Final drive out of my Bobcat 743

[4440]

Well I spent the majority of yesterday and today disassembling my 743. The gear reduction on the right hand final drive finally went. The driven gear has two tapered bearings, basically both went. It had been grinding for some time and I knew it would finally fail. I just had put if off due to the amount of labor involved. So far I have removed the engine, muffler / oil cooler / radiator assy, pump assy, right hand final drive. Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

 

[DJ54]

If you haven't bought your bearings yet, here's a link to a place I've been getting mine for the last year or so. MUCH more reasonable than a dealer price, and I've saved as much as 35% compared to places like Bearings Inc.

So far what I have gotten have been Timken U.S.A. bearings and cups. They sell bearing and matching cups in sets.

The downside is, is takes about 5 to 7 days to get them. Depends how bad you need the machine I guess.

Here is the link if you are interested.

JBR 17 LLC

 

[4440]

Ended up ordering everything locally through a Bobcat dealership. Altogether there were two gears, two bearings, engine to pump coupler, brakes, and a few other parts. Total was almost $3400.

 

[DJ54]

Yep, looks like most items are dealer items, and not much you can do about that. Bite the bullet, and move on..

Any idea what caused the bearing failure? Is there like a thrust nut and washer on the inside of the axle that wore?

Just be glad you can do your own repairs...!! I'd imagine the labor would have been as much, or more than the parts.

I had $900.00 in labor just replacing less than $30.00 worth of seals in the drive motors in my 450. That was after they put a new hyd. pump on it, thinking that was the problem with the hydraulics. The shop foreman did subtract the labor for the time spent on replacing the pump. And did knock off some on the price of the pump, because it did not fix the problem.

Since you have the price of the bearings on your invoice, you can still compare prices, at the site I sent you. Seems bearings are always going out on something....

 

[4440]

We aquired this Bobcat about 5 yrs ago and it had around 1200 hrs showing. We ran the hour meter up to around 2800 hrs and it stopped working. So in more than likely if I had to guess, it has between 3500-4000 hrs on it. It has not give us any problems other than pins and bushings. It does have a little blow by but nothing I am concerned about. So more than likely the bearings were just flat wore out and as a result it wore the gears. I noticed the noise myself earlier this Summer and intended on fixing it sooner but never got the chance.

 

[4440]

Got most of my parts and have reassembled and installed the right hand final drive gear box. Oh yeah, I had to replace the two universal joints in the engine coupling. Here are a few pictures.

 

[4440]

coupling shots

 

[4440]

couple comparison shots of old v/s new.

 

[cbl rhode island]

If you haven't bought your bearings yet, here's a link to a place I've been getting mine for the last year or so. MUCH more reasonable than a dealer price, and I've saved as much as 35% compared to places like Bearings Inc.

So far what I have gotten have been Timken U.S.A. bearings and cups. They sell bearing and matching cups in sets.

The downside is, is takes about 5 to 7 days to get them. Depends how bad you need the machine I guess.

Here is the link if you are interested.

JBR 17 LLC

 

[cbl rhode island]

I went on the link did not bring me to tinkem bearings do you still have the bearing part no. For the bearing in the gear case thank you.

 

[DJ54]

I went on the link did not bring me to tinkem bearings do you still have the bearing part no. For the bearing in the gear case thank you.

That vendor went out of business a number of years back. But, I did find a seller on ebay, who carries quite a stock of NOS Timken, and SKF bearings. Here is a link to his ebay store: Items for sale by patriot_bearing_supply | eBay

Run your part numbers through the search for his store. If nothing comes up, send him a message with your part numbers. He has many in stock, not listed, and also has a cross reference list that he may be able to match what you need. Probably not a bad idea to search ebay's entire site with your numbers. I normally run my part numbers through Google, NAPA, and Motion Industries and get a general idea of what just about any bearing price will be.

I have found, that the key to finding such parts is using the part number stamped in the original bearing, not the equipment manufacturer's part number. Although some may cross through NAPA, or Motion Industries, or like bearing supply houses. The last item I can recall crossing, was a hyd. pump seal for my Super C Farmall. For some reason, the price had risen to nearly $30. I did use the Case/IH part number, and ran it through Motion Industries, and found it there for like $9. For giggles, I ran that CR (Chicago Rawhide) part number through NAPA, and found it for $7, and change. Luckily, I have a small town NAPA that 80% of their business is agricultural, and heavy eq. parts. Even better, the central warehouse is only 15 miles away from there. I called at approx. 8:30 a.m., and found that the seal was in stock at the warehouse, and would be in store for me to pick up at around 1:00 pm. For that price,and service, I ordered 2 of them, to have one on the shelf, as I have 5 tractors with that same hydraulic pump.