Moving Dead John Deere 790 Excavator

[Jon Bradtke]

Hello all,

Please excuse my inexperience as I am new to the heavy equipment area. We found a great deal on a John deere 790 excavator. Engine runs great and the excavator appears to be in great shape. This excavator has two main hydraulic pumps (3,770 psi each 63.4 gpm) and a small pilot pump. One of the hydraulic pumps is dead and I need to get this thing loaded on a lowboy and transported 30 miles to our shop. I don't have access to another excavator or heavy equipment to move it. How can I get this thing moving? My first thoughts were to either plumb in a tractor PTO hydraulic pump (approx 2,500 psi) or to try and run the entire excavator off of one main pump. Please help as we really want to get this excavator moved on a lowboy and to our farm for some much needed work!!!

Any help would be great!!

-Jon

 

[old-iron-habit]

I have heard of hooking external hydraulic source directly to the track drive motors and walking them that way. Might be an option if other functions work. You may also be able to tie into the other pump with tee's and valves and run the tracks off the other pump and control. Why not change the pump where it is now before you move it?

 

[Tones]

I firmly suggest you change the pump before you do any further damage. It's very likely it will have debris in the hydraulic system now and running it will only make a big bill huge. The other option is to run away from it, fast.

 

[Jon Bradtke]

I cannot work on it where it is. It's located at the sellers friends farm. He wants it moved asap. I realize running the dead pump is a bad idea and I don't plan on it. The idea of a external hydraulic system seems like the best idea. Does anyone know someone who has done this??

 

[mitch504]

I would pull the sun gears and use a cable, snatch blocks, and some other machine to pull it on the lowboy. With a few snatch blocks you can use most anything to get it on the lowboy. A good backhoe would probably pull it up there direct if you use a drop-neck or long ramps. For that matter, if you use a drop-neck, you could use the tractor that pulls the lowboy to pull it up there. If you have enough blocks, you could load it with a 4-wheeler.

I wouldn't try to move it under it's own power until it's cleaned out. A little debris in the lines and you can easily do more damage than the value of a 790.

 

[Bls repair]

I would get a price to move it from some one that scraps old equipment

 

[Former Wrench]

Bls's reply made me think that maybe a heavy lift salvage wrecker from the area might be another idea for a bid.