Loader Maintenance: Reattaching the Dump Cylinder Arm to the Bucket

Glenn Plungis in OH purchased a Little Buck Loader for his John Deere 318 in March of 2019.

He sent us an email detailing a repair that he made, and we thought his experience could be helpful to other folks in the community!

Thanks, Glenn!

“I finally got a chance to work on fixing my Little Buck, and I got the dump cylinder fully reattached. The mounting bolt was frozen in the bushing, and I had to remove it with an air hammer. I used the pointed punch bit and put it on the center of the bolt. No amount of beating on it with a conventional BFH would even budge it. In re-mounting the yoke to the ram, the biggest problem I ran into was that I had damaged the first few threads on the ram when I tried to reattach it previously. I had to take a small file and a Dremel with a cutting disk and carefully follow the threads. To mount the yoke, I held the ram with a pipe wrench at the base of the threaded portion of the ram. I figured that it wouldn't matter if I damaged the threads on the ram in this area (and as it turned out, it did not cause any damage). I used a small chisel to spread the retaining flanges of the yoke as far as I could and threaded it on the ram by hand as much as I could. Then I used a large pry bar on the yoke while holding the ram with a pipe wrench (at the base of the threads), I could slowly thread the yoke on one thread at a time. I hope I never have to do that again, It about wore me out! I tightened all bolts very securely and I will monitor that ram every time I use the loader. So there you have it! I'm back in business and one happy camper! Keep up the good work!”