Shop Talk Blog

Your mini excavator is the key piece of equipment in a major project with a very fussy client. Everything is going according to schedule, and it looks like there will be no problem in meeting the deadline coming up in just two days. That is, until something whizzes by you while you're inspecting some recent work on site. You rush over there to take a look at what flew by and recognize it as the cover plate off the travel motor on your excavator. Your worst nightmare about final drives and travel motors has just come to life.

Here are a few other posts you might find of interest ...

• Preventing Case Drain Related Failure on Final Drives
• Bobcat 337 Final Drive Failures
• Cam Ring Failure in a Final Drive

Excavators go by quite a few names -- diggers, track hoes, 360s, JCBs, and even rubber ducks. There’s quite a bit of terminology that goes with excavators, too. That’s why we put together this list of 20 common terms related to excavators that everyone in the industry should know.

Here are some other posts you might want to take a look at ...

• 5 Simple Keys to Effective Excavator Undercarriage Maintenance
• Common Problem on CAT Excavator Hydraulic Motors
• Does Your Excavator Need an Eaton Track Drive Motor?

Bearings are one of those components on your final drive motor that is eventually going to wear out. Sometimes, however, they wear out sooner than they should. In this Shop Talk Blog post, we are going to discuss what contributes to bearing failure and how you can maximize the life of your bearings.

Here are some other blog posts we have that you might find helpful ...

• Real Life Bearing Failure
• How to Troubleshoot a Noisy/Vibrating Final Drive Motor
• Cleaning Final Drive Bearings

JCB has been a well-known manufacturer of construction equipment for many years. Like any company, it has some interesting facts in its background. For this Shop Talk Blog post, we’d like to share some of the cool things we found out about JCB during our research -- including how JCB is connected to the Teletubbies ...

Here are a few more Shop Talk Blog posts that might be interesting to you ...

• Bobcat -- 5 Fast Facts to Blow Your Mind!
• How Much Do You Know About Case Construction Equipment?
• John Deere: A Sweeping History

Do you know what the most common problem is for CAT excavator hydraulic motors? That's the topic of this Shop Talk Blog post, where we'll not only talk about the problem but how you can prevent it and save money in the process.

Hydraulic filters help to remove contaminants from your hydraulic fluid as it flows through the system. Many of these particles are so tiny they aren’t visible to the naked eye. But, that doesn’t mean they can’t wreak havoc on your hydraulic system, as well as your final drive motors. In this Shop Talk Blog post, our focus will be on reviewing the basics of hydraulic filters.

Here are a few more posts you might find useful ...

• 4 Things to Remember about Filters in a Hydraulic System
• Preventing Case Drain Related Failure
• Hydraulic Drive Motors and Contamination

You’ve taken the cover plate off your final drive, and now you're looking at the gears in the planetary hub. How do you know when to replace those gears? In this Shop Talk Blog post, that’s precisely what we are going to discuss: signs that your gears are wearing out.

Contamination is a problem in all types of hydraulic equipment. In this blog post, we are going to look at six different types of hydraulic contamination, including built-in, generated, air, water, chemical, and ingressed particulate. We’ll also discuss where the contamination comes from, what it can do, and how it can be controlled.

Here are a few additional Shop Talk Blog posts that you might find useful ...

• Hydraulic Contamination Issues in Newer Machines
• Common Hydraulic Fluid Issues
• 5 Hydraulic Fluid Questions Answered

Final drive motors are well-designed pieces of equipment that provide your machine with the ability to move. However, they are relatively easy to sabotage through a little neglect! In this Shop Talk Blog post, we are going to discuss 6 sure ways to sabotage your final drive motor, including things like never checking gear oil levels and not checking case drain filters.

Here are a few more Shop Talk Blog you might find helpful ...

• 4 Key Maintenance Tasks for Final Drives
• Anatomy of a Good Final Drive Maintenance Plan
• The Very Real Dangers of Reactive Maintenance of Final Drives

The Bobcat 864 track loader was Bobcat’s first venture into the compact tracked-machine market, and these robust machines are still in use. In this Shop Talk Blog Post, we are going to look at some interesting facts about the Bobcat 864/T200, like when it was first built, what kind of specs it has, and what some of the initial variations on the Bobcat 864 were like.  We'll also throw in a little bit of information about reman final drives for the older model Bobcats such as this.

Here are some additional Shop Talk Blog posts you might find interesting:

• Bobcat T190 Drive Shaft Bushings
• Reman Bobcat T190 Final Drives
• Anatomy of a Good Final Drive Maintenance Plan for CTLs