I was pushing some brush up to burn and the machine(125e dresser loader) was doing fine and when I parked it to call it a day I could hear fluid pouring and it was coming from underneath. I crawl under there and see a hole about the size of a quarter. I never heard a noise or anything suspicious while operating. I can see a gear through the hole. The housing looks to be about a quarter inch thick. Can a plate be put over this and welded? Also what could have caused this? It looks like the whole machine would have to come apart to take this out and is a bigger project than I'm capable of. Any help would be greatly appreciated this is my first post thanks!
I know zip about Dresser but that almost looks like its the bellhousing where the torque converter sits.
That very well could be what it is You'll have to excuse my ignorance I wasn't really sure which one it was. The dipstick under your feet is empty since the fluid has drained
if its like the 175b then the bell housing gets filled with tranny fluid when the rear frame is filled . looks like the drain bolt and "nipple" have sheared off. could have been plugged with epoxy and it failed.
i dont believe its pressurized. when i remove the starter on my loader i was shocked to see oil in the bell housing....but for what ever reason its supposed to fill that.
I think that is where a drain plug used to go. Did you pull a belly pan in order to see that? There is usually a little bit of oil that seeps out of the converter and down into the bell housing. Usually here is a gravity drain or a sump pump the pushes the oil back into the transmission.
The only thing I took off to be able to see it was a small skid plate. No signs of the plug or piece of metal that blew out. What's my best option for a fix? I would love to fix it as is without having to remove it obviously but it is in a tight space. I plan to take off the larger skid plate which will allow a little more room to work thanks for the feedback!
This is where your torque converter lives. The gear engages the starter. I've had two Case 580 K with similar arrangement. They were close serial numbers, otherwise identical. One has open hole for drainage, the other a threaded hole for a plug. My Dresser TD7G dozer is a size smaller than yours, but very similar. It has a plug. I would have to do more research, I'm thinking, not stating fact. I believe this should be dry, but a common problem with torque converters is leakage at the seal where it joins the output shaft. A plug that could be drained in a proper place makes less mess than an open hole when leakage is minor.
I'm a welder, but I would not attempt this in place. Cast iron is tricky stuff to weld. Extensive cleaning is critical, Anything you do under there is going to cause even more oil to drool out the hole. I might try it with the tractor upside down. You'd have to drain all fluids, and involve a much bigger loader, but that is feasible.
If your thinking is right and this housing where the hole is typically dry then the leak could be coming from somewhere else? Or did I misunderstand?
From what I see that does not look like a fresh break causing the hole. Any chance there is a Dresser/Komatsu dealer any where near you you could go to and get a look at a parts breakdown to see what the converter is like. Or maybe even find an old guy working there that knows something about this machine to know if it is a wet or dry flywheel housing? Find it hard to believe that hole just happened and looks that dirty. Plus the ring gear looks rusty and if it was normally running in oil that would be strange.
He will hate me, so don't tell him I said so. The greatest authority in the world on these tractors id Reggie Lussier, of Winmill Equipment In Rutland VT. I believe if yours is an E series, it left a USA factory as an International. I believe G series was Dresser. Mine was built in Korea using parts identical to the E series.
Part 30 is a seal. They leak.
The cast iron bell housing with your hole is not in this drawing. It should be dry, but the seal shown tends to seep. My two backhoes have each leaked. I had one repaired at the dealer for under 1000 dollars. I believe some had a plug enabling you to drain it into a suitable container, instead of dribbling everywhere like a mouse.
Do you have IH 3.9 litre, IH engine, or 3.9 litre Cummins? I believe it could have either now, but E series came with IH engine of similar specs. G series had Cummins when built.
Ok, then if this is like the one in the pictures above it is a sealed converter and the flywheel housing should be "dry". The two places I see that could be a problem are seal ring at #10, think that would be some what unlikely as it is a stationary oring type seal. Even if it did dry out and crack it should only weep oil slowly. The seal at #14 seems to be a better place for a fast leak thinking that is a lip type seal and if lip failed it could leak pretty fast. Other than those a crack in one of the housings like #11 or #3 could also cause a major leak as would a bearing failure or some other fastener like rivets holding impeller to the impeller shaft. Hate to be bearer of bad news but I find it hard to picture any repair short of removing and disassembling the converter. And if removing don't forget to remove bolts holding flex plate to the flywheel!
The more I look at the photos the more I wonder about the leak. The area at the transmission side of the housing has all the dirt washed off of it making me wonder if the leak is from the yoke seal area and maybe some hoses above that might be leaking. I would suggest doing a little more looking with the deck plates removed and the engine idling and having a bright light to make sure of where the leak is coming from. You can get the torque converter out by dropping it through the bottom of the machine but it is not an easy job. Most of the time people I knew back in those days just pulled the engine and converter as a set. I seem to remember the early G model machines had the IH engine and then production shifted to the Cummins engine. You couldn't buy the International engine anymore so most ended up with the change kit to install a Cummins engine when the International died. The Cummins engine they used did not have a balance shaft so the exhaust manifolds and stacks would break when the engine vibrated at low idle and hit the engine hood. They didn't fix the vibration. Instead we cut the hole in the hood bigger and then welded a box over the top of the welded area. Internationals were made in Illinois and then Korea and then back in Illinois and then in Poland. I know the H model Dressers were made in Poland as we got the first batch that had tons of bad undercarriage components and problems with the blade linkages in the TD9 units.
I seem to remember the early G model machines had the IH engine and then production shifted to the Cummins engine. You couldn't buy the International engine anymore so most ended up with the change kit to install a Cummins engine when the International died. The Cummins engine they used did not have a balance shaft so the exhaust manifolds and stacks would break when the engine vibrated at low idle and hit the engine hood. They didn't fix the vibration. Instead we cut the hole in the hood bigger and then welded a box over the top of the welded area. Mine has the box. I think it may be original. Weld is messy like a mechanic added it, According to an international authority mine was the 16th to be built in Korea.
Agree with John C, I was thinking you knew the oil actually cam out the hole but looking at the oil dripping from the case up hill from the hole now makes me wonder. I know up here in NY oil runs down hill almost all the time! I would remove any panels you can and then refill the oil and start it while watching where oil IS coming from! Might even be handy to have a second person do the starting while you do the watching. Would hate to learn you pulled and resealed the converter to find out a hose had failed causing the "real leak"!
We would drill & tap the housing for 1/4 " bolts & install a patch plate to cover the hole . And back to the race track .
td25c, Thing is if it is suppose to be a "dry flywheel housing" and it is leaking oil a patch like that would only mask the problem till the housing got so full of oil it would overheat the converter or push the oil out some place else. I still thing the OP needs to confirm exactly where the oil is coming from before we get to excited about how to repair it. No sense in putting a new roof on the house if the water is coming from a leak in the water pipe from the well!
Understand that Ken . Was throwing out ideas on a cover for the hole . But like JohnC mentioned the machine has obvious leaks from above that aint coming from out of the hole in the housing . Notice the drips & oil washed housing . The hole in the housing is a bit odd . It don't look factory and yet it don't look like it was from damage .
Pretty sure that is just a casting drain hole that didn't get a lot of cleanup on manufacturing... most of the 'blowout' holes I have seen on cast cases usually have a good taper to the edges not straight like that one, the last one I fixed with JBWeld owner wanted a cheap/quick fix... been holding several years on a 4 speed range tranny... side blew out a 2 inch hole from chips of gear teeth getting wedged in the case so I cleaned out what I could with a magnet and jbwelded it and told him to go easy on grinding the gears
sure looks like a torque conv housing drain hole to me.looks like maybe a front trans seal behind the TC went..time to check trans fluid levels, put a big pan under her and see. If something grenaded it woulda made a LOT bigger hole than that.
If my machine has six varieties of fluid, it probably leaks from ten places. If an old machine doesn't leak it is out of fluid. I say that, but my Dresser is the one exception. I've had, or have three Identical Cummins engines with very similar torque converters. Two leak steadily, until one got bad enough to need surgery. In my case, old tractors typically get used for an hour at a time. Leaking a cup is messy, but tolerable. On the occasions it runs all day in hot weather, oil gets thin, and leaks at a higher rate, is when I get alarmed. These are not terrible to get to, if you have access to a grease pit, not unpleasant at all. A seal might be $20.00, A remanufactured torque converter might be $400.00. Do take the advice of others in this thread, and confirm the leak is coming from inside first. This is the low point, A leak anywhere will drool off this casting. Your tractor has a reversible fan. It could push oil forward, or rearward. It does not look like engine oil.