Oh crap!

[Bret4207]

420 gas crawler. Was real cold here and I needed to move some snow. Checked the oil. It was water contaminated. Ran it up to the garage and changed the oil, had to order a filter. When the filter got here I changed it and cleaned the oil pressure gauge glass. No pressure. Checked elsewhere and found I have no oil flow. Looking at the manuals it appears I may have sheared a pin that drives the oil pump. Am I on the right track?

[fundytides]

Probably. Have seen this happen a couple of times with friends 40 or 420 crawlers. Not a hard fix.

[B Town]

In my opinion you are on the right track.

Water sitting on the bottom of the pan and pump. Water freezes, you turn the motor over, but pump is frozen with water. Pump is sheared, resulting in no pressure.

While the oil pan is off, you may consider checking the bearing. If the look oil starved, I would replace if the journals are up to spec.

Best regards, Bruce

[Bret4207]

Thanks gents! Nothing I look forward to more than lying under a frozen hunka steel in January out in my side yard...

[420C-Mike]

When i first got my 420 I recall finding it was missing the large plate washer that goes under the filter. Check to see if it got removed when you changed the filter- could be as simple as that.
Mike

[Bret4207]

FWIW- Yup, the oil pump was full of ice. Sheared the pin on the drive gear. I really don't see how the water got in there, but I guess I'd better do a better job covering it when I have to leave it out in the future. This did give me a chance to repair and straighten out the pickup screen. Someone else had been in there ahead of me and left quite a mess.

[gus]

You definitely made me nervous ! I did not change oil last fall. I did start the crawler when it was 15 degrees! I guess the bullet missed.

[Lavoy]

IF they are run in the winter or colder weather and the engine does not warm up, they tend to get condensation in the oil. The old rule of thumb they used to say was the oil had to be at or above 140 degrees for half an hour to get moisture out. This is why I run 180-degree thermostats in all the crawlers instead of 160 to help keep the moisture out.
Seafoam will also remove moisture from oil.
Lavoy

[gus]

Lavoy, that is good to know! When I do use the crawler in the winter it's usually for a couple hours. That happened 3X this fall and winter.

I got into some mud on a hill trying to push a brush pile. It finally got so slick I had to give it up. Spent almost an hour cleaning up the tracks!

[Buckhorn]

The plate under the oil filter was mentioned in this post. My 420c doesn't have that plate, but it looks like the NAPA 1148 filter, has a hard fiber washer attached to the filter, as oil pressure is good. I assume this takes the place of that plate. I haven't changed the oil in my 40u yet, but I will this spring. I'm curious to find out what's in that machine.

[Lavoy]

Plate is necessary regardless of filter.
Lavoy

[Buckhorn]

Plate is necessary regardless of filter.
Lavoy

Thank you.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Problem is, without the plate the filter slides down from the spring in the dome and the filter then bypasses. And the plate sticks to the bottom of the filter from the oil, so they are frequently tossed with the old filter.

Stan