Virgin 3cx owner

[paddylad]

Hi everybody,
Firstly I just want to thank you all for this forum, it was hugely helpful for research and items to look out for when purchasing.

I'm a novice when it comes to large machinery and I'm hoping to learn from you all, so any tips in any area would be greatly appreciated .

I believe my 3cx is 1981 because of an online search, the serial number is 290503.

I'm planning on doing a service for peace of mind and I have an operators manual on the way from ebay, just wondering what are the best areas to concentrate on?

[Jeremy Rowland]

Hi Patrick welcome to CMN congratulations on buying your 3CX I am guessing that there should be a service guide in the manual that you have ordered for your machine; if not engine oil and filter, plus fuel filters, air filter and hydraulic oil filter would be a good place to start so far as servicing is concerned plus a good lube with the grease gun.

Jeremy

[paddylad]

Thanks for that Jeremy, I'm planning to give it the once over at the weekend, I hope it's not too confusing!

[agrimax]

Yup,80/81 with Leyland engine. Exhaust to the right of the bonnet rather than being Perkins engined with exhaust to the left.Should be white cabbed but perhaps has been painted and reglazed with black cab frameless windows and doors? Looks good anyway.

[paddylad]

Well spotted! The guy I bought it off told me the cab had been replaced because of rust and damage, he had given it a bit of a paint and used it mainly as a loader, the slider at the back seems like it's never moved. Like I said, I'm a novice, when loading with the front bucket, do I adjust the red throttle handle or is that only adjusted when digging with the backhoe?

[agrimax]

Yeah,the hand throttle is really only for digging.Foot throttle for loading and roadwork.

[paddylad]

Thanks Agrimax

[Joes1989]

I'd recommend the proper Jcb grease for the pins and bushes! There are cheaper makes out there but the Jcb hp grease is in my opinion by far the best!

[essexpete]

I'd recommend the proper Jcb grease for the pins and bushes! There are cheaper makes out there but the Jcb hp grease is in my opinion by far the best!

Probably just avoid the real cheap grease. I would agree that when we used to have JCB calling with a van some of their grease and oils were very competitively priced.

[topkit]

There are a heck of a lot of grease nipples on a 3CX i spent a good 2 hours on mine after i had resprayed it, i went round the machine and replaced alot of u/s grease nipples and also don't forget underneith the machine too, if the handbrake does not work it's a really easy job to change the pads and get the adjustment up too. Everything has been fairly well thought out on these machines so servicing is actually not a bad job to do, i would give your cooling system a flush out and put some fresh anti freeze in before the Autumn too.