Shredded turntable gear

Mrjohndeereman · May 17, 2020

I'm new to the equipment world. Just bought a micro excavator yanmar Vio17. 2014 1500hrs. It was working decent when I bought it two weeks ago, but has slowly been getting rougher to spin the house, until finally it swings on its own and has no power. It looks like the small gear on the motor is shredded (see attatched). There doesn't seem to be much info on these repairs in general, nevermind my specific machine. Is this something I can take off on my own, or does the machine need to be split in half? Is the larger table going to be damaged as well with all the metal shavings that are now in the grease? Where do I start.

Ronsii · May 17, 2020

Without a pic showing the gars (without) all the grease and crud on them it's hard to tell what's going on???? is the motor/gearbox fastened securely to the machine? because if it broke loose you may get away without new gears....

Mrjohndeereman · May 17, 2020

Ronsii said:
Without a pic showing the gars (without) all the grease and crud on them it's hard to tell what's going on???? is the motor/gearbox fastened securely to the machine? because if it broke loose you may get away without new gears....

Thanks for the reply. I'll try wiping the grease out. I tried quickly with my finger but was immediately impaled by the shards of metal stripped from the gear.

Ronsii · May 17, 2020

Paint brush with long bristles and some solvent works good for spot cleaning. Also could be bad bearings in the swing motor gearbox... or main ring gear loose... hard to tell without getting in there and prying while someone else pushes the boom back n forth.... but.... since you mentioned it's been getting harder and harder to swing that could point to bearings going bad... not sure what parts are available for that machine but if you can find them and depending on how many gears are bad could easily be more than just the one you see is bad... parts(bearings,seals,gears,keepers,spacers,etc...) will be upwards of a few grand.... or maybe as low as a few hundred bux.

Mrjohndeereman · May 17, 2020

Oh jeez okay. Sounds like I should go to a shop rather than attempt myself if its more than this one gear. Annoying that I spent all my savings on this lemon lol live and learn. Just wiped these with a towel but ill try the brush:

Ronsii · May 17, 2020

They aren't that hard to work on... really

but if you go to a shop labor can easily be more than double what the parts will be and they'll mark up the parts unless you do the legwork and find all the parts

If the main ring gear is damaged too much it may need to be replaced also... on a machine that small it really isn't to hard for the average guy to fix it - just the process of splitting the machine can be a little over whelming but still doable.

First thing I would do beside trying to determine what all is wrong with it by prying and wiggling... would be to remove the swing motor/gearbox as it WILL have to come out no matter what anyways.

Delmer · May 17, 2020

The ring gear doesn't look bad at all. Agreed on prying to see if anything is loose. And remove the swing motor to get that gear off and find another. Worst case, weld that gear up and rough grind it back to shape.

I see two options for cleaning up that ring gear, pressure wash it and then solvent clean with a brush, or just solvent clean it. Purple power is a decent degreaser for use with water, could try that also.

Mrjohndeereman · May 17, 2020

Oh okay, thanks. It is extremely tightly packed together, is pulling the house off the h frame difficult? That would probably make it the easiest to work on. I have access to a gantry crane, which should be able to lift the weight of the house. Also do shops get parts quicker than the average joe? As I have many jobs lined up for this and it's extremely bad timing to **** the bed lol. Thank you.

uffex · May 18, 2020

Good day
May I suggest it would be sensible to establish the root cause from those photo's it is probable that the slew ring bearing has movement loading the final drive or the final drive has a manufacturing defect in which case the dealer will be aware and should help.
Kind regards
Uffex

Mrjohndeereman · May 18, 2020

uffex said:
Good day
May I suggest it would be sensible to establish the root cause from those photo's it is probable that the slew ring bearing has movement loading the final drive or the final drive has a manufacturing defect in which case the dealer will be aware and should help.
Kind regards
Uffex

I will have to have a professional check that as I cannot see a way to do so myself. What may have caused this issue? When the machine just started having a tiny hiccup in turning, I was misinformed to "pack as much grease in there as possible" which I unloaded a good cartridge into the pinion and bearing. This was about 15 hours of operation ago. Could this have failed the seal and furthered the decay of the bearing and likewise pinion? I have since learned the lesson to google something after being told it before doing it.

Cmark · May 18, 2020

It looks to be full of dirt. As far as I'm concerned the ring gear and pinion should be in a sealed compartment. Is there a cover missing?

Mrjohndeereman · May 18, 2020

Cmark said:
It looks to be full of dirt. As far as I'm concerned the ring gear and pinion should be in a sealed compartment. Is there a cover missing?

Not really. This is looking straight up after removing a bottom access plate. I don't see how a cover could fit in this area to seal it on it's own

Cmark · May 18, 2020

What's all this, for example?

Anyhoo, it doesn't really matter now. The swing box needs a new pinion and the ring gear needs a thorough clean at the very least.

Mrjohndeereman · May 18, 2020

Cmark said:
What's all this, for example?

Anyhoo, it doesn't really matter now. The swing box needs a new pinion and the ring gear needs a thorough clean at the very least.

View attachment 217848

Oh yeah, sorry I didn't mean "not really" to the dirt comment, it was replying to the question of a missing cover. Yeah there's a ton of crud up in there that idk how to thoroughly clean. The spot cleaning they mentioned earlier can get a lot of it but not all the nooks and crannies.

Mrjohndeereman · May 18, 2020

Well after cleaning it more, I think I have found a missing tooth on the ring gear. Does the whole thing need to be replaced, or can one tooth be spot fixed? I do not have the broken off piece. Could that have caused the shredding of the pinion, or a side effect of it?

uffex · May 18, 2020

Good day MrJD
Sorry to be the bearer of un-welcome news but with that kind of damage both slew ring bearing an final drive unit will require replacement, it would be false economy to renew one and not the other. On youtube you can find animation of slew ring measurement just search Excatech.org .Maybe a breakers yard possibilty many machines get burnt out leaving those parts for salvage.
Kind regards
Uffex

repowerguy · May 18, 2020

Check out a YouTube channel by Skadill, he swaps out a swing ring on a Volvo using stumps and hoe down pressure.

Delmer · May 18, 2020

you could try fixing the tooth in place, but if you knew how to do that, then you wouldn't be asking...

Mrjohndeereman · May 18, 2020

uffex said:
Good day MrJD
Sorry to be the bearer of un-welcome news but with that kind of damage both slew ring bearing an final drive unit will require replacement, it would be false economy to renew one and not the other. On youtube you can find animation of slew ring measurement just search Excatech.org .Maybe a breakers yard possibilty many machines get burnt out leaving those parts for salvage.
Kind regards
Uffex

Danggg. Okay well I'm at the point where I'm just gonna take the massive loss and have the shop do it. So annoying that I just dropped all my savings on this thing 2 weeks ago, and now am facing what, a $5k repair and 3 week down time? Jeez. Live and learn I guess. What a mess. Sorry for the pity party. Thanks for the help.

Shredded turntable gear

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