Looks to be down about 5 gallons of hydro. The stick reads high on the swing gear box, but I wonder if pressures in the tub can force stuff up the seal. Swing oil is dark still. You'd think it would lighten up if that was the source so My lean is to the swivel. @Diesel Dave what do you think? I was reading the thread about the 321 that needs a diaper, but I do not recall a case drain filter on the JD 120 2000 hour service. I did that about 500 hours ago so it is still fresh in my head. Everything still works on the old girl, just about 10000 hours on it now. I had the dang swivel out for the Rotec and did not want to touch it. I hope that was not too stupid. Sometimes it hurts.
Yeah it sucks. I have a couple of jobs to do and I hope I don't hurt anything by just pouring some more hydro in it and getting them done.
No case drain filter on a Deere 120. It’s not common, but I have seen excess oil in the tub get pumped past the lip of the swing gear box bottom seal. Does the swing gear box oil still smell like gear oil ? If yes , then the swivel is leaking …sorry
I will sniff it Monday and pour in another 5 and mop up the mess for now. It will be a deluge of crap when I take out the swivel. Any pro tips on the swivel? I have no experience with rebuilding them. What I may do is drain out the crap periodically and get the next job in the bag, and then mobe it back to the shop. I can drop it OK but I pulled it back up with the mini.
Very straightforward job , re&re 1 bushing and a bunch of seals. When going back together, orient the direction of the spindle to where it needs to be because turning the spindle after a re-seal can be a pita.
Yes I remember how stiff it is, and no way to grab it, like wrestling a greased 50 pound piglet. I'll scribe the housing.
I'm not totally familiar with the Deere 120, but most excavators have a boot seal where the rotating swivel is above the turntable deck, this prevents water, oil, and debris from ingressing into the ring gear area. With that boot in place, any leaks from the upper fittings of the swivel will simply slime the deck. As for the underneath part, you should be able to view up from the bottom of the machine to see if the swivel is leaking. As for the ring gear area, every excavator I've worked on has a small plate that you can loosen or remove to drain the ring gear housing area. What I recommend, find that plate, drain the oil from the ring gear housing. After that, remove the drain plug from the rotate motor gearbox and drain the gearbox oil down to proper level on the stick. Operate the machine and frequently monitor oil level on the swing gearbox stick. If it rises, you have a failed rotate motor that is pumping oil into the swing gear box.
The split on the 120 swivel is below the boot so it would leak into the tub.It does not leak below the tub. I'll siphon he swing gear grease down a bit and dump the tub down some until I get the time to pull and rebuild the swivel.