UPDATE: So now I have the unit at a local repair shop. The same shop that looked at the pump and the drive motor seperately and told me that nothing was wrong. After I got the units back, I put the thing back together in order to move it from behind the barn to around front where the guy could pick it up....it still drives on one side. He has had it about two weeks and he calls me over the weekend and tells me that he thinks it is the drive motor. He tells me that he is driving it out to a repair shop that works on hydraulic pumps and motors (the same shop that rebuilt the boom pump about 2 years ago for me). He says that they tell him the repair could be anywhere from $600 to $1300. He wants to provide the money up front for the repari. So now my question is am I out of line for calling this guy out? I mean he has already looked at the motor and told me nothing is wrong and I paid him $25 for that. So after getting the drive motor back I waisted my labor to put the motor back in, paid him to come pick the unit up, paid him to again examine the pump and the motor and pull the motor, which I already had pulled once. If he did not have my unit I would just run the drive motor out myslef but he has my machine so my hands are tied?
I wouldn't be happy about it either... I'd bet its just seals, a seal kit can't be more than $100. As he has the machine he more or less has you by the uum you know!
What garantee do you have that if you spend that much money that it will be fixed? or will he come back and say the motor is now re-conditioned but the problem is still there, it has to be the pump, how about $2,000 more?
I personally would say give me the motor i want to check it. Take it home, pull it down and check the seals as i bet thats all that is wrong. You can then give it to the repair shop to replace the seals if you don't feel comfortable doing it. Just pull the seals, don't pull the geroler apart, but you can look for scratches and scoring. This way you know you aren't being had with the shop saying the seals were shot, the geroler needed replacing. You at least know whats going on.
In his defence, testing just a motor isn't easy you need to load it down, it was wrong for him to *test* it by just hooking oil pressure to it without a load which he obviously didn't do.