Shop Talk Blog

Somebody's mad, and they have a right to be: just six months, maybe 400 hours, and their new final drive motor is acting up again. Did they buy junk?

Here at Texas Final Drive, we regularly open up final drive motors and the story of the failure is almost always written inside the motor. It’s not usually a manufacturing defect or a bad reman job. It’s often debris from the first failure that’s still living in the machine and ready to chew through a perfectly good replacement.

There’s a good chance that the drive isn’t the root cause. The system may have failed and got a fresh drive to devour.

What a Failed Final Drive Motor Leaves Behind

When a final drive motor fails, it never fails politely. We regularly see bearing races spall, pistons scuff, and the rotary group grind itself down. And all that metal goes somewhere. Fine particles may ride the case drain line straight back into the tank. Bigger particles hang out in the hoses, the cooler, the valve block, and the low spots in the hydraulic reservoir.

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

• Case Drain Flow Testing: The One Test Most Operators Skip
  

• Why Rental Companies Trust Texas Final Drive 
  

• Don't Get Spooked by Your Final Drive!
  
  
  

You probably maintain your tracks, filters, and attachments, but did you know that hydraulic fluid quietly destroys pumps and final drives when it’s neglected? Bad hydraulic fluid won’t fail overnight. Its effects are slow, causing excessive heat, accelerated wear, and power loss, until your equipment comes to a complete stop.

In this Shop Talk Blog post, we're looking at what it costs you to keep running your compact equipment on bad hydraulic fluid ... and the price is more than you budgeted for!

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

• The Case Drain Filter: A Small Component That Prevents Big Trouble
• Why Rental Companies Trust Texas Final Drive
• 5 Warning Signs Your Final Drive Might Be Failing (And What to Do Next)

If your compact equipment was damaged by floodwaters, here are some tips on how to address the damage.

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

• Guidelines to Final Drive Maintenance
• Final Drive Maintenance: Gear Oil
• Six Ways to Sabotage Your Final Drive