bx23 dented and leaking

[granite]

I have received a lot of great information from this web site, but this past weekend reminded me why I spend so much time reading the posts. After doing some grading on Saturday, I put the bx in the garage and went to coach my son's baseball game. When I got back in the late afternoon, I gave the tractor a quick once over and saw what every tractor owner does not want to see - a pool of hydro fluid on the floor. I determined the leak was coming from a small crack in the aluminum pan. The panic was gone when I immediately remember a thread from a few weeks ago:

Link

The picture of damage in this thread was identical to my dent (I must of hit the same rock). The thread gave a roadmap with photo of repair. A quick trip to the auto parts store and a little bit of elbow grease and I had the crack patched. The only difference in my repair, is that I used a small amount of quickweld putty to temporarily stop the leak (someone posted using a lead sinker so it was along the same idea). This hardened very quickly and gave me time to thoroughly clean the area around the crack. Since the putty held so well, I decided not to drain all the fluid and continued with an aluminum plate and JB weld just like the thread (although my repair did not look as neat as his). I let the tractor sit overnight and for most of Sunday before a workout. The patch seems to be doing it's job.

I can't thank everyone enough for the combined knowledge posted on this site.

MikePA: Cleaned up long URL. Please review your message before posting it. It's simple not to do this. Just insert a descriptive word or two between the {url=http://whatever}<font color="red">Enter words here</font>{/url} instead of the entire URL. Replace parentheses with brackets in previous example.

 

[Tractor_Jim_CT]

Granite,

When you last operated the machine did you use the BH before parking? Do you remember running over anything that gave you a jolt ? I was wondering if a crack in the hydro-fluid transmision case cause a loss of some power in the BH operation.

 

[granite]

First thing in the morning, I used the backhoe to knock down a small pile of fill. I was on a level area without any rocks/ledge, and did not notice any loss of power. I also greased the BH right afterwards and did not see any hydro fluid leaking then. I can see that lifting the tractor/stabilizers could potentially cause the tractor to come down on an object if not careful.

The rest of the time I was moving fill with the loader and back blading small depressions. I know I did not hit anything major while working and the dent/scratch in the pan was very small. I remember all the posts about the bx23 and ground clearance concerns when I was deciding on the purchase. Most of my work is light duty lot and driveway grading so I wasn't concerned about it at the time. Since being under the tractor, I believe that the aluminum pan is easily suceptable to damage. I recall reading a post about a plate mod for protection and will look at it when I have some down time. Until then I will be extra careful. Given the relative ease of the fix, it could have been a lot worse.

 

[Tractor_Jim_CT]

Sorry to read of your frustrating small leak. This weekend I plan on crawling under the BX23 to locate my small leak. The first place on this is exam is under the hydro-tank.

I looked at the picture of the other poster and it looked like two flat items were used. On the bottom was the 1/8 inch plate (does anyone know where to buy this) and some time of smaller white rectangle piece on top.

 

[granite]

I used 1/16" piece of aluminum flashing with the JB weld on one side and then pressed it up against the prepared area. After it hardened a bit, I spread more JB weld over the plate and around the edges.