daTeacha
Veteran Member
I guess this fits here since my tractor is basically new. It could have been a major problem had it occurred anywhere other than where it did, and might help someone trying to decide between hydro and gear drive.
I had about 7 hours on my new DX29, was using it near my shop to move some firewood to be, basically a big pile of overly long wood my FIL brought over a while back. The tractor had been working fine. It's an HST, which was something I wasn't wanting at first, but decided on after driving it.
Like I said, I was right by the shop, actually within arms reach of it from the seat. I was moving some firewood with the loader when suddenly hydraulic fluid started squirting out near the loader quick connects. I shut it down, could see nothing wrong, but everything was coated in HyTran Ultra. When I restarted it, the flood was there immediately, even without using the loader controls. I had a busy evening with school stuff ahead and had to start getting ready, so went in to call the dealer and tell them about the problem. The tractor was going nowhere, but fortunately was sitting in my yard. Had it been out in a field somewhere, I would have been looking at a good walk back to the house or whatever.
Saturday morning, I got a chance to look more carefully at it. I wiped everything down, started it, shut it down immediately, and climbed down to see what I could see. The oil was coming from the bottom of the non-steering side of the hydraulic pump. Everything but the steering depends on the pressure in that line and it was leaking like a garden hose right at the pump. I called the dealer and told them I found where the problem was. They were going to send a guy out if I couldn't find it and if they could free someone up on a Saturday morning. Remember now, we're talking about 7 hours or so on the machine.
The service manager says he would check into what was what at that place on the tractor and call me back. He did, about 15 or 20 minutes later, saying it was an O ring, not a gasket, but they did not have that part numbered O ring in stock. However, they had drawers and drawers of O rings and probably had it, but under a different part number or from a different manufacturer. So, I took the line completely off the tractor and drove the 20 miles to the dealer.
While taking it off, I noticed that the assembly was under slight tension from misalignment. The line in question is L shaped, and the long leg of the L seemed like it should have been about 3/32 inch longer. I asked them about it, and they didn't seem too concerned, allowing that the bolts would make up for it.
Anyways, I got there, gave him the line with one good O ring and the bad one. A while later he comes back from the parts room with 4 new rings. They gave me a free hat and a free gallon of HyTran Ultra to replace what had spewed out on the ground. I figure I saved them two 40 mile round trips plus the time for the tech on the truck to come out, diagnose it, go back and get an O ring, and then fix it. I spent about 1/2 hour messing around getting the line back on since some of the bolts are not readily reached, it was on gravel and tree roots, and I had to work around the front tire, but it went okay. I needed about half the gallon to bring the oil level back up to full, and the hat doesn't fit my big head -- well, it does, but it makes me look like a pin head.
/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
So, when considering gear vs. HST, consider that if this was gear tractor it would have at least have been able to move. If I was out far from the shop, I would have been stuck with this one. With a gear machine, I could have driven home in reverse, dragging the bucket on the ground, but at least I would have gotten it home.
I think if I was still shopping, knowing of this incident would make me stick with gears. Granted, it was apparently a fluke of someone getting the O ring crimped when putting the thing together, but the line not fitting exactly could be a contributing factor also. I have no idea why the ring didn't blow out when I had the bucket full of crushed limestone two days prior. There was no load on the loader when it let go. The fact that the dealer seemed to think that was normal was unsettling to me. I asked about shimming it, and he said not to since the other O ring would then have no seat.
I had about 7 hours on my new DX29, was using it near my shop to move some firewood to be, basically a big pile of overly long wood my FIL brought over a while back. The tractor had been working fine. It's an HST, which was something I wasn't wanting at first, but decided on after driving it.
Like I said, I was right by the shop, actually within arms reach of it from the seat. I was moving some firewood with the loader when suddenly hydraulic fluid started squirting out near the loader quick connects. I shut it down, could see nothing wrong, but everything was coated in HyTran Ultra. When I restarted it, the flood was there immediately, even without using the loader controls. I had a busy evening with school stuff ahead and had to start getting ready, so went in to call the dealer and tell them about the problem. The tractor was going nowhere, but fortunately was sitting in my yard. Had it been out in a field somewhere, I would have been looking at a good walk back to the house or whatever.
Saturday morning, I got a chance to look more carefully at it. I wiped everything down, started it, shut it down immediately, and climbed down to see what I could see. The oil was coming from the bottom of the non-steering side of the hydraulic pump. Everything but the steering depends on the pressure in that line and it was leaking like a garden hose right at the pump. I called the dealer and told them I found where the problem was. They were going to send a guy out if I couldn't find it and if they could free someone up on a Saturday morning. Remember now, we're talking about 7 hours or so on the machine.
The service manager says he would check into what was what at that place on the tractor and call me back. He did, about 15 or 20 minutes later, saying it was an O ring, not a gasket, but they did not have that part numbered O ring in stock. However, they had drawers and drawers of O rings and probably had it, but under a different part number or from a different manufacturer. So, I took the line completely off the tractor and drove the 20 miles to the dealer.
While taking it off, I noticed that the assembly was under slight tension from misalignment. The line in question is L shaped, and the long leg of the L seemed like it should have been about 3/32 inch longer. I asked them about it, and they didn't seem too concerned, allowing that the bolts would make up for it.
Anyways, I got there, gave him the line with one good O ring and the bad one. A while later he comes back from the parts room with 4 new rings. They gave me a free hat and a free gallon of HyTran Ultra to replace what had spewed out on the ground. I figure I saved them two 40 mile round trips plus the time for the tech on the truck to come out, diagnose it, go back and get an O ring, and then fix it. I spent about 1/2 hour messing around getting the line back on since some of the bolts are not readily reached, it was on gravel and tree roots, and I had to work around the front tire, but it went okay. I needed about half the gallon to bring the oil level back up to full, and the hat doesn't fit my big head -- well, it does, but it makes me look like a pin head.
/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
So, when considering gear vs. HST, consider that if this was gear tractor it would have at least have been able to move. If I was out far from the shop, I would have been stuck with this one. With a gear machine, I could have driven home in reverse, dragging the bucket on the ground, but at least I would have gotten it home.
I think if I was still shopping, knowing of this incident would make me stick with gears. Granted, it was apparently a fluke of someone getting the O ring crimped when putting the thing together, but the line not fitting exactly could be a contributing factor also. I have no idea why the ring didn't blow out when I had the bucket full of crushed limestone two days prior. There was no load on the loader when it let go. The fact that the dealer seemed to think that was normal was unsettling to me. I asked about shimming it, and he said not to since the other O ring would then have no seat.