The prospect of any transmission repair can send a chill up any car-owner’s spine and can sometimes be synonymous with a death knell for a beloved vehicle. But with proper maintenance of your transmission’s component parts, you can extend the service life of your vehicle, ensure solid performance, and keep those costly repairs at bay. Today, we’ll be focusing on the final drive, final drive parts and repair, and how to treat the symptoms of small problems in order to keep them from becoming big ones.

Think of Your Car as an Ecosystem

Remember that no part in your car functions in a vacuum, and that any one part both affects and can be affected by parts up or downstream. The same is true of your final drive. If you find a problem in your final drive motors, it’s important to check interactions with other areas that might be affecting its performance within the rest of the hydraulic system. Issues such as charge pumps and tight tracks, or your final drive being trapped in high speed mode can all affect its ability to function within normal parameters.

Tidy Workbench, Tidy Mind

This is a great tip not just for final drive repairs, but for any repair you may plan to be doing. Any time you lay out or open up parts in a grimy or dusty environment, you risk the parts becoming contaminated and further damaging your hydraulic system. Before you undergo inspection of final drive parts and repair, it’s important to clear your workspace, as well as laying down a piece of clean cardboard to minimize the possible contamination that may occur. This is especially important with newer machines, which have a considerably lower tolerance for contamination.

Stay On Top of the Case Drain Filter

Perhaps one of the most crucial, and overlooked, repairs in the final drive is the case drain filter. If your machine has one of these, it’s imperative that you replace it on the same schedule that you replace your other filters. While this may seem like a hassle, a clogged case drain left untended can cause thousands in repair costs down the line, not just with the final drive, but with the hydraulic line as a whole. This is due to the pressure that builds, which can blow seals and total your final drive altogether.

Don’t Let a Leak Sit

This may seem obvious, but this is another case where trying to ignore something and hoping it doesn’t get worse can have disastrous consequences. Remember: leaks don’t just mean that fluid is getting out, but it also means that contaminants are getting in, risking damage to the entire ecosystem that exists within your hydraulic lines. Not only that, but running low on fluid also drastically increases the wear and tear on your machine, leading to irreparable damage to bearings and planetary gears. This is another reason to make sure you’re staying on top of regular maintenance such as checking oil and fluid levels.

While the prospect of losing time due to routine maintenance can be a daunting one, especially during periods of heavy service, it’s important to remember that these tips can not only extend the service life of your machinery, but can also help you avoid even longer periods of downtime in the future. By checking leaks, avoiding contamination, regularly changing filters, and cultivating an understanding of the totality of your hydraulic system–and your machinery as a whole–your vehicles will be serving you for years to come. If you have a reputable final drive parts and repair retailer, it can be important to establish a relationship with them to ensure that a routine maintenance schedule is adhered to.

Have questions about routine maintenance, final drive parts and repair, or the ecosystem of your hydraulic line? Drop us a comment below and we’ll get you in touch with someone who can help.