Well, we’ve now got parts on order for the Hyundai excavator, hopefully these will be with us in around a fortnight’s time, but they do need to come from overseas so it’s a little bit of luck as to the exact date. Its ended up being slightly cheaper to just buy the whole reduction box for the slew motor than the bits that are needed to fix it, so at least it’ll be a very quick re-assembly task now.
We’ve made the decision to capitalise on this down time to strip apart the takeuchi, with a good portion of work started today, inside the loco shed at Castlemaine, working under a roof with lighting is just a whole new concept and we can recommend it!
In the strip down process we’ve found a few other issues (such as perished radiator overflow hoses etc… ) that we’ll tend to while it’s in bits. We did find the Anti-Drift valve (a complicated piece of kit to stop the boom moving unless it’s told to.. which has about 10 components, several of which are the likely culprits) portion affixed to the control valve had a broken bolt, which had allowed for water to ingress and actually seize a small piston, we were hopeful of this being the issue, but it isn’t, however it will be a factor and is likely the reason for the failure of a relief valve which is of course directly below it… but can’t be accessed without now removing the fuel and hydraulic tanks!
So, we’ll be working through that issue tomorrow, removing more gear to get to the relief valves.
Because we will be focussing on this primarily tomorrow, there won’t be a formal workday. However, as always, you’re still welcome to join, but do expect there to be times that are very quiet. No doubt the workshop next door could use an extra pair of hands in the quieter moments.
Meeting at Castlemaine from 8.30am, however we will have proper workdays on the track on Thursday / Friday, as hopefully we’ll just be waiting for parts by then.
VGR Civil Blog 