Hi, I am still cleaning up and testing my, new to me, loader. This has no bucket but forks. If I push the forks into a dirt pile and give it some gas the front wheel spins but no rear wheel spin. I can see the drive shaft to the rear axle turning but nothing is happening at either rear wheel. I thought of a two possibilities. One is that the previous owners that used this in a wrecking yard to move cars, had no idea that it didn't have power to rear, or more likely that at some time because of something that broke a part or two were removed purposely so that no more damage was done and the thing could be used with just two wheel drive. So, do we think that the axle shaft splines stripped out or the planetaries got wiped out? Could the planetary gears just have been removed? There is that big plate in the center of the axle with the plug in the middle, I can just pull that off to inspect with out wheel falling off or having it supported on blocks? I suppose it is not something like a missing cotter pin? Doug
Drain the gear oil Doug, and pull that cover - I doubt it's something easy, but you won't know till you get in there.
I would agree, but would like to know more info things like model and maybe serial number? Even some thing as simple as a picture would tell a lot.
This place http://www.minnpar.com/ can probably help you out, with a manual or parts book.
I pulled the right side cover and found that there was no axle shaft. There were no metal particles, shavings, or any sign of damage. The planetary looks to be real good all the gears nice, bearings smooth. Unfortunately I had the wheel turned slightly so it was not easy to be positive about whether the other side axle is in or not. Looked like it but will take other side off to check anyway. So the question is why no axle shaft/sun gear? Either the universal joint failed or they wanted it to be 2 wheel drive? My machine has no 2 wheel or 4 wl selector so it is possible that for the use they were putting this to, they felt getting rid of four wheel was better? Of course I don't have the axle so that doesn't real mean much. I can get by with 2wd for now and see if I can pick up an axle somewhere. The serial number of the machine is 5BC0157 model 55AG I posted some pictures in my first post here. HeavyEquipmentForums Here is one of the basic machine.
If they wanted only 2 wd, it seems it would have been easier to remove the driveshaft. Hard to know why, but likely the axle or u joint broke, and just removing it was the cheapest fix. On good hard ground, you'll probably get by. Chains on those front wheels could be a help. My rear steer Trojan is pretty bad though when it gets muddy, slippery, etc. Without the 4 wd, lots of times I couldn't move it. If you search google, there's places that scrap these machines for parts.
Hi Mike, Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I guess you would be right about it easier to just remove the drive shaft. The u joint probably broke and to use it they just pulled out the shaft. But it does seem like a lot of work to remove one and then put everything back together with out a new one in there. Plus I am getting the feeling that with out the axle, the oil from the diff goes to the u joint cavity where it is much easier to leak out. I suspected that side because of the 90 weight leaking from the seal at the trunion area. I see that I can buy a new axle shaft from tractorparts.com. It will just take me a while to come to grips with the price. Plus I need the sun gear too. I wanted to be able to plow snow with this so eventually the rear drive would be important. I am going to clean it up and mess with it a bit and make sure every thing else is decent before committing to much money to it. Doug
Well, both axles are missing. On the left side I can see metal particles in the axle tube back where the bushing is by where the u joint would be. So this side must have gone bad and for some reason both sides were removed. Planetarys look fine, wheel bearings okay. Just need two axles and sun gears and seals. Doug
You might want to drain the differential and check the fluid for signs of other damage. You could flush out the axle tube while it is drained.
I think you should drop the complete axle and strip it right down before deciding what parts you need. The fact that there are metal particles in the tube sounds alarm bells to me. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you weren't looking at the remains of a differential failure TBH.
Thanks, I plan on doing more inspection on the complete diff assembly before proceeding with any parts purchase. Doug