One of my customers called me last fall and sheepishly explained that he had plugged his 9600 solid in canola and because he was almost done the field and the rain was coming he put 'er at full throttle and proceded to kill the engine more than a dozen times by flicking the little yellow switch. Now, his problem was that when he tried to start the engine, the separator wanted to turn. Needless to say, his separator clutch was now a one-piece molten ball of metal. When I got to the machine and dropped the oil on the engine gear case, I could swear I was draining 300 hour engine oil and not hydraulic oil, it was that black. Cost him $4g and he was down for 2 days.
Another customer called me and said he had a bad oil leak on his 9600. When I got there the back half of the machine was completely covered in hydraulic oil. The front case gasket on hydrostatic pump had blown out. One look in the hydraulic reservoir and I knew why- There was an inch of fine brass filings on bottom of the tank. The hydro pump had packed it in. Of course the oil is shared between hydrostat and hydraulic so the whole system had to be flushed- removed and cleaned tank, cooler, lines, valves, etc. I found a used pump and motor at the local wrecker. I did the whole repair in the middle of a soybean field. He was down for 28 hours and cost him $3800.
