Shop Talk Blog

You’re halfway through a job, the sun’s beating down, and suddenly your machine grinds to a halt. The final drive gave out again. This not only disrupts your work but also leads to costly repairs and potential project delays. It is frustrating, expensive, and all too common.

Final drives are supposed to last. When they don’t, it is not just bad luck. More often than not, there is a reason behind the failure. And if you do not know what caused it, you are likely to face the same problem again. 

In this Shop Talk Blog post, we will look at the most common reasons final drives wear out sooner than they should and what you can do to prevent it from happening on your next job.

• Dr Mac's Notebook: Basics of Mechanical Stress
• Metal Hardness and Your Final Drive Motor
• 4 Horrifying Final Drive Failures

You’re halfway through a job—maybe clearing land, moving dirt, and making real progress—and suddenly, your skid steer or mini excavator starts acting up. Perhaps it’s slowing down, losing power, or making a noise you know it’s not supposed to make. That sinking feeling hits: something’s not right.

If you’re like most independent contractors, every hour your machine is down is money lost. You don’t have time to sit around guessing at what’s wrong, and you definitely don’t want to throw parts at a problem, hoping for the best. Ignoring these warning signs could lead to a major breakdown, more downtime, and significantly higher repair costs.

Here are a few other Shop Talk Blog posts you might find interesting:

• Maximizing ROI From Compact Equipment: A Smart Business Owner's Guide
• Debunked - Four Final Drive Myths
• Tips for Extending the Lifespan of Your Compact Track Loader's Final Drive

Final drive motors are essential components in heavy machinery. They turn hydraulic energy into mechanical motion to propel equipment. Understanding their function, maintenance, and common issues is crucial for optimal performance and longevity. Here are some frequently asked questions about final drive motors.

Here are some other Shop Talk Blog posts you might be interested in:

• 5 Questions You Should Ask About a Final Drive Before Buying It
  
• Basic Types of Hydraulic Fluid for Heavy and Compact Equipment
• Valve Blocks on Final Drive Hydraulic Motors

   

What is a final drive motor?

A final drive motor is a hydraulic motor that converts hydraulic pressure into mechanical torque. It drives the tracks or wheels of both heavy and compact equipment like excavators, compact track loaders, and skid steer loaders. A final drive motor combines a hydraulic motor with a gear reduction system to provide the necessary force for movement.

Halloween Horror Stories from the Construction Site!

As Halloween draws close, tales of haunted houses, monsters, and things that go bump in the night are in full swing. But for those in construction, there’s another type of horror to worry about: the dreaded equipment breakdowns that bring your jobs to a screeching halt. One of the biggest culprits? Final drive motors. Join us as we dive into some familiar “horror stories” and, most importantly, how to avoid them!

The choice of materials used in your final drive motor is extremely important. The engineers behind hydraulic motors don't randomly choose what type of steel or brass to use. So here is a quick introduction to one of the characteristics engineers consider: material hardness.

Here are a few other Shop Talk Blog posts you might find helpful:

• Real-Life Bearing Failure
• Four Horrifying Final Drive Failures
• Why Metal Surface Finish Can Be Important for Final Drives

What does catastrophic failure caused by a lack of maintenance look like? Let’s look at an example: a totaled planetary on a John Deere 332 final drive.

Here are some other Shop Talk Blog posts that might be helpful:

• Guidelines to Final Drive Maintenance
• Gear Damage in a Final Drive
• Autopy Hy-Dash Final Drive

Failure in a final drive motor is always bad -- but a good understanding of basic metal failure can help understand what causes it and lead to a better understanding of metal behavior in general.

In this Shop Talk blog post, you'll learn about basic metal failure and the material properties that explain it. This includes an introduction to tensile testing, a discussion of key metal parameters, and an example of how these parameters can vary.

Here are two other blogs in this series:

Dr Mac's Notebook: Basics of Mechanical Stress

Dr Mac’s Notebook: Displacement Under a Load

Oil seals are used on the final drive motor axle to keep the gear oil for the planetary gear set or bearings from mixing with hydraulic oil. These seals are vital to the operation and performance of your final drive motor -- and learning how they can fail is essential.

In a previous post, we talked about basic mechanical stress -- but this one is going a step further and looking at the relationship between stress, deformation, and strain -- all of which affect how metal parts break.

Here are some other Shop Talk Blog posts you might be interested in:

• Dr Mac's Notebook: The Basics of Mechanical Stress
• CNC Machining for Final Drive Parts
• Troubleshooting 5 Common Final Drive Issues

Mechanical stress is behind any of the failures we encounter when inspecting a final drive motor. Sheared fasteners, bent gear teeth, dented roller bearings, and broken races are examples of where stresses have gotten high enough to do permanent damage. To help you learn more about the mechanisms behind this and other types of failure, we'd like to introduce you to a new blog series entitled Dr. Mac's Notebook. 

Here are some other Shop Talk Blog posts you might find of interest:

• Real Life Bearing Failure
• 4 Horrifying Final Drive Failures
• Autopsy: Kubota KX71-3 Final Drive

Simple Forces

There are three basic types of forces:

• Compressive, which pushes things together
• Tensile, which pulls things apart
• Shear, which causes things to slide apart