Yet another hydraulic leak.

John Shipp said: Why are your tracks off? Maybe get the tracks back on and give it some run time, look for the leak once it's mobile. Click to expand... Fair question. The chains seized up a few years (yes, years) ago, resisting all my efforts to sledgehammer and oil them into submission. Rust was so bad that there was perforation in a number of shoes, as well. I ordered new shoes and chains. At some point in there, I busted the tracks open (just to see what I was going to be facing in order to replace them) whereupon the sunlight hit the stretches of steel that generally face skyward, normally hidden in the shadow of the tracks. I felt ill, seeing how bad the rust had become: thick flakes lifting off, size of potato-chips. Since then, I've concluded that the top surfaces of these... struts (?) are the least "structural" of the assembly, since they're relatively thin, even from the factory (~1/4") and probably there just to support the truly heavy plate internals (1/2" to 3/4") that are generally vertically-oriented within the labyrinth below - but I've still got to go over them with at least a needle-gun (wish I could sandblast) and see if I can slow the rust down. Some places, they salt the roads...here, I believe it's in the air, along with jungle-level rainfall, especially lately. If I could afford it, I'd hot-dip galvanize my entire life.

John Shipp said: Shame your videoscope thingamy is kaput, I've not used one but if it has focus you should see oil dripping off one or the other. When you slew about, how much oil is pissing out? It sounds like it's a hard-to-spot amount. I have used various small mirrors and flashlights to get a view in these spots. I'm also a practicing pragmatist in the theory of leaving it until it shows up more obviously, when you can't find the damn thing Click to expand... I'll keep working on the 'scope (batteries leaked...that NEVER happens... ) but I suspect it's toast. They're cheapish, though, so I might get another one. Also don't think I can let a good weekend go by without raising the machine on the stabilizer, to see if there's any visible fountaining that results.

Meh. Got the scope working. It's still impossible to differentiate. Seems like I'd need an inspection hole right next to the pinion seal in order to determine whether the oil is coming from there. So I raised the machine up on the stabilizer blade cyls, and it sure looks like that causes a new wave of leakage - not what I noticed initially, but I'd not been looking for it initially, either, so it might well have been a longer-term accumulation. The three ~1/2" holes on a circle, visible from below and spaced out around the swivel, now appear to be looking directly up at that black rubber grommet visible from topside, and the lowest two of them seem to be weeping out new fluid (I wiped it down a couple of days ago) so I think the odds are the leak is from the swivel. And if I understand correctly, those three holes are up a slope, so to speak, from the pinion-seal, so they wouldn't see any leakage from the pinion. I think I need to order up a BUNCH of ORFS plugs and caps...

Sounds like you've narrowed it down to the likely suspect. As Hatchequip mentioned earlier, mark everything up properly as you disassemble. Plus different colors of cable ties make hoses easier to connect back to the correct port, if your memory is anything like mine.

John Shipp said: Plus different colors of cable ties make hoses easier to connect back to the correct port, if your memory is anything like mine. Click to expand... To paraphrase Mark Twain. It ain't what you don't remember that gets you into trouble, it's what you remember for sure that ain't so...

"If I could afford it, I'd hot-dip galvanize my entire life." Me too. Brilliant line

John Shipp said: "If I could afford it, I'd hot-dip galvanize my entire life." Me too. Brilliant line Click to expand... About every one here would too

I got back into this long-sitting project over the last few days. Spent more than half the day Friday lying on the unsoft-tubing covering the base of the boom, reaching down into the bowels, often well past the point of pain. After taking the first hose off the swivel, I began to suspect that "the way it's done" is to pull the OTHER ends of these hoses off - even if they're buried in a godawful nest of other hoses, many of which interfere with access. Anyone agree, or is that dumb, or a judgement call? After that experience, I think the only thing that would stop me from that approach would be needing to remove the counterweight to get access to the other ends of hoses...THAT would be a bridge too far. No surprise the rust is really bad in the plate surfaces near the bottom of this well-from-hell, to the point where I'm now wondering how much more awful it would be to pull the swing drive, too. A -6 90-degree adapter on one of the small top hoses from the swivel... broke off in the top of the swing-drive unit, making me wonder if it's reasonable to even TRY to get the broken piece out of the top of the drive unit, considering the near-certainty of rusty swarf getting into that up-facing port while I would be working on it: From here: The broken-off fitting MIGHT have been ORB, in which case I guess it would be worth trying to chisel-tap it CCW to see if it will release...but if it's pipe-thread, I think I'm...screwed, so to speak. Do those top hoses by any chance have the hydraulic filter waiting as the next destination, as I think someone once commented? View attachment IMG_7088.JPG I'll continue in next post - photo limit breached...

There are also some rusted-beyond-recognition bits sticking out of the drive unit that surely should be replaced, if anyone can recognize what they were and advise...? and ...seen in the larger context: View attachment IMG_7092.JPG [cont'd below]

Here's the ID plate on the drive, if it matters: The dipstick housing/neck is severely rusted, to the point where I have to wonder if rain is about to get in. I'm not sure if it can be removed without pulling the drive out, as a practical matter, owing to lack of clearance and the likelihood of breaking it open while trying. Anyone? Finally, that L-bracket: The bolt head was falling apart from corrosion, so the final insult from the machine was to make me drill it out, using my own version of the Deepwater Horizon rig (cordless with an electrician's extension). NOT FUN. Father's Day my arse... Well, what my camera could see yesterday - but mine eyes could not - was that the washer that HAD been under the bolt-head had fallen apart from rust even before I began drilling, and it turned out that there was so much slop in the hole below - and so little bolt-head left - that the whole thing seemed more of a rough guide to orientation. The three bolts coming up from below are absolute in terms of securing the swivel. So this tab just seems pointless, other than as THE CRUELEST possible version of an orientation indicator. Can I please have permission to delete with extreme prejudice?

Here's what I'm currently left with, if it matters. The "well" is several inches deeper than I can reach, so the only means of cleaning, realistically, is more pressure-washing. Any reason not to do that? View attachment dirty, now-empty well.JPG

Like the dog said ruf ruf.. If you could move it over next to the driveway by the road it might work for a mailbox post for a couple of years until the rust eats the rest of it, might have to get the paper boy a tetanus shot .

HATCHEQUIP said: Like the dog said ruf ruf.. If you could move it over next to the driveway by the road it might work for a mailbox post for a couple of years until the rust eats the rest of it, might have to get the paper boy a tetanus shot . Click to expand... A friend of mine up the road, when scrap iron prices were up, finally gave up on an ancient jungle-dwelling dozer of some kind. He told me that the guys who came for it were using shovels and buckets to pick up the chunks that fell away. Ruf indeed.

It's been a LONG while with life intervening, but the swivel is now back with me and awaiting installation. The shop that rebuilt it said they'd get some photos of the seals and tell me about it, but as these things go, that ball was dropped, with the only feedback available to me was that it "didn't look too bad, you know..." (I'd wanted to know that seals had fallen apart into chunks, one was completely missing, etc, thus for sure it was the swivel seals, and not the swing-motor, that was responsible for the leak coming through to the car body around the swivel.) So here's what I'm wondering: if I make sure I've got all lines that led TO the swivel securely plugged, could I potentially start the machine and swivel it, perhaps punishingly, to see if there's any new leakage that results? I know I'll have no track-drive or blade control, but that won't matter at all in current setting. Any "tank" lines that also could be of concern?