hydraulic oil leak near left front wheel

[Kaon99]

Hi Guys,
Well, some good news at last! I got all 4 bolts loosened up today! I was trying to put all my weight on the wrench when it occurred to me that I could just stand on the wench. Amazingly, that worked! The wrench was about 9" long and I weigh 160 pounds so it took about 120 ft-lbs of torque to do the job. We have 2 days of rain coming so it will be Monday before I can finish the job. Thanks to all of you for your willingness to help. - Ken

 

[woodlandfarms]

So glad it worked BUT!!!! Remember how I said keep your face out of fire. Should have mentioned your legs a well. If that had broke pretty good chance you would end up with a chunk of the wrench in the leg. Seen it.. didn't like it.

You can always use tools so a breaker bar should be on your list for your birthday.

But super glad you got them loose. You too could work for Power-Trac

 

[Kaon99]

Dear WoodLandFarms,
You make a very good point. I need to go shopping for a safer way to generate more torque. Thanks for the heads up. - Ken

 

[MossRoad]

Glad you got them loose without goobering them up. Harbor frieght has a good selection of inexpensive impact sockets and extensions, as well as breaker bars. Nice to have around for the occasional stuck hydraulic drive motor mounting bolts... :laughing:

 

[Kaon99]

Hi Guys,
Got the wheel motor off today. Even with the bolts broken loose, it was really, really hard to turn them. Until now I never encountered anything like it. It was a real workout (for me anyway!)

After rereading Terry's instructions I am confused. Quote:Terry said "remove motor mount (4 bolts), pull out motor, replace motor mount on machine."

What I have now is a 50 lb hunk of metal that includes the notched brake wheel in the picture. It looks like there are some more bolts to remove to get inside. At this point the 4 bolts are out and the whole 50 lb thing has been removed. Do I need to remove the bolts on what I have now to get at the wheel motor? (I'm not sure at this point what "wheel motor" means!)

On a different topic I have another question. I want to start the engine and do some work on it. It looks like I have 3 choices:1) put caps on the two hydraulic lines in the picture 2) attach a shunt between the two lines so the hydraulic oil can flow 3) don't do anything. What do you think?

Again, I am most appreciative of the rapid an good advice I have gotten so far.
Ken

 

[MossRoad]

I'm thinking you're gonna have to cap those hoses when you remove them from the wheel motor to lessen the chance of your hydraulic oil draining out on the floor overnight and to prevent dirt from getting in to them. I, personally, wouldn't run the engine while those hoses are disconnected, capped or shunted together. Why? Because I'm chicken!

 

[MossRoad]

I can't help you on the motor removal. Mine is 2001 model year and different mounting system, I think.

 

[SpringHollow]

It looks like you have the wheel mount/wheel motor combination removed and now you need to separate them.

Ken

 

[MossRoad]

I'm guessing that if you remove those 4 bolts, the entire motor will slide out of a hole in the mounting plate? I base that on this overhead picture of your motor.

 

[MossRoad]

The four bolts I'm referring to are the ones just behind the brake star disk, around that round housing the shaft is coming through.

 

[MossRoad]

I found a cure for insomnia.... go to My Home on TBN and look at all 1100+ of my uploaded images until I find the wheel motor picture from 2007 that does no good for the person asking the question.... :laughing:

Night fellers. ZZZZZzzzzz.....

 

[woodlandfarms]

What is confusing you is that the brake disk or hub is in your way from a normal removal. Meaning that steel square box around the motor is held on with 4 bolts. You did not remove those (I thought you were) as the hub is in the way. You can try and pull the hub but if you do not have the tools you might just want to eat the cost and ship the motor as is. Just my 2c

 

[MossRoad]

I'd bet there's enough room behind that disk to back those 4 bolts out and remove the motor from the mount box.

 

[Kaon99]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the suggestions. What I removed are the 4 bolts in the thick square box with rounded edges (see attached pic). Its the first thing you come to behind the notched brake wheel. I was thinking that the "motor" would just slide out of the box, but the box is completely sealed. There are some more bolts on the backside that let you remove the metal plate on the back of the box.

I need to call Terry about capping or shunting the hydraulic lines. So I will also ask him about the wheel motor. It would sure help if I knew what I am doing! That is why I prefer to pay people who do know what they are doing. Hopefully I will be able to reach Terry some time today.

Thanks for your help. Stay tuned.
Ken

 

[MossRoad]

Can you get a picture of the inside of the box by looking straight down at it as its mounted on the machine so we can see what's what in there?

Here's a typical white wheel motor picture for reference. It would seem if you took those 4 bolt out, the motor has to slide out, away from the machine. And that would mean there has to be about a 4" diameter hole in that plate (or whatever the motor diameter is) for the motor to fit through. The bolts would slip through the motor, through the plate, and probably have some nuts on the backside that we can't see in the picture. :scratchchin::

 

[woodlandfarms]

Well, lets see if I can I can help.

If it was me, I would mount your wheel motor mount back on. It will give you better leverage as you get the actual motor off. I do not have your machine so I am sorry if I miss understand how your machine works...

So the photograph. The red X is the bolts taht hold the motor mount on. I believe you removed these. When reinstalling, make sure that the steel is clean and no debris is between. You will need to really put some pressure on tightenint these bolts. I don not beleive you need any thread locker, others may disagree.

Ideally you would remove the wheel hub, but as I noted it takes special tools and is usually a major PITA. It is probably going to be better for you to ship it. The wheel hum I am referring to is what is marked in yellow.

What I did note on the picture is one of the 4 bolts you need to remove, it is circled in green. But as I said, you probably need to put the motor mount back on because you are going to have to put some serious pressure on these bolts to get them off.


OK once you do this you are going to get something that looks like this. This is NOT your wheel motor, I don't have the energy to trac it down but this is kinda what they look like Yours is going to have that plate on the front because you cannot get of the wheel hub off




Finally you need caps. for your hoses. You can get these in a myriad of places, I would look first for a Hydraulics shop, if not, look for a napa. These are great to have in your repair kit, so buying nice metal ones is adbvised. Here are a set of plastic ones I initiall got before I went to metal

Russell 64556: Plastic AN Cap & Plug Set -3 thru -12 AN Caps, six of each AN size | JEGS

 

[woodlandfarms]

Cross post. better stuff from Moss

 

[Kaon99]

Hi Guys,
Unfortunately the drama continues. But I will do the easy stuff first. I talked to Keith at powertrac today and he said it was ok to cap the hydraulic lines and start the motor. Said a shunt is not necessary. I don't know much about Kieth. Is he as technically knowledgeable as Terry? That is, should I trust his answer?

Now onto the on-going drama. Attached is a pic of what's on the opposite side from the notched brake rotor. There are 7 bolts that have to be removed to get inside. Does the photo look familiar to anyone? Keith said to send the whole unit which is 36 lbs (weighed it!) To-and-from ups shipping is almost $100. (Ouch!) Also Terry said I could "slip out" the wheel motor. If there is something behind the 7 bolts that can be sent to powertrac it should much lighter and less costly to ship. Incidentally Keith said to send the whole unit, all 36 lbs of it. I will check with Terry before I do that.

Woodland Farms sent a nice photo with the parts in question on my PT425 marked with red, green and yellow. Thanks a bunch! It is the bolt marked in green (4 of them) that have to be removed. The ones in red stay on. The yellow is the notched brake rotor. The picture I attached shows what the side opposite the notched wheel rotor looks like. Because powertrac has so many different models for the PT425, it seems that unless your machine is the same model as mine (2002 model), it is likely what I am looking at is different from yours. When you take out the green bolts what you see is the 7 bolts in the photo. Right now I need to know whether or not to remove the 7 bolts to get what's inside.

As always I appreciate effort that comes from you guys.

Ken
P.S. the photo shows the unit (in a garbage bag in a bucket) with the notched rotor down and the "wheel motor" side up.

 

[MossRoad]

It look like you already have the entire motor out and in a bag. I'm confused.... :confused3:

 

[ernemats]

I would say you do not have to remove the seven bolts unless you are repairing the wheel motor yourself.