Hello All, I am new to the forum having found it only yesterday, but it looks like a wealth of knowledge and info is here to be tapped into! I am thinking of buying a 'well used' JD 490E. Reasons are that I am building a house next year and where we are building is quite rocky. ie...big $$$ for earthmoving and no dozers please. I am hoping to buy a used machine that I can put a few hundred hours per year on without getting into big ticket items like swing bearings, pumps, undercarriage etc... Although I have relatively little excavator 'digging' experience. I did run Cut-to-Length logging equipment for 5 years and I have found excavators to be pretty reasonable to operate. There's no substitute for being able to put the bucket down and push when your stuck! There is a machine here locally that I went to look at and my initial feeling was that it was in really bad shape. However, I would like to share my observations and hopefully get some useful feedback. 1) 12,0000 hours on meter - seems high but I have seen some forestry equipment with upwards of 30,000 hours on it still working strong 2) Undercarriage seemed good and was claimed to have been replaced recently. I was inclined to believe this as I would expect the original undercarriage to be in really poor condition at 12,000 hours. 3) A few dents and dings - nothing I couldn't live with. 4) No obvious big leaks 5) Motor started right up - no smoking or obvious blowby - I would probably get an oil sample done though 1) No front windshield - I would have to buy or fab something up as it is too cold in this part of the world to live with that! 2) The guy had to disconnect the battery to shut the engine off after I had turned the key off - Fuel shut-off solenoid? 3) Swing and booming. All functions on rt joystick seem to work at normal speed, however, all rt joystick functions moved at a snails pace - not acceptable. I did notice a broken wire on one of 2 pump solenoids - Could this be related? 4) When I tracked, the engine almost stalled everytime I started. I believe the machine has 3 travels speeds and I would guess it was stuck in 3rd gear. I tried putting it in low range and it still moved fast and wanted to stall. I assume that there are pilot signals that change the motor displacements for the three speed. I seemed to me that the motor plates were stuck in the minimum displacement. I assume that the motors shift like an automatic transmission based upon hydraulic pressure but wonder what could be causing both motors not the shift? I have gotten a hydraulic schematic from the JD dealer to look at but he only sent me 2 sheets that don't make much sense without the rest of it. I might go into the dealer and look at it. I also plan to get some quotes on replacement parts so I have a sense of potential repair costs. Any suggestions on parts I should price? Hoping someone who reads can offer some advice. I may return to look again and would take some pics next time! Thanks
I myself would probably walk away. How much is he asking?? Do you know a mechanic that could come with you and take a look and see what he thinks about the machine?? Things like slow controls on one side, track motors stuck in high gear, and wires cut on the pump make me really nervous! Good Luck!!!
Hi TGunn. In my opinion, in a nutshell, Engine stalling under load and no stop-on-key = electrical problems. Weak hydraulics on one joystick = fault with one of the pumps. Sounds like a crock o' ***** to me... But then, (standard disclaimer) I could be completley wrong.... Good luck.
to me it sounds like a lot of wiring problems. Could be linked to most if not all. 12000 on an excavator is past its prime. I believe in deere obviously but this doesn't sound to good. I've run a mid to late model(94 or 95) 490E and loved everything about it. Just needed a little bit bigger undercarriage. then that would be a 160 of course. Unless you were getting this thing for nearly nothing I wouldn't touch it. If you get it for a good price you could sink a couple Grand in to it but you might be working on it more then operating it.
Guys, thanks for the quick replies, Nedly, guy is asking $14,000, but I had decided I wouldn't offer more than 10 or 11 for it (I might change my mind on that one and go lower). Unfortunately, I don't know anyone locally who could look at it and give me an unbiased opinion. Cmark, according to the info I do have, the machine has one pump to run the entire system (load sense) feeding one main valve bank. The thing that confused me about the single pump is the two solenoids on it. I thought that maybe one solenoid controls the pump displacement to 1/2 displacement corresponding to one joystick and the other solenoid controls the 'other' 1/2 pump displacement on other joystick. Therefore, the solenoid for the left joystick had the cut wires on the solenoid, therefore no pump signal and no oil to those functions?? Deereman, I agree, based on what I've seen wiring seems to be big issue. I don't mind troubleshooting wiring, It's time consuming but not too expensive since I'm not doing production work. Bit of a hobby for me really. One thing I had considered for the tracking problem was just wiring it permanently in low speed. I wouldn't be walking the machine long distance much anyway. I'm also tempted to go back to 'look' at the machine do a quick repair on the broken wire on the pump and see what happens. The guy tried to explain that the lt joystick was slow because the oil was cold and it would speed up when the oil warmed up. I figured that was totally bogus because it wasn't that cold (0 F°) and the right side worked fine. See this link for a pic. http://www.canadatrader.com/usedcar...ahone_bay/yukon/0_JOHN_DEERE_490E_642782.html
I have owned a 490e (actually a Hitachi ex100, same thing) This was the worst machine I have ever owned. The reason was NOT the manufacturer...it was all the idiots who had worked on it during its life. You must be VERY carefull with Hitachis/Deeres of this vintage. The hydraulics are/were adjustable - so you had all these ***** morons (with NO BUSINESS AT ALL) " turning up" their machines. Take a look at the control valve on that machine....look how many slotted screw valves there are - and don't forget to look underneath the valve too, if you can fit you face under there.:Banghead Not only this, but they would bypass the electronics and outsmart the computers (kind of like a 17 year old boy is going to outsmart the judge)....you can't even imagine how screwed up some of these machines from mid 80's to mid 90's can be. Buying this machine will be an exercise in masochism that you can't even fathom.