hydrualic oil leak 323 bobcat-Slew motor?

Iv noticed oil leaking from the plate under the carrage, iv removed the plate and yer looks like the slew is leaking i tried to tighten all hoses but its still dripping intermitantly.

anyideas? :beatsme

I had a 331 years ago that was leaking under there, mine was leaking from the round thing that transfers your hydraulics like track motors and blade operations from the house to the undercarriage (sorry it's late and can't remember what they call that thing). Anyways it was not a fun job but that thing has quite a few seals in it- like a cylinder only more. The toughest part of the job was all the hose connections - loosing and tighten them back up. Don't know if this helps or not but good luck.

so your saying it has something to do with the track spreader?

I think fast is on about the turning joint. Allows fluid to be transfered when slewing. Bit of a pig to do on any exc

Slew ring I think is the correct term - generally the most expensive expensive part of any excavator.

Just to help dracer with terminology, the slew ring is the rotation bearing that the upper structure of the machine rotates on. Then you have the rotataion (or slew) motor, brake, and reduction geabox that rotates the upper stucture. There is a seal on the output shaft of the reduction gearbox, if it leaks, it's generally gear oil. Then you have the rotary distributor (or rotary joint) that sends oil to the lower components such as the drive motors. If it leaks, it will be hydraulic oil.

Rotary distributor is what I was talking about (thanks ATCOEQUIP) - If you pull your floor mat out then take the metal plate that your feet rest on you should be able to see the top of it if I remember right, any way you will see a bunch of hoses running to it and it should be roughly 4" in diameter- I would check all those fittings, if they are tight it could be your seals inside that thing leaking -thats what I found was wrong with mine and it was leaking the hyd oil out the belly pan between the tracks.

right im going to give it a shot on saturday il get bak to yas

dracer, if in fact you discover your leak is coming from the rotary distributor, I have to warn ya those things can be a sumbitch on a small excavator. Heck, I'd rather pull one on a 300 size excavator, at least you can climb in there and get to it. And if your a healthy built fella, before you tear into it, raise each end off the ground with boom and slip some 6 x 6 blocks under each end of the tracks, get 'er off the ground a bit for climbing under it ya know. If you end up having to remove the rotary distributor, first loosen the hyd tank cap and vent pressure. Be sure and mark all the hose connections to the swivel with a center punch or something. It would be a bad day if you got things mixed up when re-installing it. And it would be best to have appropriate fitting plugs for the hoses you take loose, otherwise, you'll make an oily mess. Good luck with the repairs.

I've changed one on a 5.5T Volvo and like ATCO says its a pig of a job!! Good luck.

If it is indeed your Rotary Manifold you will be loosing hydraulic oil and when you extend the stick out and lower the bucket down the sight glass will show low oil level.
You may also have a leaking seal at the bottom of the swing box, pull the dipstick and check the gear oil level.

The third possibility would simply be that the rubber boot around the rotary manifold has let water past and it have contaminated the swing bearing tub with water.

The color is most likley gray and you have to do a sniff test. Gear oil and hyd. oil have a distinct smell to them where as water will just makeit smell like grease.

Check the swing trans. oil level and hyd. oil level first, if both are good check that the plastic boot around the upper portion of the rotary is in good shape and also that the 2 holes in front of the boom base are not plugged up.

Either way you have to get that crap out of your swing bearing as it will destroy it all then you need a company such as mine to split the machine and do a swing bearing re&re, and beleive me it's not cheap or easy.

Good luck and let us know what you find.
P.S. I have listed those other options because I hate hearing when a guy replaces parts to find the solution, it is costly and time consuming not to mention frustrating.

im having a bloody terrible time, im considering smashing the **** out of it. im over it today and will do more next weekend. if i had a few dollars id just get a mechanic to do the darn thing.

ok so iv worked out where the unit is, it has about 4 hoses coming out of the top it then passes through into the under side of the chassis with about 6 hoses coming out of the bottom, its covered by a belly plate under the chassis. so i need to remove this whole unit and have it seen to?

brad

That sounds like what we are talking about, if your still not sure where the oil is coming from , I would pressure wash that and dry every thing up then run the machine to pin point where your leak is , maybe you'll get lucky and it will be a hose. If it is the rotary again mark all your hose connections while you take them off and if your not comfortable replacing the seals your self then take it to a good hydraulic shop and let them do it, my local hydraulic shop had all the inner seals in stock and on the shelf.

I don't see where it was ever determined what kind of oil was leaking out..
Hydraulic? Gear?
What color is it?

yes its hydraulic oil, its certainly leaking from the cylinder unit under the chassis, looks like the hoses run off to the track motors?! there is also about 4 hoses running into the top of the unit, the top of the unit is under the floor, the unit then goes through to the underneath the machine.

That would be the rotary manifold..aka center swivel, turning joint...follow the advice given. Good luck!