Hi, I bought my first excavator a few weeks back and have been having a heck of a time. The excavator is a Dresser 645. I blew a hose three hours into digging. There are four 1’ 5000psi hoses that go from the swivel (I believe it’s called that) right under the cab and travels down to each final. There are two additional smaller hoses that go to each final. When the hose blew I look under the machine to find the hoses all bent and twisted around each other. Everyone I asked suggested they were old Hoses that had gotten stuck on a root or stump. I swapped out two of them and got back to work. Yesterday I blew another hose and replaced that hose. This hose had a single bend on it. The guy at the hose shop thought the hose was old but also said something caused it to bend on the way it did. Today while working I stopped to check the hoses. They appeared ok. Shortly after I checked again and were all bound up. I rotated the machine in the opposite direction of the bind and the hoses resumed a semi normal position. But I am stumped on what is causing this. Please help!
The swivel is not swiveling. This is very difficult to explain, but that swivel requires two points of securement to the machine, one point of attachment to the upper turn table base and another point of attachment to the lower frame to make the swivel rotate within itself. You've got an attachment point missing.
Here's a pic of a Bobcat E85 swivel. It's nothing like yours, but it will give you an idea of what I'm talking about. The outer housing of the swivel is secured to the frame by the flanges with bolt holes in them, one of the red arrows. The inner part of the swivel is secured to the other part of the frame by the bent tab, see the other red arrow. There has to be those two points of attachment or the swivel won't swivel.
Thanks for your reply, here is a better pic, maybe this will help. Should I be looking for a bracket that secures the swivel to that bracket that I have the bolts pointed to in red arrows? Thanks
I can't tell for sure looking at the pics, but I can clearly see an unpainted portion of steel and threaded bolt hole in the unpainted portion, that tells me something is missing there but there's no way I can say just what.
That makes perfect sense. I will report back hopefully tomorrow. Thank you
Here is a better photo. Disregard red arrow
Definately some kind of bracket is missing. It looks like it uses 3 bolts. Unfortunately you're going to have to replace all the hoses that got twisted if you want to avoid a major gusher of hyd. fluid. I think that bracket could be the problem.
Would be sweet if someone in here had an older machine or dresser 645 and could crawl under and take a pic!
Thanks Dave for your feed back. So there it is, found the missing bracket burried behind the seat. Now I need to figure out how to swivel the swivel to the correct orientation. the center bolt is snapped off inside the pump. Should I attempted to extract or run on with two bolts
The bracket may have been taken off to fix the broken bolt. Yes you should fix it. Is that bracket cut off on the other end or that's just how it is?
Your bracket that bolts on, is probably supposed to sit between those two upright posts on the undercarriage. Swing until it lines up. All the oil on there, the broken off bolt isn't likely rusted tight. Weld a washer to the broken bolt, then weld a nut to the washer, grab the welded nut and turn the whole works out.
Good eye craneop.
No it’s not cut. Could be! My assumption was that it was taken off to replace a hose.we will never know. I can’t imagine there is a whole lot of pressure on that bracket considering the hoses have been holding the swivel in place right? I mean yea it blew the hoses after a few hours of operation but if it had a ton of pressure I feel like it would just rip those hoses apart
Thanks, yes that’s exactly hose it fits. Just need to get it there
I think craneop is correct the bracket goes between the 2 bosses. It explains the shape of the bracket too. I was thinking it could have been removed to change a hose as well.
If you attempt to weld a washer and nut on that broken bolt, do not connect ground clamp to any other part of the machine or the swivel and do not connect the ground clamp to the washer and nut being welded. Instead, run a bolt in one of the other swivel bracket threaded holes after cleaning the hole with a tap and connect your ground clamp to that bolt.
It's probably not the easiest to get at so it might be worth trying a left hand drill bit to see if the bolt will come out.
Thank you all for your assistance! Today I was able to Extract the broken bolt. I then orientated the pump to face the bracket on the cab swivel. That took a few slow and short attempts. But after about an hour was able to reinstall the bracket. It was disappointing someone took the bracket off and never put it back which was costly for me not knowing. Three hoses later we are good and seemed to work fine. Time will tell. Yes there are three different bolts holding the bracket on.
I'd put the proper bolts in. They are very important. How did you get the broken bolt out?
I drilled and used an extraction bit. Yes that’s the plan just used what I had on hand to get the bracket back in. I’ll need to order the correct ones.
Good job on sorting out that mess!