hellooooooo!!!!

[bigspanishmarty]

hello to everyone on the forum

my names martin and i live in spain but work in london (its a long commute)
a couple of months ago i bought an old jcb 801.4 mini digger from a bloke in spain. its seen better days but i'm confident i will get my moneys worth out of it, its been great fun getting used to controlling the little beastie....
i'm in the process of rebuilding an old spanish farm house and the digger will be great for so many back breaking jobs. i've already used it to dig a 100m trench for some electricity cables, that would of killed me doing it by hand
one of the reasons for joining the site, is to gain as much knowledge as possible about the digger, any tricks and tips will be welcomed.
as i said the digger is in need of some tlc, i've just bought some new rubber tracks and i will be researching on how to change them.

happy new year to everyone........

[Muz]

Hi Martin welcome to the forum .. we were having some problems with some spammy new registrants for a while so all new members were moderated before they could post to save the forum getting filled with spam .. hence the reason your first posts wouldnt appear .. you'll be fine from here on now

[bigspanishmarty]

hi muz

i'm a member of a motorbike forum and they have the same problem with spammers!
i'll try and get some pictures posted of my toys, there all bloody old tho...

jcb 801.4
ausa mini dumper
40yr old fiat tractor
ifor williams 1.5t trailer
homemade car trailer
and a 1996 2.8 pajero to pull it all.....

[Wazza]

Hello and welcome to the forum Marty .Old is just a state of mind and if parts are still available then it's not an issue really..

[Stock]

Welcome there Marty, start asking your questions............

[Muz]

hi muz

i'm a member of a motorbike forum and they have the same problem with spammers!
i'll try and get some pictures posted of my toys, there all bloody old tho...

jcb 801.4
ausa mini dumper
40yr old fiat tractor
ifor williams 1.5t trailer
homemade car trailer
and a 1996 2.8 pajero to pull it all.....

We'd love to see them mate .. your membership, and photo upload ability was fully enabled on my earlier post

[bigspanishmarty]

thanks for the welcome guys
any tips on replacing the tracks, i know how to raise the digger via the blade and bucket, but thats about it......should i ask this question in a different section tho???????

[ianoz]

Hi Mate ,Welcome to the forum . Usually excavators have grease track adjusters .Usually about the middle of the track frame you will find a Grease fitting .You may need to screw the fitting out ,or some have a bleed off plug ,Let the pressure go ,and you should see the track loosen off .You may need to push the idler/track back as far as you can
You should have enough slack in the track the get it off ..To put the new one on ,get it on at the sprocket end first ,and may need to bar it on to the idler .
Get it started ,then try driving it on with the drive motor .
Once on tighten the adjuster back up and pump it up with Grease .
I think then adjuster thetrack up until you have about 25 mm of sag under the bottom rollers .Muz or someone should be able to confirm ,or correct that gap .

[bigspanishmarty]

thanks ianoz, me and my brother did it today, it took about 20 mins for each track, really easy tbh, take off a small plate on each side, then used a 30mm socket and ratchet to slacken it off. then relace and re-tighten, replace plate and bobs your uncle, *****'s your aunt....

i'll sort some piccys out of all my toys this weekend, its tricky doing these jobs without a repair manual....most of it seems to be common sense tho, shame i lack common sense tho

i'll be digging a nice big hole tomorrow, so lets see what needs fixing next

[ianoz]

OK , I did not realise that Manual; adjusters were used on reasonaly recent models . Our old Caterpillars and Trckmarshalls and fowler VFs had manual ones .
OK good you sussed it out easierly enough .

[bigspanishmarty]

its my first time posting pictures, so here goes....
40 year old fiat tractor


20+year old ausa dumper

what i believe to be a jcb 801.4 mini digger


ifor williams trailer, full of luverly wood


trusty bishi pajero, and pajero in spanish translates to tanker, just change the T to a W, if you get what i mean.

and finally a hole which was made by me and my brother yesterday


none of these things are new or even modern, but they serve there purpose and are enjoyable to use never the less

[ianoz]

Thanks for posting the photos Marty .Always good to see other peoples toys ,and whereabouts .
Looks to be good digging
Not many of the Fiat 211 tractors out here .A friend has a 211C Crawler .
I find it amazing that you get accross the chanel and the weather is so much nicer that the UK .
No wonder you choose to live there .
How many Acres are you on ?
We have 14 Acres .

[Stock]

Yahoo more pictures of sunny places.............and the have equal funny trees to burn.......

Nice bit of kit there ......well part from the gas guzzler of a padjo and an 801............

[2414.ginger]

Some nice bits of used kit there Marty, whats the point spending on new when you can keep stuff going with a little help from these good guys on this site. Your 801 looks to be the same as mine, but what puzzles me is how you operate it, when the seat is 10 feet away, have you got remote control? Mine is a recent buy as well, have you got the hang of it yet, or do things still go in the wrong direction? I think it needs quite a few hours in the seat to become a smooth operator.
Pete

[bigspanishmarty]

hi ginger
i'm still getting used to it, but touch wood i haven't destroyed anything i wasn't supposed too....YET!
today i've borrowed a friends karcher pressure washer, i'm going to have a cleaning day, i just have to wait for the morning cold/frost to bugger off. i do have a bit of a cleaning fetish, not that you'd notice it in those pictures...