I am going out to check on an excavator and have a few questions on how to diagnose any problems that the turntable might have and severity of the fix for it. 1. how can you tell if the slew bearing seal is bad and how hard is it to replace? 2. I have read that about 1/16 of an inch play is at the end of the specs for the slew bearing?, I am assuming this is not something you want to replace. 3. turning motor, how can you tell if the seals are bad on it? 4. the turn table gear grease, do you just inspect this visually? I am concerned with the turntable because the pictures I have seen show dust collected on it, am assuming residual moisture from somewhere...if grease, would it be most likely from the bearing seal being busted...over filled maybe... or is there someway that the gear grease escaped to the turntable?
put the bucket all the way out on ground gently lift it up and down while looking at swing bearing at front under boom lift cyld check for up and down movement there. swing around a couple of times listen for noises (grinding) and is it smooth.check the oil in the swing gear box if it's leaking it run's into the turn table housing and overfill's it then it leaks out around the turntable bearing but someone has to keep refilling the swing gear box normally to get enough oil in it to leak enough to do that and the bottom frame will be covered in an oil /grease mix probley about 1/4" to 1/2" thick
thanks for the reply, I am trying to upload a picture of the excavator... will it leak around turntable if the swing gear box was filled and then it has been sitting?, or do you have to run it to create pressure enough to push it out? if it has been leaking out the swing bearing, how can you determine if it is just grease or hydraulic fluid that came from the gear box? do you think I could pump grease into swing bearing and see if thin fluid comes out? just trying to think through in my mind...how big a job is it to replace the gear seal?, how about the swing bearing seal?
it will leak if it's been sitting they seam to leak more in summer time oil is thinner it takes gear oil. it doesn't hold much about 2-3 gallons. to change gear box seal you have to remove entire gear box, if the stuff leaking out is kinda shiny and oily it's most likely gear oil , gear oil normally has a pretty stinky smell. I normally don't worry to much about the seal around swing bearing it's more of a dust cover as long as you grease it regular and not get it in deep water . from the picture it doesn't look shiny but I don't know how long it's been setting .If it's been well greased they will leak grease out but that's ok because it purges the bearing How many hrs and whats the asking price,looks like some glass is missing, whats the play in pin's in the boom and bucket like, also the tracks look like they are kinda tight maybe to keep them from coming off
its only been sitting a couple of weeks, I am going out to see it Tuesday, I won a bid "unseen", but have the opportunity to back out if it was described wrong, the hours are 4910, and has been serviced every 250 hours...this government agency replaces between 4500 and 5000 hours., I purchased it for just under 14k., ya I noticed how tight they are, but the sprockets tracks and rollers from pics seem to be around 80%..., I didn't get a good picture of the idler or pins...but hoping at that hours it should be ok. i am assuming the tracks should be around 1.5-1.75 inch sag between idler and front roller?
ok, I kicked the excavator around today, all fluids were clean and within ranges, I could not measure any movement when swinging arm 90 degrees, or when I lifted up...nor did I feel anything when swinging around, the fluid on the swing frame was definitely grease, final drives tracked straight front and back, and hardly any play on boom pin...seemed to have some on bucket.... my only concern was the pre-inspection showed a 4 inch diameter drip of hydraulic fluid below the final drive...this is after sitting 2-3 weeks...but it didn't show leaking after I turned it off..should I be concerned to much about that?
No, probably not, not for that price anyway. Sounds like you stole a hoe.
sounds like a good deal. Pay attention to that final leak, as excavator finals for that size machine will cost you more than your initial purchase price. All in all, you stole that hoe. Those cases of that vintage are the same as the linkbelts and sumito's and are top knotch pieces for their day
Yeah you stole that one. The final drive leak is probably a line/fitting going to the drive motor or the duo-cone seal in the drive motor. If it's a hyd. line/fitting easy fix, if its the seal then it gets into more $$. I say this as my 321 is still waiting on parts for both finals in the dealer's shop, fortunately this one is covered under warranty.
thanks for all the help...getting it shipped to my place Thursday...I think first thing is to pull the final drive panels off ...hopefully a line or fitting!!
even if its the seals, its better to spend what 6-800 for a seal than 11k for a rebuilt final
ok, got it home ran it around for about 30 min. while checking it out some more...everything seems to work well, however one of the pads seems like it wants to pop up a little...I actually noticed it in the picture as well, you can see it near the back, It flattens out when underneath but than buckles a bit at the top, but there is clearance for it to drop in(nothing blocking it..does it just need a little oil and be run around awhile more? also found a small leak in the hydraulic radiator, haven't pinpointed it yet..my plan is to hit it with some degreaser than put a small amount of water pressure to clean, get it running and watch for leak...these can be soldered?
I've had a radiator shop do hydraulic oil coolers in the past. as far as the final drive goes. if it's the duo cone that's leaking, they're not that bad to do, just time consuming
anything more to removing hydraulic cooler than taking hoses off, brackets and removing? will it drain from the reservoir?
It could. I don't remember how the lines fasten to the cooler. If they are JIC or flat-face o-ring you can get some caps or plugs to install after removing lines. If they are flange connections it's a little more tricky.
an older farmer around here said they did those repairs "all day long" without removing the radiator, they just drained it and silver soldered it, my question is what kind of internal working pressure is there on this cooler?