I used my excavator on Saturday and parked it back in my barn. Today I noticed some gear oil on the inside of the track and a bit on the floor. I'm not totally familiar with the drive but it must be coming from the gear housing, it is gear oil. I'm not certain how far this must be torn down, also not sure what is leaking although I do see an oil seal on the parts breakdown of the track drive. I took the inspection cover off, cleaned everything and ran that track with it off the ground. At that point I did not notice any more oil leaking or anything abnormal. Any ideas? Is there a vent on the unit that may have burped some fluid out?
hi, the track final drives have what is called a floating seal. usually two metal rings w/ o-rings placed back to back. this floating seal acts as the gear units air breather vent. the two halves of the gear unit housings overlap each other to allow the pressure to escape and provides protection of the seal. if the internal pressure of the drive builds enough the pressure exerts on the ring and squeezes the orings to relieve the pressure. at times debris from breakin wear can get caught and hold the rings from re-seating. if this is the case the gear oil will leak out into the center of the chain links and pool on the ground. the odour of the gear oil will be like natural gas smell. by draining and changing with fresh gear oil this can provide proper lubrication thus less frictional heating and pressure. this floating seal wraps around 360 degrees. i suggest you monitor the unit to make sure it does not cdontinue to leak for it will depend on where you park the unit in its rotation. if you have not done so, change the gear oil in the other side. the gear oil in the drives should be changed every 1,000 hours. if it continues to leak the metal ring or o-ring may be split. the metal ring can break due to shock load, coming down hard off a float, etc... sometimes a foreign object can work into the overlap and grabs the o-ring. you will then need to replace. cheers! adam
Thank you! Thanks Adam for all the great information. I noticed that the gear oil was black and dirty and intended on changing it either way. The machine has only 500 hours on it so it's not really worn. Couple of more questions. Is there a good synthetic you could recommend for this application" ? I was thinking of marine grade synthetic lower unit gear oil, really great stuff. Also, how difficult is it to get to that seal? I am thinking 1. pull the track 2. pull the drive off the machine 3. any special tools needed? Thanks again! :usa
It's still leaking, I checked it today.
Hi Bayrat, 500 hours typically doesn't wear out cone seals, but as Adam stated, a number of other things can cause a problem with them. Debris could pack in there and fowl up the seal, hard shock loads, could have even been installed improperly causing misalignment of the seal surfaces. Getting to the cone seal requires disassembly of the planetary hub. It's not the hardest job in the world, but it is a project. Here's a pic of the planetary hub, item number 2 is the cone seal.
Ah...thanks Willie59, now I see how the two hubs fit together and overlap as well as how that seal fits. The gear oil is really black, however, I was digging a large stump and the machine bounced a few times in doing so. It did not seam that it was severely bouncing, I was in soft ground and sod and given that my back is shot, I attempt to keep everything on the ground as much as possible. No really hard hits occurred. I did lift the stump out and drag it clear of the hole, gently, and easily pushed it along the ground. I'm hoping the cause is dirty oil.
Update Finally had time today to start the wheel motor job. One person doing this is not real easy especially for the first time. I cleaned everything up and sprayed well with penetrating oil in hopes it comes apart OK. The oil is coming from one spot at the bottom. I am half tempted to rap on the housing with a wood block and mallet a few times to see if the seal would reseat itself before I go any further. The disassembly process step 8, describes this: Attach jig between flange holder (1) and hous- ing (6), and tighten 3 bolts M10x1.5 uniform from the housing side. : 8mm Jig : S-5 Does anyone have an idea what the Jig is that is used for the separation of the housing and the flange? Thanks again for any helpful advise.