1986 John Deere 650 Tractor - More Repairs and Updates

A tractor like this that's seen more than its fair share of use and abuse, it's no wonder that there is never a shortage of things to do on it. Take the front loader bucket, for instance. Both sides are bent in at the leading edge. I'm not really sure how that happened but they are needing some help. More precisely, help from an 18" pipe wrench. This first photo is of the right side of the bucket.

This next photo is after the straightening. A pipe wrench does surprisingly well at this type of job. I used the same wrench a couple of months ago on my son's JD 400 backhoe's rear wheel that had a bit of a wowser in it. Yeah, that's probably not a word but I think it gets the point across.

These next two photos show the left side of the bucket, before and after.

The 3-point receiver hitch I bought off eBay for fifty bucks needed a little massaging before a hitch insert would work. The hole was punched too far forward, and the hole through the insert I had didn't line up for a pin to fit.

My solution was to cut 1/2-inch off the receiver using a reciprocating saw (sawzall). I used blue tape to use as a guide to get a fairly straight cut.

It works.

I also decided to change the hydraulic fluid filter. The loader didn't move very fast so I was hoping it was a plugged filter. It was a bit challenging to get the filter off. I think it's been on there 20 years or more. I had to resort to a 2-inch wide strap wrench and an 18-inch 1/2-inch-drive breaker bar. The strap wrench prevailed, to the detriment of the old filter. I could have punched a long screwdriver through the filter to use as a handle to twist the filter off but I have a feeling the screwdriver would have just torn through the steel casing. Then I'd be worse off than before.

Surprisingly, these tractors only got a spin-on filter if they were purchased with the optional power steering. With manual steering, there was only a metal mesh screen that would only filter out the big chunks. Tractors with power steering got both the screen and this filter.

The light switch was missing a knob and I found a wingnut laying on the bench that looked like the right size. I grabbed a 1/4-20 die and threaded the end of the switch to accept the wingnut. Crude but effective.

The tractor didn't come with a nut holding the steering wheel. Well, that is, until I bought it, then it had a nut holding the steering wheel. Ha ha ha. So I went about making one, as the thread size was a very odd-ball M12-1.5 size and pitch (assuming I measured the stub correctly). It also didn't help that someone (Bubba?) had used a hammer at one time to whack on the end of the steering shaft, supposedly to get the steering wheel off. Didn't they know to put the nut on the end of the shaft when pounding? So I took a file to the end of the shaft to remove the peened over part, then proceeded to make something on the lathe to fit the shaft. I first tried repurposing a nut by cutting the odd thread pitch, but that didn't work too well. I could feel the nut start to strip out when I tightened it down.

I decided to just start from scratch and make a round brass piece, threaded through the middle. I didn't bother putting flats on it for a wrench. I'll just hand tighten it, as the wheel and shaft are keyed and don't need to be super tight. It gives me (and other folks who might borrow the tractor) peace of mind knowing the steering wheel can't be yanked off.

In addition to this JD 650, I also have a 2007 Kubota BX24D. This next photo shows the size difference between the two tractors. The JD is physically a bit larger than the Kubota and the bucket raises several inches higher, but its engine has one less cylinder and has 3/4 the horsepower (17 vs. 23) of the big K. The strange thing is, both engines are roughly the same displacement (854 cc's vs. 898 cc's). I suppose 20 years of improved technology would account for the increase in horsepower.

8/8/2023 Update: I bought some warning and rear flood lights, then installed and wired them to the existing wiring. I was quite shocked that the wiring harness running to the back of the tractor was still intact.

The best part was that the warning light flasher was still operational. This next photo shows the warning lights (outboard lights) and the inner flood/warning lights on. It was a little tricky to get them on, as they were flashing, so I just took a bunch of photos and found one that caught them on. The flood/warning lights are LED and have both white and orange LEDs. They have three wires, ground/flood/warning. And the warning light circuit on these LED lights has a function such that if you turn the lights on, then off, then on, they flash on their own. They alternate between solid on and flashing when power is cycled to them.

This next photo shows the right flood light on, as that is how the wiring is set up. The wire going to the left flood light is supposed to power a red tail light but since the flood lights came in pairs, I put the left flood where a tail light should go. I still need to wire that circuit so both floods come on at the same time.

This next photo shows all four flood and warning lights on. The left flood is being powered by both the tail light circuit and the warning light circuit, which is why it looks whiter than the right flood light. Yeah, it's confusing... the light switch has five positions (including "off") to control various functions.