Deere 50D - New Owner

[Blstr88]

Ive posted here a few times in my search for a mini excavator, finally purchased one a few months back. I got it on my property right before the hard freeze/winter set in so other than moving a few small boulders and some logs it otherwise got tucked away under a lean-to and has been sitting. With spring coming I wanted to start a post here and gather some info about maintenance/use.

Mostly Im just looking for suggestions on maintenance things I should go through it before starting to work it this spring. It's a 2006 Deere 50D with 1900 hours. The company I bought it from buys these up, does some basic repairs/maintenance as needed and resells. It has a brand new thumb, tracks appear (to my un-trained eye) so be in good useable shape. Nothing stands out to me as needing immediate repair.

I figured to start:
1. Oil & filter change
2. Hydraulic oil filter change
3. Fuel filter change
4. Go through and grease all the fittings
5. Grease the turn bearing

Anything else you would suggest I look into? I'd like to get all the filters/fluids I need ordered in the next week or so, and get it moved up to my garage sometime in mid-March and by April 1 have it all serviced and ready to go. It'll be used entirely on my own propertly (no business use) mostly for light land clearing and the odd job moving logs, rocks, etc. Overall I think it will live a fairly easy life on my property and stored under cover/maintained.

Does anyone know how to disable to moving alarm? Anytime I move the machine forward or back it beeps...theres a button to push to silence but if I stop even for a second and start moving again I need to re-press the button. I realize thats probably a good safety feature on job sites but this will be used on my property only with nobody around, I'd like to turn that off if possible.

I'm going to purchase one of the online manuals for the machine as well. Any tips/advise would be appreciated!

 

[skyking1]

grease the swing on the schedule after your first greasing. it is not very often, and you can overdo it.
On the 35 it is 250 hours for one fitting and 500 hours for another.
Service the final drives and swing gearbox.
Change the hydraulic oil when you change the filter.
It is close enough to 2000 hours to just do those. That was the schedule on our 120.
I can look at the 35 manual and see.
You can track down and unhook the alarm but I really don't recommend it. Somebody is going to be working around you some time.
Those are really low hours for a 2006. I would be skeptical, but if it is in good shape and you get a good baseline service on it, the hours don't matter.

Looks like a very nice machine and should provide with much ranching pleasure.

 

[skyking1]

I checked the 35, you do everything at 2000 hours so yes on hydraulic oil, and pilot oil filter. Get your book to see all the rest of the details on that.

 

[BC Placer gold]

skyking1 has it covered above! Definitely change final drive oil. I like Cat to-4. Flush/rotate tracks with diesel drain/refill. Final drives are pricey.…ours walked over 40 km last year, they hold such a small amount of oil I am a big believer in frequent changes.

We have a 2011 50d, it has 7600h.

Tracks look to be in really good shape & judging from tread pattern are not “cheap” ones. Ours (same, I think) are completely worn out and refuse to break lol…

Our bucket end pins/bushings were done by previous owner; really like the machine and the Yanmar engines are excellent.

Yours looks good, skeptical also of hours, but doesn’t really matter if machine condition is good.

I left my beeper alone, yes a pain at times.

 

[Blstr88]

Thanks for the replies. I ordered a service manual (actual paper copy instead of the digital) and I'm going to stop at the dealer today and start ordering the filters/fluids. I'm going to replace all the hydraulic fluid as mentioned above as per the 2000-hour service recommendation. I'll also change the final drive oil (looks like that's every 1000-hours anyway).

Doing a full 2000-hour service and starting fresh with everything should be a great start I think. Looking forward to using it this spring!

 

[skyking1]

You went the right way IMO. Lots of guys get some junky cobbled up iron and then proceed to spend a lot of time and effort getting it somewhat useful.
If you don't have one yet, get a shallow 48" smooth edge bucket for grading and bulking. That machine can toss a lot of dirt and you will use it equally with the toothed bucket.

 

[BC Placer gold]

Also you are pre-emissions, bonus! (those Yanmars burn nice & clean anyways).

We have a large excavator also, but I am really impressed with the amount of work I can get done with the 5 ton (Good amount of reach & decent weight). I am a big fan of zero tail swing in a mini; just one less thing to worry about in tight quarters. Not to mention the really small amount of fuel burned… have fun!

 

[Blstr88]

This is probably a dumb question but Im going to ask it anyway...the manual calls for John Deere Plus-50 ii engine oil which from a quick search is 15W-40 oil. Is there any issue with running an Amsoil 15W-40 oil instead?

I assume its perfectly fine, I run Amsoil in everything I own and already keep 15W-40 synthetic diesel oil on hand for my tractor so I figured to simplify things I'd just run the same in the excavator.

 

[BC Placer gold]

This is probably a dumb question but Im going to ask it anyway...the manual calls for John Deere Plus-50 ii engine oil which from a quick search is 15W-40 oil. Is there any issue with running an Amsoil 15W-40 oil instead?

I assume its perfectly fine, I run Amsoil in everything I own and already keep 15W-40 synthetic diesel oil on hand for my tractor so I figured to simplify things I'd just run the same in the excavator.

Personally I don’t run synthetic oil in any of our diesels…but they are all older units. Opinions may vary on this topic!

I just use regular, good quality 15w40 in everything. Just change often is most important….

 

[jbernielh]

I run Rotella T4 15/40 (non synthetic) in my machines as well… from what I understand amsoil is a good product as well..

the only thing I would add that generally gets passed over would be to check the valve lash.. if it hasn’t been done 2K hours would be a good time to do it

 

[Blstr88]

Little update - so the manual showed up but I ordered a Technical Manual rather than the Operator Manual. Tech manual is for much more in-depth advanced repairs, nothing about regular maintenance items. Got back on the eBay and found an Operator Manual so that showed up.

I’ve got everything I need except air filter and enough hydraulic fluid and coolant to do everything on the 2000-hour service. I’m planning to do the oil/filter, final drive oil and a full greasing this weekend. I’ll post some photos of that afterwards.

Next weekend I’m hoping to tackle the hydraulic filters and fluid. The weekend after that we have family plans so early April I’ll plan to do the coolant swap.

I couldn’t actually find anything in the manual…is it normal practice to run at full RPM when working an excavator?

 

[skyking1]

yes. I have heard non-operators suggest running at lower RPM when trying to be careful around utilities.
That's why they have pilot controls. Run it wide open or in a big machine I will run it on Eco if it is not annoying and I'm not loading out trucks or other high production work.

 

[Blstr88]

Got the oil changed, pretty uneventful…I did go with Amsoil 15-40 as it meets the specs the operator manual calls for.

I was going to do the final drive oil but wanted to run something by here first. I noticed the back side of the final drives both had some drips of oil underneath them. Is this back plate that’s held on by 4 bolts actually sealing the oil in? Is it possible an O-ring in there needs to be replaced? Figured I’d look into this before changing the oil incase I need to dump the oil to replace an o-ring or gasket anyway?

 

[Blstr88]

Little update, I had placed a rag under each of them when I moved it back under the lean to just so I can see if it were actively leaking. One side did leak a little, the other was clean. I noticed though the oil looks very clean…likely hydraulic oil?

I forgot to mention I did take the center “fill” plug out of the drive earlier and oil began seeping out, indicating good level…if that fluid were drive gear oil I imagine it would be low.

I guess I gotta remove those plates and see if I can find the source?

 

[jbernielh]

the hoses for the drive motors are behind those plates.. if it was coming out of the finals it would stink of hypoid..

 

[Blstr88]

I took the plates off…holy cow there’s a lot of dirt packed in there. Going to get it all cleaned out. One side was just an oily dirt but the other side gushed out a bunch of what I’m assuming is hydraulic oil.

I’m going to get both sides cleaned out as best I can then just run the machine a bit with those covers off and see if the hydraulic fluid is still actively leaking. If there were a leak somewhere underneath the drivers seat I assume the fluid would leak down through into these locations?

 

[BC Placer gold]

I took the plates off…holy cow there’s a lot of dirt packed in there. Going to get it all cleaned out. One side was just an oily dirt but the other side gushed out a bunch of what I’m assuming is hydraulic oil.

I’m going to get both sides cleaned out as best I can then just run the machine a bit with those covers off and see if the hydraulic fluid is still actively leaking. If there were a leak somewhere underneath the drivers seat I assume the fluid would leak down through into these locations?

View attachment 308313View attachment 308314

Pretty common; unfortunately people rarely seem to clean or check behind the covers…then the hard lines start rusting through/seeping.

 

[jbernielh]

working in mud they get packed full pretty quickly.. I was running a hitachi 270 for a friend and it blew a hose at the final drive behind the cover.. turns out the previous owner had been doing shoreline rehabilitation in the ocean.. needless to say all 6 hoses to the finals needed replacing.. the fittings were corroded and pretty much disintegrated...

 

[Blstr88]

I scraped out most of the dirt, it was getting dark outside so I didn’t finish but it’s a start. I’m going to get a garden hose and some degreaser in there and get it cleaned up better so I can see what’s going on.

Is it tough to change those hoses if that’s what it comes to?

 

[jbernielh]

they are long as they go into the swivel valve located center of the chassis.. On my 304 there's a panel under the machine that gives me good access to the swivel valve location