Emery decided to buy this broken bobcat that he found on craigslist.org in the winter of 2008 and rebuild the motor with his brother Brandon. The bobcat was located out in Western Massachusetts so Emery and Brandon borrowed an equipment trailer and used their F250 turbo diesel to go and pick it up. Since the bobcat had not run in several years they had to figure out a way to load the bobcat onto their trailer.

It was devised that the owner of the bobcat would ask his neighbor to see if he could bring over his case 580 CK backhoe and help with the loading. Once the backhoe arrived, the bobcat was moved from its resting spot and dragged over the ice and snow to an area where the brothers could load it. Once in position the backhoe lifted up the rear end of the bobcat and Brandon backed the trailer under the rear wheels, and then the bobcat was lowered down to the deck. The backhoe was repositioned and the front end was lifted up in the air. With the bobcat suspended on the trailer and off of the backhoe, Emery and Brandon winched the bobcat onto the trailer. Since the bobcat is driven by hydrostatic motors it would not slide well so once it was mostly on the trailer, the backhoe repositioned and pushed the bobcat further onto the trailer to a point where is could be tied down for transport.

Once Emery and Brandon got home, they would have to unload the bobcat in the same manner that they loaded it. They would enlist the help of a good friend and his case 580 super L to do the process in reverse. Once the bobcat was on the ground, the backhoe used the hoe to move the bobcat to a better location where the brothers could work on it. Without this help, the bobcat would have sat where it was for the reminder of the winter and the brothers would not have been able to work on it for awhile.

After removing the valve cover and looking inside the motor the brothers realized that the cylinder head had blown out two of the four freeze plugs that are seated in the head. Worried that the head might be cracked, damaged, or warped, Emery and Brandon decided to buy a new head on Ebay to avoid any future problems. Once they installed the head Brandon realized that the head gasket that came with the cylinder head did not meet the specific tolerances listed in the shop manual, so he had to order another head from the bobcat dealer. After a couple of days the new head gasket came, and the brothers could continue their reassembly of the motor.

Since Emery and Brandon knew that engine coolant from the radiator was mixing into the oil somehow, the decided to leave the oil drainline disconnected to see if any coolant came out when they filled up the cooling system. It was a good thing that they had this forsight, because once they started to add the coolant into the radiator they could hear the coolant leaking from the drainline. After doing some research online, Emery and Brandon decided to take the front cover off the engine block to see if anything had broken in the front cover of the motor. The shop manual had not indicated that there could be anything there to service, but it was worth a look.

With the front cover removed th brothers were able to see that a freeze plug that sits right below the water pump had also blown out of the engine block. Emery and Brandon reinstalled the freeze plug, reassembled the motor, and got ready to fire the bobcat up for the first time in several years. Emery got into the operators cab and turn the ignition switch. The moment of truth was here, but unfortunetly the bobcat was not ready to show any signs of life. It seemed that the starter solenoid on the starter motor was burnt out and it would need to be repalced before any futher attempts to start would be made. After another trip to the local auto parts store, the brothers were able to get the starter motor to turn over, and they made another attempt to start the machine.

This time the starter motor engaged like it should, but the machnies hydrostatic drive pumps were engaging and moving the machine forward. Since the starter motor was under a load the engine would not spin fast enough to start. Anxious to start the machnie Emery and Brandon turned to their father for some advice. He suggested putting the machine up on jackstands to remove the pressure from the motors and see if it would start. Once the brother had the tires off the ground Emery got back in the cab and turn the key... and it fired right up. After some time, money, and lots of paitence, their bobcat was resurrected from the dead.

Now that the bobcat was mobile the Brothers decided to start to look for attachments for their machine. When the Brothers bought the bobcat, the owner included a large tractor bucket that could be adapted for use with the bobcat. Since the bobcat was useless without a bucket, Brandon and Emery decided to make this bucket fit their machine. Brandon began by cutting off the old tractor brackets and grinding them smooth to the bucket so the universal bobtach plate could be welded on. Emery bought a universal plate on Ebay and the Brothers contacted a local welder to weld the plate to the bucket.

A couple months later, Emery stumbled upon a small backhoe attachment for the bobcat on Craigslist.org. Brandon and Emery purchased the backhoe attachment because it was a good size for the bobcat and it needed some work to become functional again. The stabilization brackets from the backhoe attachment to the bobcat where twisted and Broken so Brandon cut them off with the grinder. The Brothers designed a new quick-attached setup utilizing an old plow push beam and some pins. After the backhoe was up and running Brandon repacked the seals on the hydraulic piston to keep the cylinders from leaking and also to keep the boom from creeping down when in was in the up position.

Since Emery and Brandon wanted to use their bobcat in the winter they decided to look for a door that would fit their cab. Since the bobcat is an older model it was hard to find an actual Bobcat brand door that would fit the machine. Brandon found a door on craigslist.org that came off of a CAT 247 skidsteer and he did some research and decided that it might fit the bobcat. After a slight modification to the hinges and acquiring some parts from the local CAT dealer, the door was put on the bobcat and worked like it was supposed to. Brandon then constructed a threshold that would go around the dump piston cradle in the bobcats frame to keep any unwanted material from coming in through the gap.

Now that the cab was enclosed Brandon started to figure out a way to plumb in a heater box in the cab. After doing some research online, Brandon located a Modine equipment heater on Ebay that would work for his application. Brandon and Emery drained the coolant from the machine and plumbed in the new heater. While the coolant was out of the engine, the Brothers added an in-line coolant heater for cold winter starts.