leaky 422

[cqaigy]

Hi All,

I started to notice oil on the bottom of the rear tub after about 17 hrs. I cleaned everything up cause i couldn't tell where it was coming from. I assumed a leak from a fitting but it appears to be coming from right where the pump adapter bolts onto the engine. I'm afraid it might be a seal in the hydro pump that's letting the fluid go by /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I checked the hoses again cause i really just want to be able to tighten a fitting then replace anything. I called Terry at PT and he was going to look at one to see where the fluid might be coming from.

 

[MossRoad]

Can you take a picture of where it is comming from or is it too tight to get a small camera in there?

 

[cqaigy]

Not sure I can get a shot of it, but tomorrow I'll look to see.

 

[cqaigy]

After talking to Terry from PT, he thought it sounded like the shaft seal was leaking on the pump. After a couple days I called Terry and we discussed whether to send out a replacement seal for the pump or (Terry's Preference) I could send my pump to them and have them replace the seal and send the pump back. After alittle more discussion he thought that since the pump had so few hours that he would just go ahead and send out a new pump.

When I removed the coupling housing from the engine and pump, the inside was covered with oil so it looks as though the shaft seal did fail.

 

[MossRoad]

So you pulled the pump. Have you received the new one yet? How hard and how much time would you estimate the job took? Just curious.

 

[cqaigy]

Sorry to take so long to reply. Terry sent the pump to me right away, took about a week to get here. The main problem i had was getting enough play to pull the pump. I started by removing the gas tank and the mounting plate on the right side that the gas tank attaches to. Then I removed the battery, took the ground off first. The muffler came off to give me alittle more room. I removed all the hoses from the pump and plugged the hose that comes from the filter because it looked as though it wanted to drain the hydro tank. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Still pretty messy though. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Marked the hoses with with tags and wrote on the fittings with material that comes off with oil. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif <font color="red"> Didn't know at the time. </font> I then removed the pump on the end toward the front of the pt (left hoses on) and also removed the two bolts the connect the pump to the coupling housing and last but not least remove the four bolts out the housing that connected it to the engine.

All told I believe I spent around 4hrs over two weekends getting the old pump out and putting the new one in. I had some trouble getting everything pushed out of the way to remove the old pump and also putting the new one in. I couldn't just pull things up and out but had to have everything loose so that i could angle everything to get enough clearance. Also, believe it or not, I had a little trouble putting hoses back on the correct fittings, being as all my pretty tags and such were not of any use. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Lucky for me that I've been such a fan of this forum had read some of the topic about the hydrolics from all you experts that have been so great at sharing your knowledge and I want to thank my lucky quarter for making some well informed discissions. I like to thank my wife too for finding the one hose that eluded me, my close up vision is pretty bad. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

So far it looks as though there aren't anymore leaking oil, knock on wood.

I think from the sounds of other people on this forum, that they probably wouldn't have taken as long as i did. I"m not much of a wrench slinger but I make up for it by being slow. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[J_J]

I think it is a good thing that PT sends replacement parts, but do any of you realize how much PT saves on labor while the machine is under warranty. I think PT should reimburse the owner for the labor cost in dollars or parts. Their thinking is that no one would ship their unit back to them to fix, granted that an average individual could fix just about any thing on the PT, even with the sorry excuse for an owners manual. They do take advantage of this.

Speaking of owners manuals, their is no excuse for not producing a clear and concise manual for the operation, parts breakdown, and trouble shooting for each model and variation, with lots of color pictures. If they don't have the know how, their are many companies that could do it for them.

Even on the older machines, one has to beg for any information. What do they do with the old manuals that they produced. Computers have been around for a while now.

 

[MossRoad]

Glad you got it going again. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif And thanks for the time breakdown. It helps to know what to expect if this should happen to anyone else. Someone else(I apologize, because I can't recall which one of us it was) had pulled a pump or motor and mentioned the lack of room when trying to get things out. I wonder if it would be easier to remove and plug all the hoses and then take the entire engine with pumps attached out as a unit and work on it outside the engine compartment? I also wonder how much money it would add to the cost of the unit to just put quick connects on all the hoses so this could be done very fast with little chance of dirt entering the system? Maybe a couple hundred dollars. Hmmmm.... uh oh. Money spending thoughts entering my brain. Must go soak my head in ice water. Back later... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[cqaigy]

J.J,
I agree that a better manual would be nice, but I'm not sure I agree with reimbursing owners for labour. The extra cost of reimbursing owners for labour would have to be passed on to everybody when they purchase their products. I'll admit that I personally would benefit from such a program but at the expense of others that were more lucky then I.

 

[cqaigy]

Thanks MossRoad,

I think you may be right about removing all the hoses from the pumps and possibly remove the engine mounts to move it further back to make more room laterally so that one would have more room to pull the pump off the coupler.

The quick connects would certainly make it easier to remove but they look like they would add a significant amount of restriction to the hydro fluid flow, donno if that assumption is correct though.

I gotta say that I'm sure glad that my machine is back up and running. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif