880 stabilizer mods

Hmmm. I would not do that. Sooner or later it will ruin the top link. Originally there were chains from the middle line, above draw bar to the pins in the middle of the arms. They are much better than nothing. Telescopic stabilizers are best solution, you can find a pair from a dismantler for a reasonable price.

RGDS

If the only thing that you put on the linkage arms is a transport box just get a piece of flat bar, say 2" wide, 1/4" thick, and drill two holes the same size as the stabiliser pins, one at each end.

You can put a bit of crank on each end. This will need a bit of trial and error and won't be adjustable but if you've got the box central on the linkage when you do the measuring it will be a cheap and better alternative to using a top link. The early T20s, 35s, and 135s used this method.

In our DBs the telescopic stabilizers are connected to the quarter holes of the arms and to the final drive pins. They tolerate a lot of horizontal loading. Chain stabilizers have the problem that on rough ground an implement can swing several inches and if the implement is heavy, the shock when the chain gets tight becomes very high. We have all seen several arms repaired by welding and reinforced in different ways.
DB arms are made of excellent steel. Once an arm of 1200 was bent accidentally in forest work. I tried to press it back, but springback was more than 2 inches and after putting more and more pressure, the arm broke like an overloaded leaf spring. So, if you get a bent arm, dont straighten it in room temperature. 400 C preheat will help a lot. If you put the arm red hot, it will be annealed and the steel looses some of its original strength.

RGDS

I agree that chains aren't the greatest idea, but OK if the loads are light and they are adjusted to be tight in transpost position (if they let the arms go right down). Used to use a MF 240 with a loader and concrete block on the back. Had the chains tight with the block up, but had to slacken them to let the block down - so we went through a lot of chains when the threads stripped! The 565 on the same farm was the other way - tightened as it lifted, which was most annoying when you forgot and set off with an implement nearly down!

The problem we found with the Fergy bar-type was that some pattern ones used to bend like mad and you couldn't always use two (depended on the distance between the pins on the implement).

You can have the original stabilisers set up so the load does not swing when linkage is at its lowest or highest without adjustment of anything. To do this with chains you need to constantly adjust as denbute describes.

The original solid bar type are hard to find but there are plenty of the later adjustable sliding ones about but a lot of these have worn threads. Not a hard job to repair, cut the thread off the ball end and weld on a length of threaded bar the right size and also cut the threaded tube section off the sliding tube and weld on replacement threaded tube. You have to groove the end of the bar and ball end to get a good strong weld into it. You used to be able to get a kit to repair them. You need a pair though to stop any swing.

Thanks to all those who replied.
I priced a new stabiliser bar from Case today for an 880 and they quoted £350 !!! - seems madness to me...
I bought a new one for a 996 a few years ago and think it was about £90.
Would the following item 230335292526 from ebay possibly work - its listed for a ferguson but looks like it might work and a whole lot cheaper.
Does anyone else like Sparex or Vapormatic do copies of the orginal?

Des