D6 problem.....again.

[D6c10K]

Since it was a nice warm day I spent the afternoon working on the track adjuster cylinder on my D6c today. Got the new cylinder put in, bolted up the idler rod, and got the track back together and the tension adjusted up.

I've been working outside in the drive so I could use the loader to handle the track. Started the D6 and while it was warming up I cleared a spot in the pole barn to park it.

Ran it in the barn, shut it down, and walked around the back and spotted oil all over the right rear final drive......crap.
Got a flashlight and started looking for the leak and found the final leaking badly from the inside sprocket seal. It was coming out fast enough to run 3 or 4 drizzel streams of oil so it must be a complete seal failure.

The finals haven't leaked at all since being worked on about 3 years ago and no oil was present while I was working on the track adjuster. (Leak is on same side I was working on). Can't think what would make it fail so badly just moving it about 75 ft.

Shouldn't have been ice in there since it was plenty warm. Suppose it's possibe I picked up some wire from clearing a fence row, but afterwards I roaded the Cat home about 3 miles.....would have thought a leak would have shown up before now, especially with how fast it's leaking.

Any guesses what might be the cause?
The sprocket will have to come off, but will I have to pull the housing off the final too?

 

[D6c10K]

What should I expect to pay to have the sprocket seal replaced?....or should I rent hyd. puller and do it myself.

 

[tctractors]

Never just get the Duo-cone seals replaced, always pop off the case and check inside, if its all as it should be its not costing anything other than about 2 hours labour and a bit of CAT red jollop (Gasket Goo) it is possible to strip and rebuild the final drive in an afternoon if the steam cleaner has been used around it, I dont know what the charge would be to push-pull the rim and set the pre-load in the U.S. but I often do this for around the £200-300 mark depending on distance, I do 1 side or both sides for around this cost as it only takes a few moments more as the kits out.

 

[grandpa]

Don't go tearing your final apart just yet D6c10k. Check your bearing adjustment on that final drive. I seen it many times when the bearing is to loose allowing the seal's to leak. Take a big bar, jam between the sprocket and the roller frame and see if you can wiggle the sprocket side to side,,, if you can your bearings need adjusting. Gramps.

 

[oldirt]

my money is on the bearing set. those seals usually only leak when the bearings get loose. tightening the nut on a washed out bearing will for sure get it tight enough to leak again but you now risk destroying some really expensive stuff when it completely fails. just went through one exactly like it and the bearing cups were galling, but the bearings were still intact, but not for long.

 

[D6c10K]

I checked the bearing a couple of weeks ago and couldn't get any movement out of the sprocket with a pry bar. The finals were gone through about 3 years ago and has less than 400 hrs on it since.
It's been outside since last fall waiting to get the track adjuster replaced....just sitting like that could the metal seals "stick" enough to tear out the o-ring when I moved it? Just seems strange that it went from no leak at all to pouring out oil in a distance of 75 ft.
We did get some rain/snow a few weeks ago, but I would have thought any ice should have melted out by now.

 

[Construct'O]

Been there! It was on a D7E been cleaning out pond late in the year.Tracks was muddy.Cleaned the best we could.Called it quits for the season January.Farmer called wanting me too move the dozer out of his was.Which i did.Big mistake.

Mud was up around the inside seal.When i moved the dozer things was frozen around the cone seal that has a big rubber round seal to hold tension on the two cone seals.It tore the rubber seal into and there went the oil.

It's the inside one so you will have to take everything apart A frame off,sprocket has too be pressed and so fore.That why i like my hightrack machines simpler.

Anyway you might use the wait an see thing,if it leak more or stops.Might have just had frozen dirt on the cone,but it doesn't take much to rip the rubber ring behind the cone seal.Good luck!

 

[D6c10K]

Been there! It was on a D7E been cleaning out pond late in the year......QUOTE]

That's funny....one of the last things I did was clean out a pond. I cleaned undercarriage as best I could, but might have exactly the same problem you had.

 

[oldirt]

denny, are you still working?

 

[Construct'O]

Not working, just working on it!!!!!!!!

 

[Iwegian]

sounds like a darn good reason to leave my d6c where its at till spring.

 

[tctractors]

Some good points have been posted on this leaky seal thing, but if the rim is to come off to fix the leak, it would be a blunder to not pop off the case and check its innards, lots of final drives I do I find the ring register for the O-Ring part of the Duo-Cone seal to be worn away, this fails to hold in the seal for assembly and can lead to problems??? there is a few tricks that can be done to cure this snag, also once a spocket has lost its bearing pre-load it soon damages the Steel Labrinth guards fixed to the Sprocket hub and mating components, these do an important job on protecting the seal???

 

[oldirt]

the register on mine was corroded severely enough that I came close to throwing the case cover away. Spent some time on it and got it decent enough, but the next time around it will have to go. That o ring will do a lot but sealing over corrosion roughness is not in it's job description.

 

[tctractors]

oldirt, the register part that is often worn away is the little lip edge that holds the seal in place as you assemble the chunks together, the Duo-cone seals give a great amount of movement to final positioning with the pre-loading of the bearings, but the Labrinth guards are so important to protecting the seals, if they are good it makes it very hard to get twine or wire past them but nothing stops Dirt.

 

[oldirt]

yup..

 

[tctractors]

o.k.

 

[oldirt]

I agree completely, sorry, 'yup' was pretty poor english.

 

[grandpa]

Lol... you two,,, I understood every word.