Need a little help finding which seal is bad. Just started leaking oil out of turntable. So I was assuming it would be in the swing motor.... started watching oil level in gear box and hasnt been going down. There has been quite a bit of oil leaking... like several gallons. I thought I might check the hydraulic level and sure enough it was getting low. Is it possible it would be the swivel joint ? Replacing the swivel joint has been on my list to do.... but wasn't anything critical. Its been weak when I would turn one side or other and figured the seals were bypassing and not 100 % going to tracks. Now all of a sudden it seems to have much more power when turning each side independently. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks !
The only way oil can get in turntable swing gear is from either swing motor or swiviel jount .If gear oil in swing is not going down .More than likely you have swiveil joint issue.Because if leak was in swing hydrualic oil would pushe the gear oil out in to swing bearing.
Thats kinda what I was thinking tool-king....i figured if it was hydraulic from swing it would have to fill the gear oil. I just wanted to make sure before I started tearing into it. Also I believe the swing motor has been replaced.. .. it has a tag that says something like, "hitachi reman program". Since the swivel joint has been weak I guess it would make since. Thanks for the help !
Make sure you have the proper plugs/caps for the hoses or lines when you disconnect them to pull the rotary joint, otherwise you're gonna make a helluva mess. And be sure to release the pressure from the hyd tank.
Make sure you make your hose well .so you know where they go .even know only a small amount can real mess up your day when they are in the wrong spot.
I rigged me up a pretty good vacuum pump. I used it to pull the pump and it worked real good. Will pulling a vacuum help me out when changing these ? Also.. there is only 4 hoses I believe..so as long as I label them is that all I need to look out for ? Other than being covered in Hydro fluid.
There should be more than 4 lines/hoses. There has to be 4 hoses just to work the drive, then there should be a hose to control high drive, and finally a hose for case drain, at least 6 hose/pipe connections. The vacuum will help when removing the case drain line, that returns to tank and can dump a bunch of oil, having a vacuum on the tank will help with that. I always take a pic of the unit from above and below to note the orientation of the unit and the connections, remedies any head scratching that might occur during re-install.
Zip ties work well for marking lines, colored ones even better.
Well finally had time to change out seals in the center joint. Everything went very well.. made sure to label hoses and used comealong to drop it down. When I took it apart the seals didnt look that bad. There are 2 dust seals on the top... one a dust seal the other a large rubber seal, I believe it lubes the brass bushing. These 2 seals made a slight groove in the shaft (nothing I havent seen on this type of seal) I emery clothed both of them..they didnt come completely out but werent to bad. All the other 6 blue seals actually looked pretty good. I went ahead and used emory cloth on the rest of them and absolutely NO grooves in any of them. So carefully reassembled taking care to double check that all seals were in place....so went ahead and inserted the 2 pieces together, (you have to use a clamp to get it drawn up). reinstalled everything and tracked machine. Every thing was good... so took it out to go to work and there is the leak again ! I had it on the side of a hill..thats when it really seemed to leak.. not ruling out residual oil ...but once the machine was back a shop on flat ground it was still dripping out of ring gear. Also made sure my gear oil level in swing motor was not filling up. The oil level has always been good in swing motor...so that has to rule that out right ? Any ideas where to look... im getting ready to pull it back out but want to make sure i find the leak before i do. Also thinking there might be a crack somewhere. ????
If you look under the machine where the manifold sits there is a triangular cover about 4" big .Pop that off and that will drain out that cavity where the gear sits. Then put some pins in the sprockets so you can stall the travel motors.Check to see if the leak gets worse when you stall the motors. If so then remove the rotary manifold and check the top seal is not curled over. Also check on top of the manifold that the big rubber boot is not ripped and is in the right place.
Put a washer between the center joint and the frame on each bolt till you get to the bottom of it that will let the oil out before it spills over into the grease tub.
Alright guys ill give that a try. I also raised the rubber cover off the bottom about 6" so I could actually see where the 2 pieces on the center joint mate. Strange thing is I cant see any fluid coming out of that area. I may see if I can get extra set of eyes and try what you fellas recommend. By the way a guy told me that the white seal that is "U" shaped and the large rubber o-ring are just to keep dust out of area where the brass bushing is. All the other 6 are blue hydraulic seals. In order for hydraulic fluid to come out where the unit mates together, it would have to leak past the last blue seal on top then it would be inside the brass bushing cavity where the so called dust seals are, then come out where the two pieces mate. Does that sound right ?
The place where the swing pinion gear mates to the ring gear is filled with grease. When oil leaks into that space is thins the grease and displaces it. The slurry then fills to higher than the center of the slewing bearing and seeps through it to the outer mating sections. It will then drip onto the carbody and make a mess that you can see. To drain the pinion and ring gear space you have to crawl up under the machine and find a plate that usually mounted on the sprocket end of the carbody. When you take that plate loose the oily mess will drain down. You will have to clean all that out as best as you can. Good Luck!
Well I cleaned and drained the tub add there was quite a bit of oil left in there. Over a gallon or so. I left the plate off and used the machine yesterday on the side of a hill and seems to not be leaking. I think I will go ahead a put some washers between the center joint and frame before I refill with grease that way it will leak straight down instead of filling the grease tub. Without the washers there you could have a leak for quite sometime and not know about it until the tub fills up with oil. Thanks for all the help guys... really appreciate it. John C. now I know why you wished me luck...lol.. that was quite a mess !