mwoods
New member
I have been reading threads for over a year and never posted one. Lot of knowledge out there and now I need advice. I have a Cat 297C high flow and a Bradco MM60. Been runnin it about a year now. Doing a little job last week and shut the head down to go refuel. After I kicked the pump out I heard a loud knocking sound as the drum started to decelerate. After inspection I noticed that the right side hammer tooth was rubbing against the outer seal cap. The clearances are real tight on that side from the factory. While the head was hot I couldnt turn it a whole revolution by hand because it was seizing when the hammer tooth was on the topside of rotation. I took the drive cover off and there was a LOT of grease at the bottom of the Drive Housing and some where the belt and pulleys were slinging it around. I thought that was a little odd since it is a sealed bearing and injecting new grease emits the old. I shot some differnt colored grease in it to see if the seal was failed completely but none was visible. Rotated it by hand and it wasnt rubbing after it cooled off. The clearance on the low side of rotation was approximately 1/8" while on the topside it was tight. I didnt feeler gauge it but it was close. Kicked the head and sounded the bearing w/ a screwdriver and didnt hear anything out of the ordinary. After it warmed up it started rubbing again. There was excessive wear on the hammer tooth body where a stick had wedged between the mainframe and tooth. That tooth was way out of proportion so I took it off and put a fresher tooth on that carrier, spun it by hand and it was rubbing bad with all the meat on it. I'm guessing the bearing is failing or I bent that carrier a little bit. There are no cracked welds or slack in the drum in any direction. Any suggestions or analysis will be greatly appreciated.
