Son is buying a Bobcat, advice?

[etpm]

The "if it's too good to be true" thing would make me leery that this is a stolen machine. That price is way too low to be legit IMO. I hope it's real for his sake, but I'd be skeptical.

Me too on being skeptical but the owner is past 70 years old, is downsizing, moving, and doesn't want to deal with a broken machine because he can no longer physically work on the machine or even get into the thing. My son is getting or has already gotten a bill of sale. He found out yesterday that the hydraulic oil leak is dumping all the hydraulic fluid into a chain case. This leak info is second hand so I could be wrong about what something is called and where the oil is going. My son got the thing started yesterday after buying a new battery, apparently it hadn't been started for over a year. It started right up. He ordered new seals and is planning on pumping the oil out of whatever it has leaked into so he can install the seals. The machine only ran ten seconds or so because of some safety thing that shuts the machine down if there is a problem, like low hydraulic oil. It uses 10W-30 oil for the hydraulic oil according to the manual the guy gave him.
Eric
P.S.
It's nice to see someone spell and use leery correctly.

 

[rbrown225]

Get ready for working in tight areas.
Sound like one of the drive motors has a blown shaft seal but would verify before pulling and condemning parts. Will probably have to pull the drive motor to rebuild. Make sure to prime the pumps and motors per the manual. Piston pumps and motors are very easy to wreck.
Here is the link to Bobcat's parts books Bobcat Parts Catalog - Find Diagrams for Your Equipment - Bobcat Company

per the manual for a 873G
HYDRAULIC/HYDROSTATIC FLUID SPECIFICATIONS
Use Melroe hydraulic/hydrostatic transmission fluid (P/N 6563328). If this fluid is not
available, use 10W–30 or 10W–40 Class SE Motor Oil (5W–30 for 0°F [–18°C] &
Below).
DO NOT use automatic transmission fluids in the loader or permanent damage to the
transmission will result.
"If it was me I would use AW46. Just not a fan of engine oil for hydraulics."

FINAL DRIVE TRANSMISSION (CHAINCASE)
Checking And Adding Oil
The chaincase contains the final drive sprockets and
chains and uses the same type of oil as the
hydraulic/hydrostatic system.

 

[airbiscuit]

The most interesting part of this video is at 15:15

 

[airbiscuit]

 

[airbiscuit]

It looks like he found a good site for advice.

New to me 753 hydraulic leak

 

[Tinhack]

Good video but you have your left and right backwards.

Descriptive positions are always as though sitting in the seat.