Howdy All, Purchased a Case 580C a few months back to pull quite a few pine stumps from a block i will be building on. Not much to look at but is one owner from new and has been serviced and repaired when required. When i purchased the machine one thing i did notice was a small amount of oil around the front main seal which i have been watching. A couple of days ago i used the machine for about 4 hours in the same place pulling about a dozen stumps, when i moved i noticed there was quite an amount of engine oil on the ground. Checked the front engine area and noticed quite a lot of engine oil around this area. Anyway stripped it down today to replace the seal and found a small issue that maybe people hear might be able to help me out with. There is a groove on the crank fan belt pulley, over the years i have come across pulleys that have a small groove for the seal to run in and some that do not. Is this groove meant to be there or not. I did notice in the service manual it specifies a measurement for how far into the timing cover the seal should be seated. The groove is only .3 of a mm smaller than the main surface and if this groove is not meant to be there can it be machined out or will i require a new pulley. Really dont want to tear up a new seal and have to do this again in the near future. Thanks Mik
Boreham, Ideally, there should be no groove on the pulley. What you are looking at though is a speedy sleeve, which has been previously fitted to the pulley to help prevent the oil leak. They are a quick fix idea that work reasonably well as long as some type of filler / epoxy has been used to fill the original wear groove before fitting. If you are looking for a more permanent repair, take the pulley to a machine shop & ask them to fabricate & install a more heavy duty sleeve.
Thanks Alrman for the info. Just goes to show you can learn some thing new everyday. Ive been working in fabrication and maintenance for 25 years and have never heard of these speedy sleeves. These sleeves could have saved me a hell a lot of heartache over the years so thanks for that. Anyway got the pulley fixed went and raided a mates shaft stock and lathe and sweated a new sleeve on. Mik
One other option that works sometimes is to seat the seal a little shallower so that the lip runs on a fresh surface. For this to work, the seal has to be relatively deep and you need some kind of spacer to ensure that it is seated evenly.
Thats some good info clay digger if you need it fixed in a hurry and away from the workshop. Would be quite a cheap fix as well. My mate is a toolmaker by trade so i have access to some pretty neat machining equipment so its no hassle to get it fixed right Mik PS Love that part of Canada and even the name Saskatchewan brings a chuckle