I bought a new to me 1997 Case 580sl backhoe at auction with 2000 hours on it. Everything is good and tight on the loader and hoe but had issues with the brakes on the drive home. I had brakes when I left but about half way home the brakes warning light came on and I slowed up to test the brakes and had no pressure on the brake pedals. The pedals push to the floor with little resistance. I also noticed that the backhoe was very weak. In fourth gear the machine had a lot of trouble just getting rolling and small hills I would have to shift down to climb. Could I have had a brake hung up and while driving home could I have burnt up the brakes? The parking brake also does nothing when applied. Where do I start and how much money is this gonna cost me?
Welcome to HEF Iowagold :drinkup The brakes use master cylinders that are automatically topped up from the hydraulic system, so they should never run out of oil. The brakes on a SL are not adjustable, if you have no pedal 1) oil is leaking from a damaged brake line - check for any external leakage 2) oil is leaking past the piston seals in rear axle - which will overfill the rear axle - so check the level ASAP = overhaul the rear axle 3) there are no brake linings left = overhaul the rear axle = $$ 4) parking brake is probably not working cause there are no linings left but I could be wrong - you hope.... Re the driving of the machine ....... sounds like you started off in 4th? :eek2 Backhoes should start off in 1st or 2nd gear & then change to 3rd & then 4th on the go...... + you will need to change down to 3rd maybe even 2nd when going up hills :yup
Altman thank you for the reply. I have an update on the brakes. I went out to start looking into the brake issue today and the brakes work like normal good stopping power but still no parking brake. To drive the backhoe home it was about an hour and a half drive so I'm assuming that the oil had warmed up and then it started not braking properly. I have also read about issues with the hydraulic oil foaming up. Could this be my issue. I should be getting my parts manual and operators manual soon so that will hopefully get me in the right direction. I plan on replacing all fluids and filters once I know what to use for fluids. Hopefully I don't find any issues in the axles or hubs. Any others tips on where to start looking or what to service is greatly appreciated.
Any progress with this issue? I just had a very similar problem