Hello I am a recently new owner of a 2003 TB015 excavator and Ive discovered my great deal may not be such a deal. The first is the battery isn't charging, I discovered the warning light is burnt or blown and the battery is dying. WHen running no power going to the battery. Wouldn't be that big of a deal except it looks like a major project to get to the alternator to check it out. Can anyone explain how to get to the alternator and the is the regulator built into it? Second issue is the real issue, like anything I buy I go through it and Ive replaced all the filters and fluids except the final drive gear oil. I went to change that today, one was fine, replace the oil with fresh. BUt the second one nothing flowed out. Trying to force gear oil in and none would go in or come out the drain hole. I then went to squirting in fine oil and it was leaking out from what looks like the middle of the tracks. I took the front cover off and it looks packed with sluge/mud. Im assuming there is a seal on the back side that needs to be replaced at best. Can anyone explain how to take this apart to get to that seal? I found another thread that mentions this: In the thread the its this 19129-02621 is the part number. Any help is much appreciated, I see these drives for sale on ebay for 2600-3K which is a lot for me! THank You ~ Phil
To replace the seal you will need to retract the idler, remove the track, dimount the final drive and cap all hydraulic connections, remove cover off gearbox, remove planetaries, unfasten main tensioning nut, remove ball bearings that secure main bearing to outer hub, press bearing off, replace seal
Hi Mike thanks for the explaination, sounds like part of this I cannot do myself, I do not have a press. I probably can at least remove it myself and take to a repair shop to replace the seal. A few questions about the removal process. - Retract Idler and remove track, seen done on youtube looks straight forward. - Dismount final Drive Can you explain this more? - Remove cover off gearbox - Is this the round cover on the outside that is held in by 8 hex screws and has the oil fill holes? - Remove ball bearings What does this involve? WIll they just fall out or are they in a race? I bought this unit to do a project this summer, this sounds like a long process for me to repair, could I clean out the gunk and fill with 00 gear oil (not grear but very heavy oil) for my project and then got through this process when Im done my project? In flushing it out with the front cover off I did not get any metal material so I think its not damaged. Thanks ~ Phil
I would fill with gear oil or grease. Yes. That will be better than what you have. After it rolls for a couple minutes the grease will flow pretty well
Hi Mike ok thanks!
Final drive info I have a tb015 from the late 90's and I have never had to remove the complete final drive to service the seals or bearing. There are two large 403mm bearing in each final that take a lot of stress and go bad every couple of years then they take out the seal. The seal consists of two large diameter brass bushing with a large o-ring glued to the inner brass bushing. The o-ring slides between the two brass bushings. To repair this take a track off then remove the final drive cover where you check the gear oil. Then the set of planetary gears should come right out and the sun gear may even slide out. Then you will see a Giant snap ring. Go the harbor freight and get the biggest set of snap ring pliers they have and remove this. At this point the complete outer part of the final including the track driver should come off. The two bearing will be inside the cover you just removed and can be taken out with a punch and hammer once a second snap ring is removed. You will find the one part of the brass bushing in the removed piece but the brass bushing that is still attached to the machine should have the o-ring on it. The sticker shock on the parts may blow your mind, as each bearing from takeuchi is just over $400 each and the brass bushing with o-ring is in the $500 range so to rebuild on is over $1500 with shipping and taxes. I tried to get the bearing through Kaman but they were even more than Takeuchi, almost $600 each because the are a special order and metric. After dealing with my machine I would say buy a completely new final drive and don't look back. You can find aftermarket finals in the $2000 range and have piece of mind knowing its all new. Looking to sell my tb015 now and get a larger machine now.
Hi Thanks for the info, so what indications are there when the bearing goes? Other than noisy or final drive failure to turn? Right now it appears to work fine, no noise at all. Ive filled it with 00 grease which flows but not enough to leak through a failed sealed. So if the bearing isn't failed is it possible to just replace the seal? From your description it sounds like it. Another question for you, I am not getting a charge to the battery, there is a belt on the alternator and it appears tight enough but I cannot get at it to so any testing. How do you get at the alternator to service/replace it? Thanks ~ Phil
When the bearings go bad bad, they make a popping sound as they are breaking up into pieces as the machine moves and can even jamb the track up to we're you need to reverse direction to free it up then proceed. The seal is taken out by the bad bearing so to spend hundreds on a new seal is pointless with out the bearings being replaced because the new seal will be trashed again by the bad bearing. Also if the bearing are not addressed it will cause sever wear on the sun gear and beat up your planetary gears. They best way to tell what bearings are bad is to remove the tracks and try to wobble the final drive track gear sprocket. If you see any movement the bearings are bad. This is just like checking for a bad car/truck wheel bearing. Be sure to set the machine up on something solid under it to hold it up so it don't tip over. Never trust the hydro licks to hold. I usally use a log under one side at a time only removing one track at a time. I find hollow core cinder blocks can crack or break if not set up correctly to avoid a single point load. The seal is built into the bushing, I found a over sized o-ring and cut it down and super glued it back together once and siliconed it with commercial glue and it lasted for a long time but eventually failed to. I had my starter fail once in the middle of a huge mud hole digging my garage foundation. I had to remove the canopy/rops the set and body panels under/around the seat just to get at the starter. Learned a lot about the machine doing the work myself but boy did I have to strip it down just to get to it. Be prepared for a overpriced altinator, I found my starter $200 under what takeuchi wanted at a local car starter altinator rebuild shop. Goodluck with everything. They are great machines that can do a ton of work. I have ran several different brands for work that were larger and my tb015 could work circle around them as far as speed and capabilities.
Hi thanks for the info, I think for now Ill just stick a solar panel trickle charger on the battery, that seams to keep it up for starting needs and just not use the lights. ~ Phil