For those who've been watching my many threads regarding the resurrection of our LS4300CII for almost a year, here's the latest update. At a point after we realized there was a reason for three new pilot pumps going out after maybe 10 minutes we rebuilt the pump (bad shaft bearings that kept taking out new pilot pumps for us). After that we have reliable pump pressures but have since wracked our brains about why we still have no travel and there is so much bypass from the travel motors with no movement. The rebuild with new bearings was fairly simple, though the cost of the new bearings and pumps on the steep side! But we got it done and have all functions reliably working EXCEPT... we STILL don't have travel. This has been the cause of my several recent requests for help on this forum with ideas from many to aid in the cause. I finally met with the previous owner yesterday and got a vital clue. When last working in early 2011, swing and boom were getting weak so he walked it over to the shop area about 300 yards from the work site. He made it about halfway when the travel began to stall. They checked hydraulic oil and found it extremely low. They added about 20 gallons and got it over to where it has been for the past 9 years. At this point the machine likely had over 4000 hours on it. Once parked it was thought that the problem was a leaking rotating joint, so they removed it and had it resealed before re-installing. That work in done mid 2011 was assisted by two local junkies who installed the hoses, and after that it has not had travel. THEN... the light bulb flickered for me to full brilliance! They likely didn't get the hoses to the rotating joint put back on correctly. We have corrected many previously existing problems and now have all functions working except the travel. What I need to do is to identify the correct hose routing to the rotating joint. The long path is to go by the hydraulic diagram in the Service Manual and physically trace each line to the joint. The desired path would be if someone on this forum could point us to a diagram or images that might make the correct routing simple for us. Thanks for your help! - om
What you might be able to do is get a parts diagram. Sometimes the description will say which hoses feed what. The other way is to trace the hoses from the valves to the swivel and then trace the hoses from the travel motors to the swivel. A couple of times I've just tried the function watch to see which hose starts jumping around.
Good day This is of Hitachi may be helpfull. Kind regards Uffex
We have all the manuals and parts diagrams with key sheets but not anything that clearly shows the hose routing to the joint housing. Unless something come our way sooner we'll have to resort to physically tracing. Thanks John.
Thanks Uffex. that helps! -Tom
An update update for ya John. I just talked with John Fraley at Fraley Tractor who has couple of good used travel motors for me that will be on a pallet and truck tomorrow. He knows you, or at least of you and shares respect for your knowledge and help! You've helped me immensely over the past year in sorting out things needed to get our beast mobil once again. You're a treasure to this forum. Many thanks! -Tom
Thanks for the kind words. I also think very highly of the Fraleys. They are very good businessmen and I recommend them every chance I get. Thanks for the update on your machine.
Happy to report that replacing both motors put us over the goal post! What had us confounded was the assumption that the machine had travelled to its spot under its own power before the rotating joint was replaced. We couldn't fathom BOTH motors being bad. But as we learned later, the machine had run low on hydraulic oil midway in the 300 yard move from where it had last worked. We found that the bearings and pilot pump were toast as well as the motors, so our best guess is that the high heat from the bad pump and low oil cooked things beyond al dente! It took us a year to iron things out but our $1000 purchase price, plus $10,000 in parts and over 500 hours of labor over the year have paid off. For what we now have with known history I doubt we could have found anything more suitable for our small operation for anywhere near the money we're in it. And considering it was next door to our property the move cost us little more than a few gallons of diesel fuel! Thanks again to John C and the other members who've generously shared their knowledge and advice. And since as long as we have heavy machinery this is just yet another chapter closed. -Tom