Case 1845C,...Lifting Boom with motor off.

First I'd like to say "I'm not a skid mechanic" nor do I play one on TV,...I have sleep at a Holiday Inn tho. 8^).

I have a big leak in my left drive motor hose between the Tandem Pump Assembly and the Left Drive motor. The hose fitting at the motor doesn't appear will be much of a problem to deal with as far as wrench swing or access, but the other end of the hose's fittings appears a different story. Not impossible to get to with the seat carriage still in place but I'm planning on sliding it forward to make it easier to work the hose fitting there at the Pump, and make it easier to do a lot of clean up of the pan and everything.

I ran a short test of lifting the booms about 6" to find the expected hyd pressure resistance and released it with the boom control handle up. Raised it about 6 more to find the same. Letting the booms back down I had to release the down pressure to let it go down and realize after picking the booms back up I wont have hyd pressure as any kind of safety if the booms want to come down for here on. My reasoning for 2 chain falls for lifting.

My plan to raise the boom:
Two 1 Ton chain falls to lift the boom to walk them up and each one will be a safety for the other while releasing hyd pressure with the boom control handle up as I go. Applying the "safety strut" when the boom reaches that point, tie the chain fall pull chain off for safety of clutch failure/free fall, then attaching 2 heavy chains for safety lashings, one on each boom. May sound a bit over-kill,...but should be fairly safe.

Now my question: what else should I know for lifting, sliding the seat carriage, safety, or repair, beside super cleaning the fittings, the new hose and area. May try'n attach pix later.

Kid

Out of curiosity, can you not top off the hyd oil and run the machine to raise the boom and lock it in place? If I understand your post correctly you'll loose a fair bit of oil at the drive motor leak but if you're quick I'm thinking it would be easier then trying to lift the boom with chain hoists and messing with the controls every few inches.

I'm thinking if you just put the hoist lever in "float" then you should have no problem lifting the boom. Sometimes the control valve detents will not work if they are rusty or have not been used recently. You may have to have someone sit in the seat to hold in the float position. DO NOT under any circumstance trust the hydraulics to hold the boom up, get that support on the right side in place as soon as boom is high enough!

Do you have the operators manual for this machine? If not I would strongly suggest getting one, there are instructions in there on moving the cab forward for service work. I don't have access to a manual after retiring in 2015. Maybe see if dealer or someone can copy those pages for you?

I would make getting a full operators manual a top priority if you plane on keeping this machine for more than a couple days! The money you may save will be more than the damage you could do just making one mistake on servicing the machine!

Rant over for now!

How big a job is taking the boom off?

Mark, I had thought about that, but it made a really big mess when the hose busted outside the shop and I didn't want that inside. I Appreciate the Idea tho.

kshanson, I haven't used the float in so long I had forgot about it. I used needle nose vice grips to hold the seat bar rods up and another to hold the boom handle in the up position (because I had already remove the brown ROPS cage earlier with the fold down seat bars. 1991 model) so I wouldn't have to reach in for that, and could lift continuously. I did notice the front of the skid rise about a 1/2" just when I was about 3" shy of the safety dropping into place and quit to see what was going on and found my vice grip had slipped holding the boom up valve open.

So, the lift frame is up. Safety strut's in space, loaded, and pinned. Chain falls are just snug, and 2 large safety chains as back-up.
Disconnected all the rods and linkages and slid the Operators Compartment Frame forward.

I've owned this skid a little over 8 yrs. I have a Parts Catalog that came with it, but don't remember if there is/was a Manual overhead in the cab.

Kid