
This time not only would it not crank fast enough to start but the starter was staying engaged. So after paying a "professional" $125 to rebuild it, I had to tear it down and put it back together again myself because it had been assembled wrong. After doing this it still would not crank.
The next thought I had was possibly a hydraulic pump froze up. I pulled all of the hydraulics out only to find that they were flowing properly and not the problem.
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I know it has to be an engine problem. In order to access the Wisconsin VH4D it must be removed from the skid steer. After figuring out how to do this with a couple of ratchet straps, I could then start removing all of the air shrouding. Due to a horrible design the flywheel must be removed to take the air shroud off. I had to buy some new tools and build a new tool (see the father-son project on the firewood forum) I finally convinced the flywheel off with brute force wedges and heat. I would like to take this opportunity to send a huge middle finger to Wisconsin engineers. Even in a state of partial disassembly it was still difficult to turn the engine by hand.
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My next thoughts were a stuck valve or a frozen bearing. After removing the cam gear and turning the cam by hand everything moved properly there so I moved on to the crank. Look very closely at the picture and see if you find anything wrong.

If you didn't spot it immediately, don't feel bad I didn't either. I thought something looked odd, so I consulted the manual from Wisconsin (available free on the internet) for the rotation of the engine. I now quote from the service manual on page 21, "Be sure that the oil hole in connecting rod cap is facing toward the oil spray nozzle." That's right all four of the connecting rod caps are on backwards. I can only hope that the oil starved crank and connecting rods have not been excessively damaged due to the incompetence of the rebuilder.
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I'm sorry this happened to you. Most rebuilders have a warranty on the rebuild. Can you get the receipt from the previous owner and possibly do a warranty claim?

Hope this helps!

Dave
Global Equipment Exporters
770-420-6400
 
Most rebuilders have a warranty on the rebuild. Can you get the receipt from the previous owner and possibly do a warranty claim?
On the starter you are right. But I already fixed it and it isn't worth fighting over. On the engine, he didn't claim to be a professional or offer any kind of warranty, so I can't very well go after him. I just got ticked that a simple rebuild wasn't done properly,
 
Been a while since I updated this as I have way too many projects going at once.
After flipping the bearing caps, reassembling the engine and putting it back in the skid steer, it started after playing with the timing a bit. While I had ever thing apart I added a tachometer so I know if I am pushing the 2800 rpm red line of this engine. Then while adjusting the carb and setting the idle, the engine abruptly stopped. I immediately thought it had to be the sleeve bearings had more damage than I had thought. Also possible to have excessive crank and rod wear so I pulled it out and tore it down again.
When I pulled the crankshaft the PTO end bearing spit the rollers out. So I have found the route problem.

But this has uncovered another problem. This Wisconsin VH4D engine uses a specific bearing (part #ME114) that depending on the dealer sell for $200-300. I am used to buying bearings for $10-20. Has anyone else replaced one of these before and found a better price on a comparable bearing? I did discover a Massey Ferguson bearing for $50 with the same part number (ME 114) and they list the dimensions, but I can't find a dimension on the Wisconsin that I have to know if it will fit.
I can find the whole crank with bearings installed for $200, but before I go that route I would like to see if anyone else ran into this issue.
 
Odd that the front and back cylinder are wet and the middle two look normal.
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Looks like someone tried to pry the head off or chisel a valve loose and beat the block up. Tons of carbon under the intake valves also. I have never seen pitting this bad either. I don't know if that is typical on a flathead as this is the first one I have torn down.
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Got the block decked below the gouge marks and took most of the pitting out. I probably could have used new valve seats but I don't have the tools to to it so I ground and polished them before lapping.
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Also discovered the timing advance weights in the distributor we're rusted up and not working. No wonder it was missing under load. Really makes me wonder how the guy I bought it from claimed to have went through the engine a few months ago. I should have looked it over better, but it was getting dark when I was looking. I also had drove an hour to get there with a borrowed trailer that I had to return that night.
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Getting the distributor cleaned up and working again was pretty easy. New head gaskets should be here Friday. Maybe I can get this thing running in time to put a garden in this year.
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Since I'm not going to bore the block and buy oversize pistons I was just going to pop the pistons back in the holes they came from after a good cleaning. Thankfully as I was cleaning the pistons I noticed some junk behind the rings that I couldn't get out. Both the pistons and the rods are directional so those were on backwards, but I also found some rings that were upside down.
I really have a basket case on my hands here.
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Can't find a decent parts engine?

We had 3 or 4 of them, gave them away when I did a big cleanup of outside the shop (hauled off about 80 tons of metal) Yes... tons.


It's kind of the name of the game, pretty rare to find a 40+ year old piece of equipment that hasn't been well used. At least the Wisconisins were widely used so parts shouldn't be too bad to get.

Have run into trouble getting parts for even late 80s-mid 90s machines.
Got told by the dealer that our 1987 648 skidder was "an antique". Sure would love a nice new one, but don't have $350,000.
 
I got her all cleaned up put back together reinstalled and discovered I still have a cylinder that would not hit. It had plenty of compression but failed the leak down test miserably. So I pulled that cylinder block back off and installed some new rings. I get everything back together again and now the other cylinder block has no compression. To add some more crap to the sewer now trying to get it to pull its own weight it blew a seal between the hydraulic pumps. Then while trying to get it started the starter solenoid quit working. I think if I ever get this thing working I'm going to paint it brown and call it the turd.
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After close inspection on the cylinder block that has no compression I noticed blue flames rolling around inside the air duct. that can only be two things either head gasket or a cracked block. Lucky for me I have both! I've never seen a head gasket fail like this before but this is also the first flathead I have ever worked on. I don't know if the block cracked and therefore the head gasket blew or the head gasket blew and the heat from the fire going down hole between cylinders cracked the block. Being that this crack is in a low-stress area I'm hoping I can salvage this block.
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I know why the gasket blew. 0.15 on the block and 0.18 on the head. That's 0.33 mm gap when 0.05 mm is the max tolerance. Time to deck the head and block.
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