More fun.....pump goes

[jfh28]

Well my winter fun continues........was out plowing during the latest 19" snow blast when I lost all power to the wheels. I was down at the bottom of the drive clearing out on the road when everything just went....no warning...no sounds......just suddenly no resistance on the treadle and I started to roll down the road backwards. Naturally this is the steepest part of the road so it didn't take long for gravity to do its thing and I quickly bested the top rated speed for a moving PT.....haha. It took a few seconds for the brain to register what was happening as I was pushing on the treadle without getting a response.....fortunately the pto/steering was still active and I dropped the plow to try to slow down and turned into a snow bank to stop........probably traveled about 50 feet backwards.

I was hoping it was just a loose link on the treadle but that was not the case......a call to Terry brought the news that he thinks it's the pump. So had to get a tow truck to get me out of the bank and back to the garage and am now in the process of labeling and removing all the hoses so I can remove the pump to send down for them to look at. And of course all this happens when we are getting all these storms barreling through and it's costing me $200 a pop to have the drive plowed........Jack

 

[coolconnection]

They always go when you need them most. I was pushing snow as well when my Pump went out a few years ago. 350 foot drive and had to finish it with shovel. My swash plate in the pump went out with less than 50 hours on the machine. The bad thing it really stinks that it happens the good thing is you really get to know how your machine is made.

 

[jfh28]

yup...they go out when you need them the most.....and the absolutely furthest away from tools and garage as possible! My drives 1/4 mile long so hand shoveling is not an option.......I thought about it....briefly........but then sanity prevailed....haha. I'm embarrassed to say that even though I've had my pt for 9 years I only have a little over 250 hours on it.......so not exactly a heavy user......mostly snow plowing. The only strain I can think of is that the wheels will spin when it gets bogged down in snow......and I do have to do a lot of forward and reverse movement in the heavier snows.....don't know if that contributed to it or not........Jack

 

[ernemats]

Sounds like what happened to me on my 422 several months ago. I was going up a hill and all of a sudden it just stopped going forward , pushing the forward or reverse made no response . It turned out the key in the shaft had broken or worn out. It ended up I had a local machine shop cut a new key way in the shaft and got a new love joy coupler from power trac and I was back in business.

 

[jfh28]

I've got 4 more hoses to disconnect.......a real bear to get to some of them.......the hose from the filter to the tram pump looks like I have to disconnect it from the filter first and then I can remove the flare fitting with the hose from the pump?

 

[coolconnection]

Sorry about your luck jfh28. Label everything well and take pictures of you can and even draw sketches if you need to. There certainly is quite a few houses to deal with. Turnaround from PT was pretty quick for me. I got a pump back on warranty but don't know if it was new or a rebuilt one but it is working now. Good luck.

 

[MossRoad]

Something else to consider.... you're going to have to drain the entire hydraulic system and flush it, aren't you?

 

[jfh28]

hmmm.....no one has mentioned doing that yet. I was going to change the filter when I put it back together. Whats the general feeling on flushing it from people who have had to remove the pump and how does one even go about flushing it?

 

[cqaigy2]

I didn't empty my tank on purpose.....

 

[ponytug]

I'd ask the oracle...Terry probably has some advice on whether and how to do it. Other than serially disconnecting joints, cranking the engine with the treadle depressed, blowing a quantity of oil out the line and then tightening the lines one by one, both forward and reverse, I don't see how you would do it.

I have a vague memory that Terry said for the initial build that they do something similar, but I don't remember the details.

Personally, I'd think about the cost / benefits to doing it. Minor hassle now versus potentially blown pump and motors. :confused3: Hmmm... :laughing: I come down on the ounce of prevention side, but I understand that there are lots of "it depends". Practically, my work environment is not an indoor, dust free shop, so I tend to be conservative about doing the extras that I can do.

Since I never hop on my PT and go for a joy ride, if the PT dies, it would always be in the middle of something important.:cool2: I think it is indicative of the utility of these machines- they are always helping us out somehow, someway.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

The way I look at it, if the tram pump blows up and spews metal, there's going to be metal in the circuits to the wheel motors, the cooler and back to the tank and all associated hoses. Once metal is on the tank, there's a chance it will get sucked into the two PTO pumps, isn't there? Only the charge pump for the tram circuit sucks through the filter as I understand it.

Anyhow, best to ask Terry at Power Trac, but I'd be cautious.

 

[jfh28]

I've got 2 more hoses to get off.......finally got my driveway plowed so I can get out. That 1 1/4" nut was a problem as I didn't have a wrench that size, my crescents don't open wide enough and I couldn't fit a monkey wrench in so finally being able to drive out again I went and bought a 10" crescent with a 1 5/16" jaw that should just fit in the space where this hose is located off the pto pump. Once thats off I hope to be able to get to the last hose buried on the bottom.......man they don't make this easy.....haha. Then I should finally be able to get the pump off and talk to Terry.......I'll let you know what he has to say about flushing the system........Jack

 

[coolconnection]

Oh yeah I had to drain all my oil. Gravity will push it through the hoses and it will be every where. I used clean 5 gallon buckets to drain mine into. Found that metal shavings drained out and they all sank to the bottom of the buckets. I reused my oil but scooped the oil out slow so the shavings would stay in the bottom of the buckets then topped off with new oil.

 

[ponytug]

Perhaps a magnet or two in the bottom of the buckets?

All the best,

Peter

 

[SpringHollow]

I would pump it through a filter too if I was going to reuse it but new oil is cheap compared to a new pump.

Ken

 

[woodlandfarms]

Yeah... 40 micron is pretty small (which is what I think your PT filter filters at), I would chuck and replace unless budget is tight. Magnets would be the tight budget solver.

 

[ponytug]

The standard NAPA filter is 30 microns. I doubt that the PT is significantly different. Pump manufacturers don't recommend finer filters in suction uses because of the risk of filter collapse and cavitation.

All the best,

Peter

 

[woodlandfarms]

Yeah, sorry. what I was getting at was that just because you removed the shavings in the bottom doesn't mean you got all the metal particles out.

 

[jfh28]

Finally got the 1" hose that runs from the oil tank to the pto pump off......it's located in such a way that its impossible to get any leverage on the wrench. Only hose left is one going to the rear wheel motor.....which is connected to a manifold on the bottom of the pump....and of course you can't get a wrench in there either with all the other hoses and rps valve in the way. There is a bit of play with the hose so I may just pull the pump off the motor mount with it on and then turn the pump on its side to remove it.

I went out and got hex plugs for the hoses so leakage has been minimal up to this point.......although it does seem to always find its way onto the floor.

If it ever stops snowing I'll be able to spend some time on this tomorrow and get the pump off.......but I've had to resort to re-installing a plow on the riding lawn mower......which can only handle 3" max of snow at a time.........and takes 2+ hours to plow the drive each time........so have been spending a lot of time with snow removal now........just seems like every day there's another storm........dam groundhog........haha

 

[MossRoad]