Front Seal Issue again - 3120 : repair costs?

OzGrasshopper · Jan 8, 2014

Following on from other earlier threads, again i have experienced front wheel oil leak, from seal and damaged bearings. This is not the first time for me or I notice quite a few other owners of 3,000 series. I'm starting to wonder if the FEL system is too big for the bearings etc. My tractor is now approaching 2,000hrs, and the only real trouble I have had with what I consider is a wonderful machine, has been around the front wheel hubs (the light material in that bottom seal that we hit soooo many times, seals and bearings both sides) it seems the only really weak area of a enjoyable and otherwise reliable tractor!

The latest trouble was just as others have mentioned, come out to the shed and find oil on the bottom of the front tire. Having had this before I knew it was the seal. Down here in Oz dealers carry very, very limited stock, has to be ordered from other side of Australia, airfreight to Perth, overnite road freight to here. So a $38 seal has $16 freight, so with previous history, this time I ordered 2 seals as these fit either side. However this time when the trouble happened, we found the inner and outer bearings had collapsed. Being the middle of hay season, we got the job was done by local dealer mechanic, & just got the bill which I thought was somewhat excessive in the Labor Content, so asked for a breakdown and was very surprised to find an allocation of 4 hours Workshop time to removed the damaged wheel bearings....... Am I being a bit old fashioned in thinking that taking 4 hrs to remove and reassemble those bearing at fully equipped workshop is excessive? The hub was then bought back out to the farm and fitted. I have no trouble with the time spent at our farm, as I saw what was done and it was quick and efficient work.

If other owners have done this repair and had trouble getting bearings out, would you mind telling me what time it took? Labor here is booked out at $115 per +10% tax, which makes me question $500 to remove 2 bearings? Cheers OzG

arlen4720 · Jan 8, 2014

I don't know if the hours are excessive, but I'm wondering how you have your machine ballasted.

glc24 · Jan 8, 2014

arlen4720 said:
I don't know if the hours are excessive, but I'm wondering how you have your machine ballasted.

Was wondering the same thing.

Greg

OzGrasshopper · Jan 9, 2014

Ballasting is OK - dealer set machine up at delivery by adding rear wheel weights, as 80% of work is moving baled hay - round bales approx 250 -300kg on both front and back forks. with these being equal weight and round, weight is even front, back and lateral weight does not favor either side. a quick search of JD forum will show that front wheel set ups (particularly seals and the bottom plugs/covers on front 4wd units) have caused quite a few problems. That design factor aside, we have also found that regardless of size or type of modern tractor (30 to 100hp), if the bale netting from round bales get caught around the inside of front axles, it will chop a seal out very quickly. For this very reason, we have just installed extra lighting to be able to more clearly prevent this happening when loading at night.

my concern with the account was taking 4 hours in a fully equipped to remove the damaged bearings - i've removed a few over my life, and even stubborn sets, once heated have never taken that long, but maybe i've just been lucky?

rsallen · Jan 9, 2014

You removed and delivered the hub to their shop?
And they charged how much to remove and put bearing races in?!!!!!!

I gotta be missing something.
Someone tell what it is.

Coyote machine · Jan 9, 2014

What's the flat rate in the dealer's book for time to do the bearing R&R? Have you talked to them about this issue yet? You said their work at your place was satisfactory. Ask them if there was a problem in dis-assembly or install.

OzGrasshopper · Jan 9, 2014

The hub was removed at our farm by dealers mechanic, but he couldn't get the damaged bearings out, so took it back to their workshop to use press etc. and to get new set of bearings. Left our farm at 10am. on returning to our farm he said he had to use heat to get he damaged bearings out - again that seemed reasonable and was fine by me. he arrived back at the farm at 2-30pm installed the repaired housing and did a few other items and left at 4.00pm. when i got the bill, in addition to the time worked on the farm (which was correct) the period from 10am to 2pm (4hrs) was charged out to us for removing the bearings...... 4hrs X$126 = $500.... hence my questioning the account ..... what he did or didn't do in that 4 hrs is of course the unknown factor for us? that's why i am asking has it ever taken anyone else 4 hours to get 2 bearings out..... i would have thought in a full equipped service workshop it should be done in no more than an hour? Yes, i have questioned the account as i thought perhaps the mechanic may have worked on another job while waiting for the new bearings to be sourced?

Zebrafive · Jan 9, 2014

I think the two posts questioning about ballast were asking if you have behind the rear axle ballast. Ballast behind the rear axle takes some of the load off the front axle.

OzGrasshopper · Jan 9, 2014

No, i dont need ballast behind the rear axle because the weight of front and back hay forks is equal and hay bales are very similar weight... if we are only carrying one bale it is always one the back. likewise don't lift a front bale without a bale on the back.

Coyote machine · Jan 9, 2014

OzGrasshopper said:
The hub was removed at our farm by dealers mechanic, but he couldn't get the damaged bearings out, so took it back to their workshop to use press etc. and to get new set of bearings. Left our farm at 10am. on returning to our farm he said he had to use heat to get he damaged bearings out - again that seemed reasonable and was fine by me. he arrived back at the farm at 2-30pm installed the repaired housing and did a few other items and left at 4.00pm. when i got the bill, in addition to the time worked on the farm (which was correct) the period from 10am to 2pm (4hrs) was charged out to us for removing the bearings...... 4hrs X$126 = $500.... hence my questioning the account ..... what he did or didn't do in that 4 hrs is of course the unknown factor for us? that's why i am asking has it ever taken anyone else 4 hours to get 2 bearings out..... i would have thought in a full equipped service workshop it should be done in no more than an hour? Yes, i have questioned the account as i thought perhaps the mechanic may have worked on another job while waiting for the new bearings to be sourced?

It makes sense why you are questioning it, but IMHO it would make more sense to me to ask the shop that did the work what they base those hours of labor on and then bring that answer to us to hash out with you.