Hymac 690

[Jeremy Rowland]

Well you can arrange anything except the weather and as I had already booked Thursday off work I was determined to get up there and see if I could get anything done, on the plus side my inlet manifold has been repaired, so I thoroughly cleaned it off and gave it a coat of paint just to tidy it up, must say that Lee has made a fantastic job of the repair too . I forgot to take any photos of the finished article.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

Well I suppose that it's true for many different restoration jobs as you do one job, it automatically leads straight to the next one; now I had to drain the hydraulic oil because I needed to jack the engine up to get the sump off for the strip down and to do that I had to disconnect the main hydraulic hoses to the pump.
This was not a particular issue to me as I wanted to change the hydraulic oil anyway, however while the oil was dropped out it goes without saying that the hydraulic oil filter would also be changed, it is housed on top of the main machine body beneath a round steel cover some 340mm in diameter. The issue was that four of the cover bolts snapped off when I removed the cover. These were originally studs which had been welded into place as part of the hydraulic tank assembly, I wasn't quite sure how I would repair them but decided to drill them through, re-tap a new thread and screw a bolt in from underneath, the issue was preventing and swarf debris from entering the tank, this was done using some wood to cover the filter hole, plenty of rag and a very powerful magnet. The repair was a success so that was another job done out of the way.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

Must confess to making a couple of trips up there but just not had the time to post anything anyway here is the latest update; I made a new cork gasket for the hydraulic filter cover lid, using the lid to draw around and mark out the hole positions, so that was the first job done. The next was to use a repair kit to try and stop the diesel leak from the DPA pump, I'm not overly confident that this will have cured the leak, will find out once I have a tune out of it.
After finishing the pump I fitted it back on the engine, next was the repaired inlet manifold, short of oil, coolant and bleeding the engine is ready for the first run since rebuild, only things holding me up is the large hydraulic main inlet pump flexi suction hose which I am trying to get one made and the main hydraulic oil filter, plus some fresh hydraulic oil then I will try the run up attempt.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

Some more photos.

Jeremy

[mechman]

Hi Jeremy.
Will there be a vid of of the start up?
Norm.

[Jeremy Rowland]

Hi Jeremy.
Will there be a vid of of the start up?
Norm.

Yes, I was hoping to do that all being well.

Jeremy

[Deas Plant]

Hi, Jeremy.
Oh, the joys of living inna moist climate surrounded by seas and oceans. Those 'little red ants' can cause all sorts of issues, especially with machines that are left idle for great lengths of time. I hope you have an easier time with the other work that you need to do on the old girl.

I only ever got to operate one Hymac machine here in DowNunda, a 580C. I thought it was a good, solid, well-balanced machine but that control lever and pedal set-up took a little getting used to after operating Kato and Hitachi machines for a couple of years.

Just my 0.02.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

[Jeremy Rowland]

Hi, Jeremy.
Oh, the joys of living inna moist climate surrounded by seas and oceans. Those 'little red ants' can cause all sorts of issues, especially with machines that are left idle for great lengths of time. I hope you have an easier time with the other work that you need to do on the old girl.

I only ever got to operate one Hymac machine here in DowNunda, a 580C. I thought it was a good, solid, well-balanced machine but that control lever and pedal set-up took a little getting used to after operating Kato and Hitachi machines for a couple of years.

Just my 0.02.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

Thanks Deas hopefully get some cosmetic resto done once I have a tune out of her again; I'm not too far from that day, just waiting for a new hydraulic pickup pipe to be made new, then have a hydraulic oil filter to get and I may just get a song out of it once more.

Yes the old levers and pedals take some getting used to if you've never operated one before but they were the first machines I ever got to operate, both 580C and the larger 880 albeit fitted with scrap handling grabs or magnets.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

Progress as ever is slow but alas it continues; my last trip I finally got the new hydraulic filter fitted, and made a temporary mod to the hydraulic tank breather, a few photos below. I am nearly ready for the big fire up, there has also been other unseen work going on in the background, but these things take time when you have limited resources and time.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

A trip up there yesterday and a days work saw the machine one big step closer to being run up again, I have finally obtained a new flexi hydraulic pickup hose which is the large bore hose that runs from the hydraulic tank to the machines pumps, the hose played 'game to the bitter end' but after a long battle I got it fitted. I then refitted the other hydraulic hoses which I had to disconnect to get the engine jacked up.

Now I needed to put some fresh hydraulic oil back into the main reservoir; I decided to first take the drain bung back out of the tank as I had removed the old hydraulic filter and suspected that some more oil had run to the bottom of the tank, which of course it had done so, so a few litres drained out. I also needed to try and drain as much of the oil contaminated oil out of the system as possible so I released one of the lower hoses on the undercarriage and also took the pressure connector bungs out of the bottom of each of the boom hoist rams. So all and in all I got around another 25 litres of old oil out.

By now the clouds were rapidly appearing and the prospect of a drenching started to look inevitable, after removing the top from the hydraulic oil reservoir I managed to get around 80 litres of fresh oil in which was all that I had to hand, she will take a bit more filling yet. Fortunately I got the cover back on the tank and the rain held off. Plan for next trip; pour more hydraulic oil in, secure the radiator and hoses, put the coolant back in, bleed the fuel system, fit a battery and you never know I may just have a tune out of her.

Jeremy