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It’s that time of year when Santa Claus is at his busiest -- along with his elves. And he owns a fleet of compact equipment critical to things running smoothly during the holidays. Let’s sneak a peek at what happens in the North Pole with Santa’s fleet and the elves responsible for it.

Your CTL (Compact Track Loader) depends on the final drive motors to keep it running. When a final drive fails, costs include repair/replacement and expensive downtime. Extending the useful life of your final drives reduces downtime and repair costs, meaning a better profit margin and more productivity.

In this Shop Talk blog post, we’ll look at tips for extending the life of CTL final drives, focusing on maintenance and inspection, operating practices, and track tension and alignment.

Here are a few other Shop Talk blog posts you might find useful:

• CTL / MTL Undercarriage Basics
• Self Driving Track Loaders
• CTL Final Drives: 5 Signs They Need Service

In the previous Shop Talk Blog post Understanding ISO 4406: The Basics we went over why cleanliness codes are important to you then talked about what the ISO 4406 digit codes represent. This time we're looking at how to use ISO 4406 to set and achieve cleanliness goals for your hydraulic systems.

Your compact equipment and final drives depend on the smooth flow of hydraulic fluid to transmit power and control motion. However, the presence of contaminants in the hydraulic fluid can adversely affect not just system performance but its longevity as well. And that is where ISO 4406 comes into play.

In this Shop Talk Blog post, you’ll learn why cleanliness codes should be important to you, followed by what the ISO 4406 digit codes represent.

Here are a few other Shop Talk Blog posts you might find helpful ...

• Results of Hydraulic Contamination
• 8 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Ignore Your Hydraulic Motor
• Of Turkeys and Bobcats

Bolts are critical to keeping your final drive motor together and running. In this Shop Talk Blog post, we're going to look at bolt preload and how it works.

Here are a few other interesting Shop Talk Blog posts you might want to check out:

• Hydraulic Contamination Failure Categories
• Loctite and Final Drive Motors
• Zombies and Remote Control CTLs and SSLs

When hurrying to reassemble your final drive motor, it’s tempting to torque one bolt and move on to the next adjacent bolt. But that isn’t a wise choice. In this Shop Talk Blog post, we’ll discuss why the sequence in which you tighten bolts is important and then look at what can go wrong when you don’t.

Here are a few other Shop Talk Blog posts you might enjoy:

• Bolts, Torque, and Final Drives
• Loctite and Final Drive Motors

fall under the category of mechanical fasteners whose job is to hold things together. Bolts not only hold your final drive together, but they also hold your drive motor to your machine. We know they must be extremely strong, considering the massive pressure within your final drive. However, how you install and torque them can compromise their ability to hold things together.

Failure in a final drive motor is always bad -- but a good understanding of basic metal failure can help understand what causes it and lead to a better understanding of metal behavior in general.

In this Shop Talk blog post, you'll learn about basic metal failure and the material properties that explain it. This includes an introduction to tensile testing, a discussion of key metal parameters, and an example of how these parameters can vary.

Here are two other blogs in this series:

Dr Mac's Notebook: Basics of Mechanical Stress

Dr Mac’s Notebook: Displacement Under a Load

One of the most important relationships for final drive motors ties together power, torque, and speed -- and understanding this relationship can help you troubleshoot your final drive motor.

Here are a few other blog posts you might find helpful:

• 5 Reasons a Final Drive Can Lack Power
• Torque, Traction, and Horsepower
• 3 Critical Questions About Single-Speed and Dual-Speed Final Drives

Oil seals are used on the final drive motor axle to keep the gear oil for the planetary gear set or bearings from mixing with hydraulic oil. These seals are vital to the operation and performance of your final drive motor -- and learning how they can fail is essential.

In a previous post, we talked about basic mechanical stress -- but this one is going a step further and looking at the relationship between stress, deformation, and strain -- all of which affect how metal parts break.

Here are some other Shop Talk Blog posts you might be interested in:

• Dr Mac's Notebook: The Basics of Mechanical Stress
• CNC Machining for Final Drive Parts
• Troubleshooting 5 Common Final Drive Issues