 Well I blew a hose in my 4500 backhoe last fall. Got cold and snowed so she sat all winter. I finally got around to working on it this week. Thanks to all that recommended the crows foot and angle wrenches. Worked like a charm. I could never get a straight answer on how to disconnect the lines in the boom through the access hole. Nobody told me all I had to do was loosen the two bolts on both sides of the access hole that loosens the clamp. I was afraid if I did the clamp would be next to impossible to put back on from inside, behind the hoses. I got my hand up under there and low and behold, the screws are extra long to allow the clamp to drop out of the way without coming apart. Then the lines can be dropped and lifted as you remove them giving all the clearance for the wrenches you need. After playing around I decided to remove the hoe from the machine as it didn't look like too much work. I have a heated cab so there was some sheet metal removal required in order to clear the control tower. I was confused on what to do with the three hydraulic lines. I took a guess and married two together that has the male/female fittings. The last one (1") need to be capped. Found out the hard way ;) That hose stayed with the hoe (there is a welded plug for it on the floor plate. The 90 deg fitting had to be capped. Last but not least, disconnected the rear throttle cable. It's sitting on jack stands. I'll pressure wash it and paint it up a little. It's gonna have all new hoses. Small pond coming this summer! Thanks again. Here's a few pics..
http://uscom.com/~hoot/cars/backhoe/
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