Bucket falls off part 2

Took a couple pictures this morning of the quick attach sitting on the bench. I will try to address some of the questions posed to me.

As you can see the pin protrudes a couple inches with no bucket attached. If the bucket was there it protrudes into the notch in the plate about 1-1/2". The back of the notch still contacts the tapered part of the pin. This would wedge the bucket tight against the quick attach. I think this all seems right. If not please correct me.

Really has me baffled as to why it went from working fine to fall off so easily.

Notice however that the spring is barely compressed at all. I can push the pin up fairly easily a ways with just my thumb. With bucket attached and applying down pressure on the edge it just wedges the pin up and out of the notch and the bucket falls off. This just started happening since I brought it home from a job where I work. There it seemed to work fine. Never happened before.

The only adjustment I see is in the other picture. its on the top of the rod connecting the pin to the handle. If I tighten that it would indeed compress the spring more but also withdraw it from protruding as far into the bucket notch, which would defeat the purpose in my eyes. No more pressure would be forcing the pin down. The adjustment would seem to just limit its travel downward.

The levers feel looser than normal and doesnt require as much force to latch, at least to me. The stop of the levers travel has always been when the handle contacts the frame of the quick attach. Im wondering if someone fooled with or bent the handles while it was at my work job site. No one should have touched it. Seems unlikely but not inconceivable. Kids could have fooled with it even at night or something.

Really has me baffled as to why it went from working fine to falling off so easily just like that.

the pin must engage the other piece... past the taper.. if it sits on the taper, it will simply jack the pin out... in the pic, you only show a very small part of the pin, exposed with no taper. SO if the other piece has a very little bend or distortion, away from the pin, it will put it on the taper portion and simply jack the pin up and out... A new pin. just a bit longer would stop this.. maybe a shorter taper but more of the full pin shaft exposed. Again, must stay above the taper to stay put. just my guess.

Never had a quick attach, so just my opinion. If the notch on the bucket is contacting the tapper, it will never
hold. What is preventing the pin from going further into the bucket?

The cross pin with the cotter pin in it contacts the top of the tube the pin slides in. No way it could have ever protruded any further than shown nor do the rub marks on it show the bucket contacting the pin above the taper. Remember this just started happening.
From looking at other pictures online, it looks like most, when latched, have the pin and connecting rod with spring more in direct alignment. Mine seems to be offset like the handle has cammed over way too far.

I agree with soxbill down below. To me it
seems like the taper is facing wrong.
Someone mentioned that yesterday as well.
What keeps the pin from spinning 180?

If I'm remembering correctly, on the quick attach on my JD 317G (manual), the tapered part of the pins is what maintains contact
with my buckets. The wedge effect is what keeps the buckets tight. Mine has a complicated double linkage kind of a deal which
works good. The issue I have is the pins should NOT be greased with the OEM grease fittings provided, as they attract dirt, and
set up.
It looks like you have a simple mechanism. Could it be the springs have just gotten too weak? Maybe the soil conditions on the
last job have effected the movement of the pins somehow? Have you tried some lubrication? I guess it couldn't make it any worse at
this point!?

I agree with FB. I think the pin is facing the wrong way. You said in your previous post that the taper on the pin faces away from the bucket. The taper must face forward allowing the bucket to latch itself when attaching and the straight surface of the pin holding it from coming loose. Turn the pins 180 degrees and I bet your problem goes away.

This post was edited by ADB-Ia on 12/22/2022 at 07:47 am.

I think you could possibly spin them 180 degrees if it was all in straight alignment. Been looking at other pictures online and they all seem to have the taper facing like mine though. As mentioned, I think its designed to wedge the bucket on tightly.

If the pin and connecting rod were in straight alignment when latched, there would be considerably more spring compression to the point I dont think the pin could retract much at all as the spring would be fully compressed.

Im slowly convincing myself that the handles have somehow been bent upwards unbeknownst to me. Why or by whom, I cant yet imagine. It did set at the job site for a while after I last used it.

I had the same problem with a Kubota L4620. I added a bushing on the
rod to compress the spring more & it worked. I had to make the
bushing just long enough to let the lever go over center. HTH.

From my understanding, the spring is intended to allow the lever mechanism to remain over-center, not provide force to hold the pin in place. The pin extension should be positively forced by the toggle strut so there can be no retraction unless the lever (or hydraulic actuator) is turned to pull it out. If you can push it in with the toggle in the latched position, the adjustment of the solid strut is incorrect. Jim

Looks like the lever is going by center to far letting the pin have to much movement backwards of the regular travel. Letting the bucket off. Either have tobush the spring tighter or change the stop position of the leve by welding on a stop block or changing the levers. take a look at a new set of levers. Bet you find the levers are the issue.

Tighten the nut. Seems backward I know but try it. Its a simple thing to do so not much wasted time if it doesnt work.

I understand what you are saying, all I'm saying is; if pressure is being put on the tapper when using, can't see it
holding. Maybe it has finally wore enough not to hold. Any way you can turn the pin 180* and contact the flat? If
it still latches, that's what I would do.

Your pin is turned the right way.

If your first picture is showing the pin fully engaged, then I see the problem.

The linkage should be straight in line with the pin when fully engaged. At that angle, it doesn't have but a fraction of the holding power.

(quoted from post at 19:15:33 12/23/22) Your pin is turned the right way.

If your first picture is showing the pin fully engaged, then I see the problem.

The linkage should be straight in line with the pin when fully engaged. At that angle, it doesn't have but a fraction of the holding power.

Click to expand...

I think you are right. I have an idea as to how to make an adjustable stop to keep it more in a straight alignment yet still allow it to snap over just a tad.
Still, I have yet to figure out how it got to this point. Someone must have bent the levers up to allow it to cam over that far, since I last used it. When I used it at the job site I was doing a lot of back blading with the bucket and never had any indication of a problem. Everything seemed normal. It sat there for a couple weeks afterward, till i brought it home and the bucket fell off immediately after unloading it. Cant keep it on since. No one admits to touching it and I believe them. There were no other attachments at the job site. I would think you would need a long pipe over the levers to bend them up. There was pipe on the job sight. Examining the levers closer I can see they are both NOT exactly at the same angle so its possible they were bent somehow. How, why or by whom remains a mystery.

To add to my response after reading others: Does that pin engage a round hole or a D shaped hole? If round, I stick with my reply. If D shaped, wedging makes more sense.

(quoted from post at 07:27:47 12/23/22) To add to my response after reading others: Does that pin engage a round hole or a D shaped hole? If round, I stick with my reply. If D shaped, wedging makes more sense.

Click to expand...

It engages a rectangular hole.

You might try to put a nylon washer under that flat
washer. You can keep some tension on the pin but still
tight enough to hold the pin. $2.00 worth of parts and
I think it will fix it.

(quoted from post at 09:06:04 12/22/22)

.

Click to expand...

If the levers are all the way down in that photo the pin is not completely latched
The quick attach levers on one of my tractors Have notches that engage a pair of roll pins
At some point someone got a little to aggressive with the handles and broke the roll pins causing the wedge pins to not fully engage
I would check at the handles to see why they are not turning the linkage all the way to lock
Your wedge pins are facing the right direction, I have a skid steer and 2 tractor loaders with that Bobcat style quick attach