hello i am having a problem with the hitachi ex60urg leaking hydraulic fluid out of the swing bearing the hydraulic fluid is pushing all the grease out of swing bearings. there is alot of hydraulic fluid all over the lower body. at first i thought it may be a bad seal in the swing motor however the gear oil level seems to be ok about 2" gear oil on the dip stick and holding. so im focusing on the center joint that is what im thinking is the problem. i found a seal kit for this unit how hard is it to replace? looks like 7 hoses on top 7 on bottom 3 screws on bottom holding center joint in place. i did notice a rubber boot on top as well. once i get the center joint out how hard is it to replace to seals? should i leave this work to a shop? any information on this repair would be great. Thanks Luke
hey luke check out this thread HeavyEquipmentForums I just rebuilt the center joint on my ex120. Neither choice is pretty. for me a rebuilt joint was $1000 and I figured another grand to have it installed. so I spent $100 for a seal kit and then spent 8 hours to remove rebuild and replace the joint. Thats 8 hours covered in cold hydraulic oil. It seems to me the smaller the hoe the harder it is to get at the hoses. I also think you will need someone to help when it comes to lowering and hoisting the 60 pound joint. Other than what I've mentioned it's very easy. Good luck!
Hi Luke, First of it is your centre joint, the big o-ring that keeps the oil in the joint to be precise! The joint is not to hard to seal at all. done a few this year on various hitachis a few ex60-2 no urgs, although the joint is the same, same seal kit! The biggest problem on your machine will be getting it out, same zero tail swing machine!!! Just mark all hoses top and bottom, put a line on the joint to help with putting it back together and mark the position of the joint on the body too! Once out it aint a big job to reseal, but one thing to do is when separating it keep it over a bucket or something because there is little ball bearings in there that will go everywhere as you separate it ! All in all not to bad of a job, i dont have a EX60 urg manual but i do have a ex60-1 manual that i will dig out and email to you!, the urg machine is based on a -1 to the best of my memerie Aiden
thanks for the needed advise and manual for machine i think i will dive into this oil pool myself
i dont have a vacuum pump to hold the hydraulic oil in the system/hoses if i let them dump does the air work its way out of the machine when new joint gets installed or does the system need to be purged?
No It should be fine, just run it at low idle for a few minutes!
Its a good tip to vent the Hydraulic tank first, else you will be soaked in cooking fat, plus do the top hose's first blanking off the pipes and keep them up and out of the way of the joint.
thanks thanks to all members for assisting in this repair it is people like you who make this forum work. i will document my progress for this repair
If you've never done one before, I would advise taking a pic of joint from above and below, just for reference purposes upon re-install to note orientation. Also, If the fittings in the top and bottom of joint are o-ring boss type, be sure and replace those o-rings while you have the unit removed.
hi aiden, my name is les and i was wondering if you could email me the same manual that you sent luke for his hitachi ex 60-1 as i have a ex 60-1 that has a leaking center pin seal and i was wanting to see how to change the seals myself. any help would be appreciated. thanks. les.
One word of caution. Check a parts page and see if there is a ring of uncaged ball bearings that are between the outer housing and the inner stem. If there is excessive wear as the joint rotates is cuts a groove in the housing and makes it nearly impossible to get apart and even if you do, it`s baically junk. I`m not saying your`s is set up like that, but it`s worth knowing what you`re getting into ahead of time. Good luck and have fun.
After thinking and reading your original complaint, you don`t have a center joint problem, you have a swing drive problem. If the center joint was leaking the oil will be on the ground. You said the lower car body frame is covered in oil and grease from the rotex bearing. If that is the case, then the drive motor seal is leaking and has blown out the bottom pinion drive seal and is filling up the bearing
at the moment as soon as i start the machine oil starts drippping out onto the gound at a rate of about one litre every three mins. and thats without even operating the machine.
So then the question still remains. Is it leaking oil onto the ground or is it leaking onto the lower car body frame under the swing bearing ?
I know this is an old thread but I just acquired a 1995 EX60-2 with 4600 hrs and I see hydraulic fluid (looks like) seeping out of the seam beneath the swing bearing. It's dripping onto the undercarriage (track structure). It's leaking out of the downhill side of the excavator. I cleaned out the compartment with the swing motor and swivel joint. I don't see any leaks there. The leak occurs whether the machine is running or not. I don't see any dripping beneath i.e. the underside of the swivel joint. So it seems to indicate the swing motor seal is bad. I can't find any diagram of the ring gear area where I'm guessing the fluid is pooled. My biggest question is where the fluid is coming from. There must be multiple seals within the hydraulic motor so I'm wondering how hydraulic fluid itself can leak? Would it be the motor gear oil...but according to the dipstick, the level is good--above the top fill mark? Btw how does one fill that? I have a service manual on order. The hydraulic fluid for the machine is low, about 7/8" showing in the glass. It hasn't dropped noticeably in the last couple of days. I intend on adding fluid (zinc free) so I can monitor the level. Besides these questions about the diagnosis and the source of the leaking fluid, I wonder if the machine can be operated until I get this leak fixed. I haven't gotten too much information from the person I purchased it from who vouched there were no leaks. And now I'm learning about the swing motor, swing bearing and the swivel joint and all that good stuff!
I'm no mechanic but I just ripped apart my 89 EX60 center joint. My machine was leaking HF from the access to the main swing gear compartment. I checked my swing gear oil and it was fine. So I took apart the center joint, it was a bit of work to get it out but figured out my leaking oil problem. The O ring at the top of the lower case was shot. The reason the oil was coming out slow was it was only case pressure not line pressure. I will order all my seals tomorrow and hopefully have it up and running soon. As the guys said you will be covered in HF for a few hours but much better than paying $1000!! Good luck.
Hi Aidon, I am just rebuilding my EX60 center joint and have had a hard time finding the right manual. If you could please email me a copy as well that would be great. [email protected] Cheers, Colin.
I'd like to chime in on an old thread. I have an older Hitachi ex60urg with a similar hydraulic leak. I'm trying to arm myself with as much information as possible before I try to fix this rig myself. Aidon, would it be possible to get a copy of the manual you mentioned earlier in this thread? My address is : [email protected] , I would greatly appreciate any help that was offered. Thanx
I would also like any manuals that anyone can send me: [email protected] My ex60urg sounds like it has a hydraulic leak bypassing internally when the machine is just sitting there near the hydraulic tank area you can hear a hissing. the travel motors do not seem to have the best power either. has a hard time climbing up stuff without the aid of the bucket to help pull. i think i may have oil crossing over from one travel motor to another circuit or a weak motor. no oil leakage from either motor but sometimes 1 motor will not move the track at all unless you engage the other motor and moving one forward and the other backwards can flat out stall the e ngine if you do it aggressively, Again makes me think i have oil crossing over. without manuals it makes this hard to diagnose.
Hey everybody. Again, I know this is an old thread, but I just purchased a Hitachi ex60, and its leaking oil at the center joint. Could anyone be kind enough to email me some of the info I'll need to fix it? I'll attack anything, but I like to have the info before diving in. Thanks!
I too have a Hitachi ex60urg If someone would be kind enough to email me a copy of the manual it would be greatly appreciated Thank you John [email protected]
Having the same leaking problem
hello i too have an new to me 1988 ex60-1. the bar that holds the center joint from turning broke, and one of the hoses twisted and leaks....what exactley are these hose fittings called? it has a flat face and an oring in the flat face surface....also if you could e-mail me a manual that would be awesome! I would like to do my own repairs! [email protected] there is a lot of good info here! thanks
Welcome to HEF katers . FYI a EX60-1 is a completely different animal than a Ex60URG. The EX60-1 service manual,you need is Hitachi # KM-099-00 . The oring /fitting arrangement you are referring to is known as ORFS . See (2) screenshots below from the parts catalog. .
thanks for the info! any thoughts of changing new hoses to jic?
I wouldn’t, unless you have nothing else available.