Needs some help. Leak in front hub.

[Stradbash]

I just went through this last week on my BX22. Pulled it apart and turned out I had a cracked casting.Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Yours was a very nice description of a job I hope never to have to do on my BX25. Thanks much for taking the time to thoughtfully write it up and take pictures for those who might have to do the same.

All the best,

Mark

 

[lzicc]

Well, the good news is I found the leak, the bad news is the same issue you had. I cleaned around the leaking area with brake cleaner drove it for a little bit and could see it start to leak again. I cleaned it off and watched it and I could see gear lube leaking the same spot as yours did. Once I got a real good look, you could see a hair line crack. I checked Colemans and they want $164.99 for the part. You said you got yours for about $130.00? The part number I am looking at it K2561-15412.

BTW, if you would not have posted this, I would have had a heck of a time discovering the hub was cracked. I would have never thought it would crack like that. Thanks, you saved me allot of aggravation.

Izicc,

The area you circled was where my leak showed up. Started small, but got bigger to the point where there would be a good pint on the floor each morning due to the crack getting bigger. The oil seemed like it was coming from the seal (see attached, part 050 on the diagram of page 86). Even the dealer thought it was just the seal, and in fact replaced it 3 times before giving up and sending it home.

It took some time to get really bad, but eventually it did. Some really heavy lifting help to speed the process .

But as you will see by looking at the pictures, it was definately a cracked casting. I wasn't sure where the problem was when I got ready to tear it apart, so I ordered all the bearings, seals, and the bevel gear casting (of course it turned out to be the drive gear casting instead..)

Picture 1 is one end of the crack.

Picture 2 is the other end (kinda hard to see in this picture, but it runs all the way down to the left side of the picture following the curve of the casting).

Picture 3 & 4 are the inside of the casting. If you look just left and just right of the center of the pictures you can see to black spots where the casting had chipped away. Zoom in on those spots and you can see and follow the crack from one side of the picture to the other. It was hard to see initially, but the black spots clued me in on where the crack was on the inside.

The last picture is to give some perspective on where the crack is on the casting. In fact if you look to the left side you can get a better view of what picture 2 was trying to show.

The other attachment is a few pages of the parts manual.. The casting cost about $130 from Coleman Equipment in KS, so just hope it is only the seal that needs replaced.

 

[jnjpream]

I'm glad I could save you some pain.

That's the right part number. Looking at my sales slip from July 9th, the part was $138.53 and shipping was $14.61. I looked up the part online again and you are right, the price did go up.

Maybe when I ordered the part they realized they had the wrong or outdated price..? I guess you could call them and ask as long as they don't send me a bill for the difference .

Don't forget to order a new seal too.

If your machine has done hard time like mine has, odds are the opening in the casting where the seal comes out has taken a few dings which will bind on the top bearing when you pull it out. Since you're going to replace the casting anyway, grind the dings out. My bearings came out pretty easy with that exception.

However they were a bit tight going back in the new casting. Just take it slow, use lots of grease, and evenly tap the bearings in. And most importantly, make sure you have everything back in order the first time because pulling the now tight bearings will be difficult.

 

[lzicc]

Well, I got the part Friday and got it installed. What a job. For the most part it went smooth, but that first snap ring, what nightmare coming off and putting back on. Every time I would grab it, by the time I got it open enough it would slip off. I was using a pretty good pair of snap ring pliers too. You don't have much room to work with in there either.

I did get a closer look at the hub and it is has a pretty good hair line crack in it.

Jeff, thanks for all of your help on this. You instructions were right on the money.

 

[radioman]

couldn't it be welded ?

 

[rdsaustintx]

but that first snap ring, what nightmare coming off and putting back on.

When I was a kid (40 years ago), an old mechanic once called a snap ring a "Jesus clip". I asked why, and he said 'cause that was the only person who could get them off.

Twenty years later I was engineering flight controls and heard an assembler use the same term. I asked why, and he said 'cause that was what you yelled when they came flying off the pliers.

I do NOT mean any offense by this post. It was just (obviously) memorable.

 

[jnjpream]

Radioman,

It could be welded, but due to the oil in the casting it would be difficult to get a weld that wouldn't leak. The heat from welding it would cook the oil out of it bit by bit. You would keep getting pin holes until all the oil was cooked out. And each time you got a pin hole, you'd have to grind it out and try again.

I contacted a pro (Ray from Mountain View welding, CO. You can always count on Ray) and even at $65/hr he said unless he got really lucky, I'd be looking at probably $100 with no guarantee that it wouldn't leak.

So it was worth the extra $50 to just buy a new part.

Jeff

 

[lzicc]

I'm glad I am not the only one that hates those snap rings. For the most part they are tough enough to get off but manageable, but that first one, forget it. It was very hard to get to. If I would have to guess, I probably had a good hour between trying to work that thing off and then back on. It really tried my patience I'll say that.