The final drive is an important component of your excavator. It consists of the motor and transmission. It is a device that transmits the power to the wheel.

It transfers loads accurately, rapidly, safely, and efficiently. So, if it fails, you will not be able to move the machine. Final drive failure can damage your excavator and may require expensive repairs.

Proper knowledge of some horrible failures and pictorial demonstration will surely help. This article will help you with information on four mind-bending final drive failures and how you can avoid such failures from happening in the future. Feeling excited? Let’s move on to find out!

Horrible Final Drive Failures

Want to get familiar with mechanical gore? Ready to see the horrifying failures of Final Drive? They largely result from negligence on maintenance measures and carelessness on indications of something wrong.

Don’t worry. Down below, you will find some astonishing final drive failures. These are as follows:

1.   Cracks on Cover Plates

Cracks in the cover plate of the final drive are a cause of concern. Cracks can be very small or large. They appear on the surface as small separations with visible lines or streaks.

In the image below, you can observe a red arrow pointing towards the crack. This is the cover plate of the final drive. In general, very high pressure may lead to crack formation in the thick cover plate. A question arises in your mind, what is the leading cause behind this? It is solely a case drain filter.

Regardless of the size of your case drain filter. It may have a vast impact on the performance of your final drive. When your case drain filter experience clogging, it results in pressure build-up. This pressure remains there until it finds its way out. The way is only through cracking the final drive plate.

This causes excessive damage to your final drive. Besides affecting your final drive cover plate, it also does a lot of damage to final drive internal components. This thing is unbearable as it can cost you a lot.

This is the main reason we recommend replacing your case drain filter and changing your other filters. In case the case drain filter on your excavator has an appearance similar to as shown in the image. Then your final drive will destroy soon.

2.   Gear Hub Full of Grit

The thing you never want to experience is the gear hub full of grit. Foreign particles, including sand, dirt, dust, and mud, should not be in your final drive, especially on the planetary side. You can see an example of a final drive gear hub full of grit in the image below.

The situation depicted in the above image refers to the severe contamination of gear oil. This largely results from a seal leakage. When you are unable to replace this seal on time. This is why we force on leakage; imagine if gear oil leaks, then what else can happen? Besides foreign particles getting inside, the rise in friction, chipping of material components, and severe damage. You can experience all of these at once.

The thing you can practice is changing your gear oil periodically as per industry standards. In another case, you will end up with useless, thick, smelly sludge. These conditions will only result in severe damage rather than good. This will not result in any damage similar to that of grit. Instead, it reduces your final drive performance and the operational life of various components.

3.   Broken Components of Axial Piston Motor

An axial piston motor has a design where the pistons and cylinders represent an axial arrangement. Its main function is to utilize hydraulic fluid to transfer the power into the final drive gear hub.

After opening up the hydraulic side of your axial piston motor, you will find chips or chunks of pieces. These pieces spread over throughout your axial piston motor. It represents severe damage to your axial piston motor.

The main reason behind this condition is the clogging of the case drain filter. Do not ignore the damage you can experience with such a filter. You can also face it because of failure in bearing, which is a leading cause of disturbance in alignment. These damages can completely ruin your final drive, especially the hydraulic side.

Below you will see a clear depiction of a rotator assembly. On the right-hand side, you will see a complete rotator assembly. While on the left-hand side, you will see the missing pieces. Please note that the piston’s feet should never loosen, similar to what is shown in the figure.

4.   A shaft having Damaged Spline

The spline shaft is a rotating gear. It consists of teeth or splines designed to convert rotary motion into reciprocating motion. You can use it as a drive train in smaller construction machines, including excavators, backhoes, and dozers.

You can see the pictorial demonstration of the shaft right below. You will see that it experiences wear to the extent that leads to zero splines. If you keenly observe the image, you will know that extensive wear has taken place. Now you will have a question where is that missing metal that experiences such wear and tear on splines?

This metal is undoubtedly playing its role in contaminating the hydraulic fluid. Having no splines, you cannot engage power. It does not matter what load you will put on your axial piston motor. You will experience a zero output.

Several users have said that they hear the motor spinning and feel it is working. It was leading to zero or no torque. This is a consequence of extreme wear and tear. It will not happen only if you replace it on time.

This year, in the beginning, is of less concern but increases with time and becomes a destructive cycle. This wear and tear also lead to extensive wear of surfaces of various components. Especially those components which experience high forces.

Verdict

Now you know the major causes of damage in your final drive. Therefore, we force our customers to pay heed to maintenance measures.

When you need to get your final drive repaired, choose Xugong, the best in the business.

Xugong is a professional manufacturer and supplier of final drive parts and components.

Our qualified technicians have the knowledge and experience to fix any issue that could arise with your final drive. We can also provide parts and materials needed for a complete overhaul of your drive train.

Save money now by taking advantage of our specials and services.

Come to Xugong repair today!