Have a chance to buy a 1985 hitachi uh123 from a local guy. He says it has around 6,000 hrs. on it. The undercarage looks good and he had the pump rebuilt 500 hrs. ago. What other things should I be checking on it? What would be a fair price for a machine this old. Thanks.
Contact your Deere/Hitachi dealer for parts availability before you but, that sounds like a grey mkt machine. Deere is pretty good at providing parts for grey machine in my area, but I think it would be prudent to make sure that's the case in your area before you buy.
I'm pretty confident the 123 is a north american unit, not grey market. I'll bet most service parts from pump internals to packing kits are available out of Illinois. From what I understand the 123 was the predecessor to the 270. I would make sure to check slew bearing and final drive oil. Also look for excessive engine blow by(N/A Hino) and make sure machine tracks straight. I may have cycle times for tracks used to kinda determine pump condition. It seems to me that the 123 has mechanical controls so there may be some slop.
Thanks for clarifying this roadrunner.
It does have mechanical controls. Would that make it more reliable in the long run? I would probably only be useing it once or twice every couple years if i'm lucky after the inital rush of work is finished. Also he wants 25,000 CAN. Would that be too much for a machine that old? Thanks.
Also what is the slew bearing and what's the best way to check it.
Well my thoughts would be that if the machine sits for long periods of time the mechanical controls leave a lot less to go wrong, easy to repair too. The slew bearing is the bearing that the upper structure rotates on, to check put the bucket on the ground and slightly lift and lower machine, any lateral movement is bad. I'm sure you can measure with dial indicator but for your use the above should work.
You can obtain an inspection form and tips from www.excatech.com telling you what to look for, post a request for illustration of slew ring measuring equipment. I hope this helps you.