Generic wheel motors

[MossRoad]

425 w.1430 wheelmotor boxes and 28.3ci wheel motors

Finally had an opportunity to snap a couple pics of my 425 in use, after upgrading the wheel motors. Here's a couple pics of its stance with 26x12x12 Deestone lug tires and the larger Surplus Center wheelmotors that come with brake drums/hubs:

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[MossRoad]

There's a ton of info from him to mine. Good luck.

Search results for query: motors

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[scotts562]

Thank you all for the help. Will look thru those threads.

 

[woodlandfarms]

I am going to do my own rebuild this year on a leaky wheel motor. In my area there is an extensive wait for rebuild services and the price is almost equal to just buying new.

 

[2manyrocks]

Never having rebuilt a wheel motor, I don't know what is involved. My experience rebuilding cylinders has been mixed whether I rebuilt them or had them rebuilt at hydraulics shop. The last cylinder I tried to rebuild on my Terramite still leaked so I replaced it with a new one. The seals were so expensive and it was such a messy job that it was very disappointing to see the old cylinder keep leaking so I just bought a new one instead of making another attempt at repairing the old one.

I also had an expensive and disappointing repair on a Mahindra steering cylinder at a professional hydraulics shop.

This is just my long way of saying that I really understand wanting to find a generic wheel motor to avoid all the hassle and expense if that is possible.

 

[m5040]

If it was slag, it was from when it was manufactured. Remaining welding splatter inside the tank is why I lean this way. I am the original owner of this machine. If my assessment is correct, it is pretty impressive the original pump made it ~ 2800 Hrs. Now have a magnet on the filter to try and capture metal.

Did not know they made such a thing as a bidirectional filter. That is good to know.

I own 5 Power Tracs. 422, 2422, 425, 2425, and 1430. I currently have 16 of these wheel motors in use, hence my thoughts on cost benefit.

The 425 is the only machine I bought new and is the one that eats wheel motors. I use this machine the most and as a result it has the highest priority on the maintenance schedule. The other 4 machines (ranging from 1999-2016) were bought used (3 commercial, 1 homeowner). From what I saw, only the 2425 had been maintained to the same level I have maintained my 425 since new. For the other machines, routine maintenance seems to have been taken as a suggestion. Rusted hydraulic filter, engine fire due to grass clipping build up, broken/welded wheel motor shaft from trying to move T barricades for a highway project, etc. As best I can tell, the used machines are still sporting mostly original wheel motors. The 425 seems to be a bit of a unicorn.

I appreciate the help

Sorry to hear about your repeated WM failures. I added a magnetic temp gauge to my main control valve and stop using the machine if the temp gets to high. With the wheel motors in a dedicated circuit, the oil temps may be even higher then the hyd reservoir (lift, steer circuits). There has to be a reason your motors are prematurely failing (in a sequence).
I do notice on my machines that the right front wheel is the first to spin which indicates to me it might be getting the high pressure oil first in series. That would mean it gets more stressed by having to start the machine in motion before the other motors are contributing.

 

[2manyrocks]

If the wheel is spinning because of loss of traction, does that put more pressure on the seals?

 

[MossRoad]

I

If the wheel is spinning because of loss of traction, does that put more pressure on the seals?

pressure builds up rapidly until it spins. Once it spins it loses pressure.

At least that’s the way I understand it.

 

[oldnslo]

If the wheel motors are in series where pressure goes to first motor and then output of first motor is input or pressure to second motor the first motor can see high pressure on both ports.
Example: first motor is on ice while second motor is on bare concrete. Second motor is now doing all the work so it will pressurize both the inlet and outlet ports of first motor. This is why was asking if these motors has case drain ports to prevent high pressure on shaft seals.

 

[scotts562]

Heard back from the hydraulic shop. All the pressures tested good. As best we can tell, the older wheel motors failures were standard wear on the motor seals. As I said in earlier posts when I replaced the pump I also changed all the hydraulic oil and flushed the lines. I found metal in the tank. This most likely caused the wheel motor seals to fail.

The most recent failures are different. The needle bearing where the shaft meets the housing has been forced out. The shop has never seen a motor fail like this. I have three. All three have sauer danfoss tags on them. White was purchased by Danfoss in 2017. This is about the same time I changed the pump and flushed the hydraulic system. The hydraulic shop guys think there is some slight difference in the motor housing or needle bearing that is causing a looser fit than required.

Reached out to Danfoss. They say the only thing changed was the id tag. I asked if they changed vendors for the needle bearing and have not heard back yet. The engineer at White thought extreme side pressure is the culprit. This would make sense were it not for the number of machines/wheel motors I have in operation.

Danfoss had to recently let go of ownership of White because they bought Eaton. Monopoly laws. To get this machine back in operation, I had to buy a new non-generic motor. It has a White tag on it. Time will tell if it has the same problem.

Gave Power Trac a heads up. They haven't heard of this either. That makes a bit of sense because they had switched to the upgraded wheel motors prior to 2017. If the cause is a slight manufacturing defect, Power Trac's only exposure would be a limited number of parts sales.

Long story short, it is a head scratcher. The working theory above is based mostly on the timeline. Have not been able to identify a rock solid culprit.