Well... both the L & R Drive Motors are now on the bench. They are clean and ready for new seals & rings. I noticed that the Left Motor (was working properly) had the same amount of redish brown crud under the brass ring as the left motor. Both motors appear to be undamaged with no scoring and had no damaged or broken seals. I did notice that the Left Motor (working properly) was easy to turn on the bench while I could not turn the Right Motor (not working properly) and that when I pulled the lines on the Left Motor (working) there was a nice flow of fluid out of the lines while the Right (not working properly) Motor's lines just dripped fluid for the longest time. I don't know if any of this information is significant but I would appreciate some feedback. Arley
The drive motors should not be easy to turn by hand. Its normal to have to use pliers to hold the shaft to get it to rotate, so don't be concerned there.
Parts for the pump are available if you are confident you can do the work. loader parts source have new rotating groups and wear plates available. But don't do anything about that till you open the pump up. You may be able to get away with flattening the wear plates, we'll get to that depending on what you find if the motors still don't work.
As for draining oil, i hook a hose to my aux hydraulic lines and pump it into a bucket at idle. As soon as it starts to spit i shut down. Some say this can cause pump damage, but i have never had a problem as there is still oil residue in the pump, its your call if you do it this way or not.
The drive pumps are pretty simple. I would make sure i tried swapping motors before you condem it to being damaged.
Yes, i'd change or at least clean the case drain filters (inline filters).