T300 Hydraulic Failure - metal fragments

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jdrouillard

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2022
Messages
6
I have a T300 skid steer and have replace the drive motors multiple times now. The hydraulic system contains fine metal fragments that trash the units fairly quickly. Is there a way to purge the system to get rid of this? The most recent estimate to rebuild is about $7k, and we've already put about $15k into addressing the problem. Of course, the Bobcat dealer provides no warranty.

Any insight would be appreciated.
 

brdgbldr

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2012
Messages
1,157
The only true way to get all of the old fluid out of the hydraulic/hydrostatic system is to remove all of the hoses, cycle and clean all of the cylinders, pumps and motors. Don't forget to clean out the fluid tank. Metal will settle at the bottom When the machine sits idle.

You can try to clean most of it out by removing all of the fluid from the tank and cylinders. The cylinders hold a lot of fluid and you can remove the hoses from them and one pin so that you can cycle them to get all of the fluid out. Also remove all of the hoses from the drive motors so that the fluid can drain out of the motors and hoses. Remove the quick couplers and hoses from the auxiliaries and let them drain also. And clean out the tank. After all of that is complete, put in all new filters and refill and cycle everything till the system is full. Then do a regular maintenance fluid change and change all of the filters again.

These machines were never designed to be completely drained. If the machine is old enough you may just want to go ahead and change out all of the hoses to new since you will need to disconnect most of them anyway.
 

foton

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 1, 2018
Messages
1,261
never seen it done with a skid but there must be a good place somewhere in the oil system to add a magnet to help control metal wear. They are used in engines and transmissions and other drive systems.
 

Topper1

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 19, 2023
Messages
52
I had a similar issue on a high clearance sprayer with hydrostatic drives and filings everywhere.. We had to remove and clean EVERYTHING. Hoses, cylinders, motors, pumps. All a result of 1 motor defect slowly eating itself. Hydrostats are essentially closed loop. So filings can and will continue cycling through a pump and motor indefinitely. A small amount of fluid is changed through the suction/case drains but not enough to 'purge" the system.
 

koko

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 30, 2022
Messages
76
Purchased a T300 & tilt rams were leaking & making a mess in my shop. When I disassembled them I found fines in the recesses so decided to do all cylinders. Rebuilt them & built new pins then decided to clean the system before start up. Drained the holding tank & flushed several times with cleaned hyd. fluid. I have a system set up that I can filter fluid down to 1 micron. I used this fluid to flush all the hoses. I had also used a couple of rare earth magnets, very strong, to aid in cleaning the tank which is plastic. After cleaning all to satisfaction I replaced all line filters & system filters & flushed system with new hyd. oil. Before closing the holding tank I connected one of my rare earth magnets to a very stiff wire & placed the magnet near the return port to the tank, bent the other end of the wire to fit over the fill spigot before clamping the rubber hose that connects the outside fill port.
After using the unit for a day & pulled out the magnet to see what I had collected & it showed that I did a very good job of cleaning the system. I will continue to leave that magnet in the tank for periodic monitoring.
 
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