Yep newb with a concern: Why my hydro oil look like pearl metal flake bowling ball paint??? I mean it’s pretty on some things BUT NOT IN MY RETURN TANK FILTER BOX!!!! what gives experts??? Nee's sum hep plez ? Is this normal use or definitely something died amount ? I’m working on slew motor that quite couple weeks ago- case spit out oring and drained it’s guts at idle, but just before that the right side travel motor quit. I’m at a loss. I pulled the slew assembly and gear box looks fine, very minor brass micro pearl in oil there too, but nothing like this return tank. Well I’m prepared - roast away.....
Looks like brass and you generally find brass in hydraulic pumps and motors. Usually as a thrust surface and for the slipper shoes on piston pumps/motors. Put a magnet near the shavings, if they don't stick then its brass. Sadly you are in for a HUGE amount of work with that much contamination in the system.
What exactly does this mean? Never flushed a system before
Seriously, it’s a situation where you have to remove each component, disassemble, clean and repair as needed, drain and clean all the hoses, the reservoir, new oil and then kidney loop the system until the contamination level is below the ISO4406 spec for that machine. It’s super time consuming, ugly, heartbreaking and expensive, but your mileage may vary.
Pretty much. Lots of places for the glitter to hide in an excavator. Valves, cylinders, swivel joint etc. Its going to be a little more involved than just changing the failed component and sticking new filters in it.
The only good thing about brass in this case is it doesn’t score like steel particles.
That amount of metal should indicate something doesn't work properly. Does the machine travel straight, is one travel motor more powerful than the other? Do you have drifting cylinders? Is the machine overheating? Are there new noises happening when you try to move something? Have you checked any pressures yet?
Man you guys are Super Rays of Sunshine . LOL yeah so prior owner replaced one driver side track motor with brand new Hy-trac unit. It doesn’t physically match the oem 35D Nachi drive. Nachi has all 4 hoses straight into body from rear side. The Hytrac unit looks like a 50D style body. The old unit was slower and machine tracked noticeably to the old side. Work mode it was slight, however in travel mode the Nachi would speed up but the hytrac would whine and of course while whining it would track way harder toward the old Nachi side. Like a newb I totally didn’t check the fluid condition at all to know if the glitter was there before I took possession. Machine has lots of minor leaks between OEM hoses that seep on the connection seals and rams with seals seep too. So I refilled with some new oil to keep levels up in sight glass. Used unit for couple days minor crap and figured wait till she dies...... well, I was tracking short bit. Went stationary and armed around few minutes then went to move..... ****! The Nachi side wasn’t moving! Climb down and fluid pouring out belly pan. Figured hose toast..... NOPE! Friggin find case oring barely sticking out of KYB slew motor and idle pressure just flowing niagra falls down the gear box! GD! So I pull unit out, tear down the marriage and find some glitter inside. Worried now but I don’t mess with the hydro top half, just break down the gear box and clean it up. Pretty clean inside other than the minor glitter trace figure no worries just get new oring and reunite the marriage once again. Get heavy bitch back in house but haven’t been able to get back to bolt up. All hoses but pilot line rebooked up. Gotta get case drain hose back off and refill motor side w new oil then was gunna test fire the biotch to see what else was toasted. Did buy a bunch of fittings and a gauge 0-5000psi unit to try and fit inline for testing purposes. I don’t know much about what I’m doing seriously LOL. I’m a guy with an old retired utilities abused machine tryna make a piece on my land. Oh yeah , the house left right slop at idle is pretty bad. More than 7 degrees maybe. All other functions worked just a touch slow in my experience against newer machines I’m used to working. I got this thing for auction prices so now I’m paying. If that says anything
You will have to take that swing motor apart as there may be a lot of brass in there. I haven't had one of those apart and Deere/Hitachi uses mostly steel barrels with brass seal plates but I don't know for sure.
It’s a great idea to hire someone like John to look these things over. Used hoe purchases by home-gamers go sideways so quick. And it’s a shame to see it happen. I know, I know, once in a great while, some dude gets lucky, buys a auction machine cheap, uses it for a project and flips it for a profit. That’s rare.
Flipping machines for a profit. Most everyone I've dealt with swears they have sold old junk for more than they paid for it. Do you know the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story. The fairy tail begins with "Once upon a time." The sea story starts with "This is no sxxt." I've heard a lot of sea stories.
Lol. Not picking on you LMC. I sincerely hope you don’t get too far upside down on this machine. And the crappy thing is, you can dump 20k in that thing tomorrow and it won’t be worth a penny more than what you paid for it. Keep asking questions and we’ll try to help.
Well - I can say that I’m not scared of a challenge, I love fixing my own crap, and I love learning from others how to take care of my own. So with that said, THANK YOU! I’ve no intention of flipping this machine or one day asking more than it’s worth at this point I’m just happy to have a hoe! It does scare me the potential to sink K’s in a unit like this but I also realize these toys ain’t no po’ kids game either lol. Long as I can get it back operational my youngin’s will get to learn sum skillz operational and mechanics. All the more reason I’m here! I’ll never claim to be an expert. Just wasn’t expecting to have to call one so soon. So this JD repair manual TM2264 is not very impressive for troubleshooting. Anyone know which one is? CD I’m tryna keep it from going sideways
Someone out there really appreciates your business! Check on the penalties of pulling from your 401K before you get started. Make sure your marriage is very strong. Have an EMT on stand-by. One of those drinking funnels will come in handy too! 
TM2263 is the Operation and Test manual
Question: this machine requires zinc-free hydro fluid? Could this be related to previous owner filling with standard fluid and not hitachi super-ex?
Probably more issues related with the dirty funnel the previous owner used vs the dollar store hyd fluid. Sounds like the off-spec fluid was used just long enough to track it off the trailer at the auction yard. Lol.
How many hours are on this machine?
No clue. I do know now that unit requires zinc free yes. JD proud of 5gals at 185.00 a bucket
yeah....... so it’s had the LCD screen assembly replace. The hours on it are only 690ish, on a 2008 machine. IMHO it seems like a 4-5k hr machine with all the wear on it. IF I take it to local JD here, I’ll get a read of hours off ECM..... but that’s a crap shot cuz it could have been replaced along the years as well.
Machine is 15.3gals hydro tank. Is it worth the cost to build a mobile filter bank? Cheap made frame set up w quality parts in a kidney loop system? I’m researching options on that. I’m new to a lot of things hydraulic related so I highly doubt the ability to build an ISO4406 quality system but I’m just looking into this and the requirements of gear if anyone has some ideas? Can’t hurt anymore than it already does right? I mean the wallets a gaping hole at this point what’s another stretch right?
The is a company up here the specializes in those systems. It's probably about as much or more that your machine is worth.
Also, if you filter your oil, then all you have is clean dollar store oil.
Lol I’m not gunna filter to keep it, but was considering somehow to flush with remaining current oil? I’m kinda lost in procedure how ya change oil and get all dollar store oil out without ruining the new Hitachi oil. Something’s gotta sacrifice right? So damage is done. Whatever the hell it was exactly? So do I drain tank, refill JD oil , run out air and cycle per book? Then drain and repeat or what? I need the cost effective way to get this done, Bush fix or not. Again she ain’t a 30 million machine, she’s 30 dolla hoe. I need the cheapest right way to start with just to figure out what exactly died. I’m still at loss.....
I've never had an answer to that question that was satisfactory to me. It's basically a cost benefit ratio. All I have ever been able to justify in the past is dumping the tank and putting new in with a new filter. Run a hundred or so hours and changing the filter again. The caveat to that concerns a shotgunned failure of a component. Hitachi runs a lot more steel on the inside of their system so that meant removal and tear down and flush all including hoses and then reassembly. I have taken risks on Komatsu machines because they run a lot more brass which tends to save some things, plus there is an extra flushing pump in the bigger machines which blows pump parts directly into the hydraulic tanks.
That’s a good summation, John. LMC, I guess, just consider this your new hobby. Try to get your wife on-board with it. Explain how much fun an excavator can be and that the kids college fund and the vacation budget is better spent on hoe Parts. Get the children matching John Deere caps & tees, refrigerator magnets, get the wife something nice.
gotcha, well- itTisWhatTitTis I spose. I’ll do my best to flush and then I should know what things have died. Ive got cylinders that seal seep anyway. More excuse to break em down and fix em while I’m in there. As for that dead part, apparently it has a lot of brass? LOL
Wonder if there’s a cheaper zinc free oil that you could use to flush and then afterwards fill with hitachi ex? would motor oil work? I’d definitely take apart as much as you can handle.
Yeah....I’m breaking her in slow. Gunna be a fun ride!!! Lmao
honestly I’d hope someone here knows the answer to that question but most Likely it wouldn’t be another dollar store oil option. Ain’t NUTHIN cheap anymore. FJB
Chat up your local oil jobbers. They will love to have a new customer with a leaky backhoe. Cha-Ching $$$ is what I’m takin’ about. Explain what you are doing. They might have some expired product, or clean flush, or buy back they can make you a good deal on. Fix & ckean up the system with that. Then drain, and put the forever oil in it. The Chevron dealer just got some cool promo am/fm radios that look like little Delo 400LE bottles with a built in flashlight and USB charger. The kids will love them.
Supply and availability in the lube biz is much more difficult today, with allocations, force Majur, clown world, quarterly price increases, yada, yada. So, “good deals” are not impossible but much more difficult. I would totally hook a brother up, though.
Does anyone know what the discharge pressures should be on the drain side of hydraulic systems? I’m still tryna wrap my head around why my slew motor only spit the half case sealing Oring.
Case drain should be next to zero. Return side would be low, probably under 100 PSI. Typically o-rings will only blow out intact like that if there is room for it to fit. Were the bolts loose? Maybe a deformity or damage around the o-ring groove that allowed a gap enough to push the o-ring out.
I found the oring smashed on both sides of the protrusion. I feel like prior mechanic didn’t pay attention and squeezed it out cuz it was pretty stretched. The motor case groove is deep and flared. So the new oring I installed was tight and went right together with no sloop. The motor drain oil is what lubes the planetary gears. Less than 100psi makes sense. Ima chalk up this motor issue as mechanic error. I’m hoping the draining oil was the issue that made slew motor to stop turning? Maybe not enuff back pressure to disengage the park brake and swing? My hopes anyway
All bolts were tight on it too
How y’all like this main gear wear on the slew motor too. And of course ol JD/H loves service so much ya can’t buy just a replacement output shaft..... oh no, they want ya to buy a complete new gear box or complete new slew motor / gear box combo!! It’s only $5300
What does the mating gear look like in the swing bearing ?
Finally, some pictures. Show us what the rest of this dirt digging beast looks like.
I didn’t get a pic of it but will later when I’m back in town. To me it didn’t look this worn out.
Some other tear down stuffs
Complete machine, had to clean it up. Hadn’t had a bath in years it seemed. Removed all tin and pressure washed 2000psi 40*head everywhere it could take it.
Most pins and bushings hot dog and hallways. Even the swing boom bush is slop.
Her retirement to my mini farm will be sweet and enjoyed
I've seen worse on the swing gears. Some of the minis don't have a pan under the swing gear. There is a grease fitting somewhere hidden that squirts out on the gear. An operation and maintenance manual would tell you that. The case drain hose is supposed to go back to the hydraulic tank and not to the drive gears.
there actually is a pan under swing on this one. And there is two grease fittings in there. Seems one is for the swing gear pinion and the other is for the swing ring gear. Both are situated maybe 90* apart from each other. Did see manual how to grease them. And buddy was it crazy over greased!? 3” thick at least from the pinion mesh into the catch pan! Now the hoses- there are two 1/4” hoses on front side where the main 3/8 pressure hoses connect. Hard to see em. They are stacked on a tee. One is to tank and the other goes backwards to the control valves area. Theres a short 3/8 hose that is also all by itself on the side that seems to go to drain manifold? TM2264 copy I have doesn’t have the hydraulics schematic.... caint figure that out yet. eBay manuals hmmmmm....
Slew hoeses- installing last week.
The hydraulic schematics are in the manual TM2263. It's a 14MB pdf file . . .
Ima have to buy this manual next.
Ok didn’t feel like pulling swing motor back out for a ring gear tooth pic. BUT, I did get a chance to begin the fluid change out from dollar store oil back to hitachi oil. I found some larger brass slivers of sort and all seemed very thin like gold leaf but very minor to zero sludge and almost zero metal pieces, the only tiny bits I found were stuck in the suction filter. I’m thinking prior ownership must have done a cheap flush after the last catastrophe- changed the return filter and refilled system calling it done. Dates on filters were April 2021. So after tank was empty, I vacuumed out the bottom of residual oil and metal flakes, then wiped it down with microfiber cloth. Then I put 3- 1” neodymium magnets on the walls near the small return line ports and one on the floor near bottom of suction filter. So if any crap gets past the bypass on return filter side I’m hoping these guys will catch any Ferrous metals. Just changing the tank only let me do 10 gals of the 15.3 gals total system. Of course now that I replaced the oring between swing motor and gear box, all systems work again like the day I got it home! No travel right side failure, musta been the lack of pressure from oring case leak?
After tank cleaning pics- return bottom and main reservoir bottom with the magnets placed
I think I have a travel spool going out. Both are off from each other maybe 1/4-1/2” at the handles. Maybe a solenoid acting intermittently. Comes and goes while using machine.
All excavators seem to be like that. Travel joysticks never sit even at full speed.
wonder how much a solenoid is? I go to travel around and it’s intermittent. So I stop, reset handles and bap it moves again. Wierd.
I got some work done on this thang today. Last week I got the system back up and running after fluids/ filter changes etc. working overall solid again like the day I got it. Well at some point the right track motor intermittently faults. I play with travel stick and bap! It starts working again. Did this a number of times while using machine to later notice, crap! Puddle oil again while working. Hop off and she’s pissing center mass again! Geerrrrr. Pop the cab up and whadya know? Slew motor to gear box oring AGAIN!.... only this time minor bulge than before but still pooped out no less. Well I put the case bolts (All 2 of them) down at 103ft lbs like book said but she spits it out like a lamas under load. I pull bolts out, pry up motor and shoop! She pulls back inside like a cold day on an uncircumcised tool in a swimming pool! So I bolt it back down and apply 130ftlbs for extra measure.... ya I know, but it also requires 6+” of extensions with socket to clear the torque wrench head figuring this outta make up the torque loss. Gudentight? Sure till I fire it up and nope..... still seeping. what’s the trick to these confounded contraptions? Landing grove, flare ends and channel oring seats in all seem legit, no issues... maybe the motor plate is warped ? I pressure tested the pilot line feeding into the side of case- idle no load =0 psi, idle under load with safety switch bypassed charging the pilot circuit- 500psi. Threw gauge on the case drain port labeled port M. - 0 psi This is drain from left and right slew dumps. So reinstalled the pilot pressure line that give 500psi back to slew motor and right away half case oring leaking. At a loss right now what I can do to extra beef that oring and not blow out. Any suggestions??? 92U 3406 ? Coaldust? John C.? Thirty5D? Anybod A?
That's a tricky one. Normally o-rings don't spit out like that unless there's space for them to squeeze in to. You're sure there's no damage to the o-ring groove? The 2 mating surfaces of the housing are flat and smooth? The 2 parts of the housing are fully mated together square?
so I have to check it out. I do know the gear box has a L shape base for the oring to sit on. The motor base is groved with a flare opening edge to the gearbox. I’ll get pics when I tear it apart and post result. Also I found that my “M port” hose for drain of left right circuits was crushed on both ends of the crimps so it could have been check valving to restrict discharge and cause higher case pressure? This is replaced now but still need to check out the oring gland
Update: swing motor hasn’t blown another seal since I fixed the track motor lines. Apparently the prior ownership replaced a drive. Said drive was hooked up wrong! They had the high speed and case drain lines reversed! Doing so would pump high pressure to the low press side and path least resistance??? Yup swing motor main oring. Now that’s fixed she purrs like a kitten and works like a dog. Found out machine has quick connect fittings on pilot system drain lines ! Replaced internal fitting orings and all oil seeps gone!
The hose switcheroo…..classic ! Sounds like you have a good running Deere now. Nice job, thumbs up