Friend of mine bought a Cat 325 "as-is". It seems the engine is locked up. I know the finals can be put in neutral for towing but how do you deal with all the other hydraulics to move the machine in a realistic towing or loading position? Right now the stick is nearly vertical and cannot be practically trailered. We have a crane on hand, but It would be a very small radius if picking the whole machine. Could manipulate the stick/boom but really hoping for an easier way?
It's very funny but you can reference.
.....and this is original machine from China!!!
.....in our country!!!!!
The crane available makes it a much simpler job. You'll have to grab the lower arm, and raise it up to the upper arm, and chain it off. I would disconnect the hoses right at the cylinder, and let the oil run. Then grab the upper arm, and lower it down to transport position. I would probably do the lower arm to get it off the ground for dragging onto the trailer, then do the upper arm after on the trailer. You'll have to drag the house around with a chain, after releasing the swing hoses, and it may have a spring swing brake- That will take some book study to get it released to swing. A big wrecker and a low double drop would be what I would try to load it on. So- lower arm chained to upper, remove the bucket if you have to, in order to get ground clearance. Swing the house to inline with the tracks. Release travel and roll it onto a double drop. Hook crane on the upper arm, and lower to transport. In order to get it off the trailer, you'll have to hold the upper arm off the trailer with the crane, while you roll it off with something else pulling on the house. 325 is a pretty big excavator, if I was trying to just load it all with cranes, I would use two cranes, one on the arm and one on the house, but you have to do all the work to get it in transport position anyways, so then you just as well roll it on the trailer instead of messing around and trying to pick it up and set it on a trailer.
I'm going to ask a dumb question, so bear with me. Is it possible to repair the motor first? Even if you have to pull it out and reinstall it. That sounds alot easier than loading a whole machine up.
Good day R _n I suggest the danger of such an action may be that the failed motor may have deposited some nasty gremlins in the lines & Valve block this can result in a more expensive repair, I would recommend never to overlook preventive action after repair. Kind regards Uffex
Easiest way, put a 2x4 or 4x4 under dipper cylinder rod, remove eye pin from cylinder to dipper. . Then as crane op says pull arm up to boom and chain tightly. Is the bucket curled in or flat on the ground? If you find the servo accumulator, you may be able to pump it up with a porta power to give you some functionality so you dont have 30 gallons of oil on the ground. This is the cleanest method. You'll also use that to ease the boom down once you're on the trailer. If you can pump it up, you can also use that to release the brake in swing, just gotta have a truck chained up and ready to go. Depending on how its plumbed up, you might have to unbolt the swing motor from the reduction to allow swing, be very careful, this will result in a free swinging house with no brake. Have that thing chained to something heavy enough to anchor it. Good luck and be careful.
What I have in mind is a separate oil pump. We built a mobile hydro power unit that is 5HP, with small tank, controls, etc. We also have some other hydro pumps around. What I was trying to think of is a dip hose going right into the excavators's hydro tank, and send that oil to the machine's main control stack somehow. If I could get that done, I would then need to figure out which spool is which, which direction, and some way to manually move them. I say manual because I am not sure I want to risk killing a controller. It just seems that providing aux hydro power would give me the ability to move everything. I am certain I would not be able to track it, but just being able to get the arm and house in position would be HUGE. Then it could simply be winched on and off. Thoughts in that direction?
Don't know how many pumps it has but have heard of using another machine and running hoses to the drive motors to move a dead machine. Maybe bypassing the controls and going right to the individual cylinders/swing motor could get it positioned for loading.
Other than it has 3 separate pumps and weights about 45 tons . Why not replace the engine ? about a one day job. Why would any one want this much scrap iron? Bob
If you run your temp pump arrangement, that would supply oil to run implements. You would have to wait till the function is stroked to turn it on or have some kind of divert valve implemented to prevent a deadhead condition. You still need to run servo. Again that can be done by charging the servo accumulator 450-500 psi is all that's needed. Key on , raise lockout lever and pull your desired function.
While just installing a new motor sounds good, my guess is everything about the machine is tired and it has sat for 3 years before they decided to sell it as is. If the machine is otherwise in good shape and freshly dead, a running engine freshly installed sounds like the best idea.
I'd guess it depends on where its at and what is available for repairing it. Without knowing exactly what is wrong could be a major pain repairing it in a remote location.
Due to many factors, swapping the engine is not an option. Seller wants to limit liability so only minimal "wrenching" to be done onsite. I am going to investigate further to ensure the engine is actually toast. Whatever we come up with needs to be strategic, clean, and relatively quick. They just "want it gone".... As much fun as taking cylinder lines off, or cylinder pins, that can get risky and a mess is probably likely. Why these machines don't have provisions for this sort of thing is beyond me!
No sure how this would work without pilot pressure. As I understand, there are 2 main pumps , plus the pilot pump, so I would not have pilot pressure.
That what pumping up the servo accumulator is doing.
Why not just remove the boom and stick, you have a crane. Then pull the gears in the drive motors. Load and go. You can catch the oil to keep the area clean and as for speed, I think that could be done fairly quickly.
Here LOL! They would throw you in jail for even trying that on the street.
OK, I am pretty close to having this figured out. I'd like to find out if the control circuit can be over pressured or does that system just live on a relief valve? My hydro power unit has its own tank, which will be an issue. I need to be able to use system oil and inject that oil at the pressure test ports of the pumps. I also have never dug into the control valve servos on these. What type of power do they take? Is this PWM or just voltage based? ie, pulsed DC or say 0-24VDC variable? Is there a way to manually move a spool if I cannot get the servo system to activate a spool?
What you are trying to do is just a routine task. If you do it in steps it can be done in 1 hours time. Start by hookig up to bucket with chain to curl bucket you will need a chain to hold it in place. Remove the line form the rod ead of cyl. (On cat exavators i remove them at the valve body and run the oil into a bucket) curl bucket till it is at its stops then chain it in place. Repeat steps with stick. With a stick on a 325 i would use 2 chains. Wrap them around the boss that the rod end of the boom pin in. Then use a portapower to release swing brake( 2000 pounds max should release with less.) The house will swing. Push or pull with something, service truck, dozer ect... Release final drive. Push or pull on to low boy. Lower boom on to truck.. ( many cats had a bleeder in a tube on the barrel end of the boom cyl i stick a fuel line over this and put it in a bucket and open this a very small amount. ) To contain the spill of oil put a tarp on the ground. Often time there is but a few spots of oil on this tarp when the chore is done.