"John Smith" wrote in message . ..
I have a chance to pick up an older Bobcat. I don't know anything about
these but they look like fun. It has no engine, original V4 Wisconsin is in
junkyard.

I own an M610 Bobcat (Clark/Melroe) that was made about 1970. I have
owned it 10 years and put about 300 hours on it. It is a terrific
hobby machine but is about as safe as a 50 year old farm tractor,
there is no way you'd find one on a job site in today's
lawyered-world.

When I bought it, it looked like it it had rolled end-over-end down a
hill and was ready for the scrap yard, but it worked great. 10 years
later it looks the same and still works great. Last week it moved
60,000 lbs of rock in an afternoon. I have put a total of about 100
hours into repairs and maintenance.

The motor is the later Wisconsin VH4D air-cooled V4, 30 HP, 100 cu
inch, and yes it has the tapered shaft.

This M610 will lift 2000 lbs up tight against the boom, or 1000 lbs
centered on the forks with a fork attachment. It is tip-limited.
Mine has extra weight plates on the back that make it "twitchy"
without an attachment.

There is no way anyone could own one of these and pay someone to work
on it. You could buy a new machine before you'd get anywhere. Yes
it's a pain to work with, there is stuff you have to hang upside down
to reach but you don't have to mess with it often. Bobcat (now part
of IR) still sells most of the parts. Anything big is expensive but
the seal kits and other small stuff is reasonable.

The Wisconsin engine parts are expensive, I have heard about $3000 to
rebuild a good core. No idea if that is accurate.

Considering how much of the case width the variable speed drive takes
up, it'd be a challenge to fit a different motor and drive in there
but who knows.

The motor sits in about the right 3/4 of the case, with the tapered
crankshaft sticking out the left end. The fixed half of a variable
sheave keys directly to the crank taper. The other half of the
sheave is pushed toward the motor by convoluted rotating hydraulic
cylinder with a swivel fitting. Pressurize the cylinder to move the
halves together to increase speed. Drain it to reduce. The other
sheave on the driveshaft is spring-loaded and takes up the slack.

The driveshaft feeds the forward and reverse clutches in the gearcases
on each side of the machine. There is some reduction in the
gearcases. The driveshaft rpm range is, wild guess, from about 300
rpm at the lowest speed to 3000 rpm at highest speed.

There is also a small hydraulic pump on the motor, on the VH4D driven
by the timing gear. It puts out about 11 gpm at 2000 psi. That is
only a small fraction of th engine output, most of which goes into the
wheel drives for pushing into a pile. Working the machine uses the
full 30 HP output. With good tires it is easy to stall the machine.

If you can see the chain drive under the cover plates, there's a good
reason, i.e. the clutches are shot. More $$$.

It may be worth something as a free parts machine, but my guess is you
could buy a good working machine for less than it'd cost to make a
working machine out of this one.

Bob