Folks, I have a Bobcat 763 that was on loan to a friend for 2 months. When I got the unit back the reservoir was 16qts low on fluid. Filled it back up but im curious to know if damage has been done to the hydrostatic system. The reservoir holds 24qts and the entire system holds 8.5 gals. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge on this subject they could share with me ? Besides the obvious - people just don't take care of things that don't belong to them. Your opinion would be greatly appreciated !
First thing I would do is cut open the hydraulic filter and inspect for any metal and debris in it. This will be able to give you an idea if anything is failing badly. ie pumps, motors, cylinder etc... I would also look into why the machine lost that much oil....did a line burst? if so was it replaced and the tank was never topped up? is a tube cracked under the cab and oil is filling up the underneath? did they attach a aux attachments (hammer, broom/sweeper, auger, backhoe setup) to the front and it and it used up the oil and thats why its low? Good luck!
There are two things that could have happened. If the machine was run completely out of oil it could have cavitated the pumps which is bad. The other being if the machine was severely low on oil it would be very easy to overheat the small amount of oil the is in the system. I would open up the filter and see what it looks like. You could also do a flow test on the gear pump. That would tell you the condition of it. Does the functions of the machine seem slower than you remember? JJ
+1 order a new filter and cut the old one with a PROPER filter cutter (not hacksaw) did it ever stop driving due to low oil?