Hymac 580 C in Northern Ireland

[dolmenman]

Hello everyone...I've decided to start my own thread on here so as when I have problems or questions, I don't have to pollute someone else's thread...

I'll give a brief recap of the story.... I live on a farm here so am not unfamiliar with wrenchs, spanners, welders etc. My father and myself had wanted a tracked excavator for years, but the price put us off. We hired out machines but finally decided to look around in 2016. We ruled out a rubber wheeled JCB type machine as we have a lot of drainage work to do and past experience with them getting stuck made a track machine the obvious choice.

We spotted a Hymac 580C in the local farming paper and went to look at her with my brother in law, who already had a 580C. The price was £2750 which was within our budget and my brother in law thought she looked OK. He did say one thing though, when I told him I knew nothing about Hymac's. He laughed and said "don't worry, by the time your finished with her, you will know ALL about them".

She is a late model 580C as she has never been cracked or welded and the frame is made of the stronger tubing. She has a Ford engine and I susprct she is '79-'80 although I have never checked with serial number.

The first thing we did when getting her home was to clean her and respray the undercarriage and fixed some rotting tinwork. Also Oil and filters in the engine.
Then I replaced the brake pads and repaired the Hydraulic seals in the brake rams.
Next was the seals in the bucket ram which were pouring oil out. Also replaced eye on ram.
Replaced two track motor pipes.
Seized top roller replaced.
Rebuilt track gearbox (This forum was a big help)
Replaced front idler wheel.
Replaced check valves to slew motor.
Replaced seals in Rotary Distributor.

We are lucky in that there is a breakers yard 5km from here and can source a lot of parts there.
Here are some pics








I have a few more jobs on my wish list such as improving the slew function by either replacing or regrinding the seats on Cross-line-relief or worse. seals in the slew motor. Also, I might do a joystick conversion.

She will never be in the condition of some of your machines but she is intended as a farm workhorse and I suspect she is in better condition than most modern machines will be when they are 40+ years old. She is very powerful I should add.

[Holger]

Thank you for sharing!

[magirus]

[Sparrow]

[Andy80]

Thanks for sharing! Interresting it has ha Ford engine. I thought that the later models was fitted with a Perkins engine. Has the engine been changed once in a time?

[dolmenman]

I've no idea of the history of her...it's enough for me that the engine starts

[Antevante]

Great with another Hymac- thread!

There were both Ford and Perkins in the 580C.

One easy way to see wich engine there is in a machine, if the exhaust pipe is in the front end of engine cover its a perkins or at the back its a Ford. Both has the exhaust at the rigth. The 580C I had a while ago. It had pre cutted holes for both engine types. But the in the ”ford hole” they had welded a pice of metal.

Hymac fact of the day. Cheers!

[dolmenman]

I thought I'd put on a few photos of what I've been up too...Last year we had some fencing done by a contractor, and he left a mess...there was more work clearing up than the fence....ended up burying it in a bog...























It is still very wet here...

[Andy80]

Slippery when wet as the girl said

[dolmenman]

I hope you are all well, fellow Hymacers…With the "Lockdown" here, I have finally managed to finish a few jobs, like levelling after the fencing men and finishing our triangular wasteland field...some of you will probably have seen these on the Hymac Facebook page...















This has taken a few months...

[dolmenman]

I have a question regarding the slew function on my 580C and would be grateful for any advice..
Since I bought her in 2016, the machine has a tendency for the slew to creep to the right, even on level ground. This is much more pronounced when on a hill and the slew function has poor retardation when slewing right. It is fine in the opposite (left) direction.

I intend to be working on a steep hill in the near future so it would be desirable to fix this.

I have cleaned/replaced the check valves on the pipes to the slew motor and intend to remove and clean the check valves on the Cross-Line-Relief-Valve assembly. I will also check for leaks in the Valve Block Spools (VB3).

I doubt if it is any of them, which leads me to the Staffa motor. I know there are seals kits available, but my question is:-

Can I remove the top half of the slew motor, without removing it from the machine, to replace the spool valve seals on the cylinder on top of the motor?

From the diagrams I have looked at, there seems to be a series of circular seals, similar to the rotary distributor. Would this be possible and are there any major difficulties doing this?..Thanks in advance

[Antevante]

I had my slew motor changed. Its heavy but not very hard to lift out of the machine. I think thats the best way to attack the problem.

[dolmenman]

Thanks for the reply...I think you are right but sourcing a good used one (not from a certain RG) might be difficult and costly...will proceed to check the other easier fixes first...cheers

[PeterR]

Nice job with the land clearing!

[Antevante]

Thanks for the reply...I think you are right but sourcing a good used one (not from a certain RG) might be difficult and costly...will proceed to check the other easier fixes first...cheers

I just wanted to say that I think its easier to deal with the slew motor if you take it out. My slew motor cracked so I had no choise