My Koehring 6620 LC5 excavator has very limited hydraulic function - nearly all of a sudden. The fluid level was confirmed full less an one operating hour ago. When I was brought in on this issue, the level was just below the low line. I see leaks (don't you always on older equipment), but nothing that rises to the level of losing 5 gallons of oil. The right track has some power. The left track has no power. I cannot raise the boom except at high rpm and even then it barely goes. The house turns fine. I topped off the hydraulic fluid level and saw no change. The primary leak that I see is where all of the boom hoses connect - into some sort of cylindrical manifold. The leak is in a machined inner housing that may look like it popped up more than it should have. Now for the missing piece of information...I have a new guy doing some work for me. He's a really, really awesome kid (26) who is very mechanically inclined and wants desperately to do the right thing always and isn't scared of getting dirty. He moved the machine the other morning to install a replacement muffler and called me after he had moved it maybe 250 feet to say that it had no power. My fear is that whatever seal has blown out did so as a result of the fluids not being given the requisite 10-15 minutes of warm-up time on a 35 degree morning - that he just started it up and went. Maybe someone can tell me 'no way that THAT would ever happen'. It'll kill him if he learns that he might have caused the issue, but at the same time I need to relay the importance of proper warm up procedures. Thoughts on what failed? Thoughts on whether a lack of warm up could have caused it?
I realized I posted this question in the wrong section. I'll re-post in the excavator section.
When I was in the military (got out this spring) all our stuff got fired up daily, function checked and shutdown. (The idea was everything was ready to go if needed) You'd think it would be rough at -25* but never had a failure that I can remember. Bobcats, Cat IT28 loaders, Cat 988, Grove crane, Hiester forklifts, semi trucks, flatbed trucks, pickups, etc. Letting something warm up at cold temps is a good idea, but 35* isn't cold.