Drive motor failures

[theoshin]

After much discussion with Bobcat and my local dealer the problem
is thought to be solved by Bobcat. Beware, however, that the dealers
have not been notified of this problem. My dealer had no idea this
potential problem exists and only through this website did I find out about
it. Not until I contacted Bobcat directly did my dealer get a call from a manager disclosing the problem. The problem is felt to be with the front and rear drive motors - the brass (not copper) fittings/castings were not machined correctly resulting in wear with the pistons. This has been corrected and likely remains a problem in a minority of "c" models. The hydrostatic pump is not felt to be at fault. I had metal in my system (not as severe as others on this site) that I discovered after draining the hydro filter and my motors are to be replaced. After receiving the call my local dealer has been straight forward and honest. That is what we all expect from Bobcat and they will be rewarded with multiple future purchases.

Thanks to all,
TS

 

[Rolando]

theoshin,

The symptoms that I have are that the mower deck will turn, but not fast enough to actually cut grass, although if I switch on the high-flow, it does turn fast enough to cut. But the mower deck is not supposed to need high-flow.

The other problem I'm having is that the grapple opens much slower than it closes for any given rpm. I believe this is related because the flow direction of the grapple opening is the same as the mower flow.

Other than that, everything else works fine. Raising and lowering the boom and curling and dumping all work as expected. No problem with forward and reverse, overheating or any whining noises. You wouldn't know there was anything wrong if auxiliary hydraulics were not needed.

Does any of this sound like the problems you were having? My dealer thought that it was the metal shavings problem and replaced all the pumps but that didn't make any difference and the Toolcat is behaving exactly as before. I'm now beginning to wonder if there isn't something else going on with my machine.

I've just put in a call for the Bobcat District Service Manager. After waiting a week for my service manager to get in contact with his factory rep with no response, I figured I'd better get the ball rolling. I think my service manager doesn't really believe there's anything wrong. He certainly doesn't seem to be giving my problem much priority.

 

[theoshin]

interesting,
if the problem was really the drive motors then you should loose drive power. if your drive and lift are ok then the hydrostatic pump (1 pump, multiple motors where needed) and drive motors are working correctly. The filings problem should affect more than just the aux hydro motor. I think you have a different problem. bobcat engineering should be able to figure this out. it should start with an accurate test of your aux drive circuit flow/pressures. if ok then i would try a different attachment that has not been on a toolcat before and see if it works. if you really had a serious brass problem it may have damaged that motor but it sounds like it was replaced. theoretically if you did have a serious metal problem you attachments could have been damaged but that is unlikely as
brass is a soft metal. it should be a common sense trial and error process based on engineering. check the aux flow circuit first. if ok then test the attachments (unlikely the problem). if both ok then get someone from bobcat who knows the schematics/engineering of the system.

TS