How to Tell If It’s Time to Buy a New Final Drive Motor

When it comes to heavy-duty vehicles, such as bulldozers, graders, and excavators, the final drive motor is what drives the vehicle’s tracks. Generally, there will be a separate motor that will work the unit’s attachments. The final drive motor uses gears of different sizes to create enough torque to move the vehicle, which could weigh several metric tons. As tough and well-built as these motors are, they will sometimes fail from extended use. Read through the following four topics that explain some situations when you might need a new final drive motor.

1. Reduced Performance

Within the vehicle’s engine power rating, it should be able to move itself anywhere and perform its duties. However, if the final drive motor cannot propel the unit up a slope that it should handle with ease, then it could be time for a new motor. If this happens, then double-check the engine power rating compared to the job at hand. That way, you can determine if the final drive motor is at fault or if you simply tried to go up too steep an incline.

2. Weird Noises

Your heavy vehicle will make lots of noise during its normal operation. You can’t move tons of earth or pick up tons of rock and steel without making much noise. However, there are certain noises that aren’t normal, such as loud banging, high-pitched squealing, or terrible grinding. Any of these could indicate a problem that can be repaired, but as often as not, they could also show that it’s time to get a new final drive motor. Squealing could come from loose belts or misaligned gears. Grinding means that some metal parts or others are coming together in ways they’re not supposed to. Banging usually means that something has already broken off inside and is slamming against something else.

3. Something’s Leaking

Your final drive motor will contain two kinds of fluid: engine oil and transmission fluid. For either of them to leak in any noticeable way, particularly on earth and not pavement, it would indicate something quite serious that could mean that you have to buy a new final drive motor.

4. It Overheats

The most common reason a final drive motor overheats is that it’s low on lubricant. Unfortunately, by the time you see the smoke and smell the burning oil and/or gears, it’s often too late, and the motor cannot be saved. Less common is a loss of hydraulic fluid between the final drive motor and the vehicle’s tracks. In a situation with low hydraulic fluid, the final drive motor will have to work harder to get the vehicle going, causing overheating. Sometimes, however, the hydraulic fluid itself will be too hot, which is not from a problem with the final drive motor but rather from the hydraulic system itself.

Uncommonly, the issue will be with the motor’s hydraulic brakes. If something is amiss with the brakes, then the resulting heat will not only build up inside the final drive motor but will also transfer from the faulty brake system to the motor.

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