Loose hose causes cavitation.

[HanSolo]

I've been having a lot of hoses come loose lately on my 843. I attribute that to working it hard and poor maintenance prior to my ownership. Latest incidence caught me by surprise though. I'm back-dragging a leech field area to dress it up and the control sticks start to get "sticky". It's hard to describe but it's a different feel and the hydrostatic drive is whining fairly loud. The hydraulic functions also begin to get jerky. So I take the machine up to it's parking spot and check the hydraulic fluid level. It's 3X the normal level and foamy. I'm thinking this can't be good and shut her down. Oddly, there's no leaking observable. So I figure I'll move on to another chore (weed eating) and post the symptoms here later for the next step. As I'm trimming around the machine, I noticed a substantial hydraulic leak has developed in the last 15 minutes (with the machine off and parked). It's losing fluid at a alarming rate so I'm flipping the cab and looking hard for the source. A hydraulic hose from the filter to the front pump is REALLY loose. Practically off the pipe nipple. So apparently the loose hose was allowing air to be pulled into the system which foamed it up and increased volume in the reservoir. I'm actually glad now that the leak made it fairly easy to find the source. I'm going to make a habit of checking the hoses anytime I'm under the cab from now on.

 

[SkidRoe]

Good catch!!
I recently had an interesting ordeal with a hose that I was glad appeared when it did. I had not used my machine in a couple of weeks and started it to move it out of the garage to get something out that was parked behind it. I left it running to charge the battery while I went back to the garage. About 2 minutes later, I glanced out at the machine to see it sitting in a pool of oil that was increasing quickly. I grabbed a pan (it was leaking all over my new concrete driveway), and ran out to shut it off. It turns out, the froward drive hose for the left motor had blown a hole in it. It was weird that it happened when it was not under load, but I was glad that I was not in the middle of a job when it went.
Cheers.

 

[tndigger]

Good catch!!
I recently had an interesting ordeal with a hose that I was glad appeared when it did. I had not used my machine in a couple of weeks and started it to move it out of the garage to get something out that was parked behind it. I left it running to charge the battery while I went back to the garage. About 2 minutes later, I glanced out at the machine to see it sitting in a pool of oil that was increasing quickly. I grabbed a pan (it was leaking all over my new concrete driveway), and ran out to shut it off. It turns out, the froward drive hose for the left motor had blown a hole in it. It was weird that it happened when it was not under load, but I was glad that I was not in the middle of a job when it went.
Cheers.

Had similar thing happen on a skid steer a couple of years old. I called the dealer and talked to a mechanic saying my hydraulic oil is overfull and foamy. He said check hoseclamp tightness on return lines if one gets loose it can suck air into the system. Sure enough one of the hose clamps was not loose but broken. I assume it had been overtightened. So I put 2 clamps on this connection and checked all the other clamps. On this same machine I was cleaning out the debri under the engine and found 5 bolts. Just about all the exhaust manifolds bolts had come out! This machine was probably made on a Friday. Been a good machine other than these two issues.