we have purchased an old manitou 727 for our Tree surgeon /agriculture company had it painted and signed up it looks the part ,had a general service ie oil and filters .Put it to work today loading logs into large 50yd skip machine performed well for a couple of hours but i could sense something not quite right re drive .Machine at one point refused to do forward or reverse - i later found that drive is lost or greatly reduced when steering is turned a lot on centering steering drive would return although i dont think fully - i was wondering if it may be low on trans fluid with it being a semi auto or is there something else and even a severe problem .any help or advice gladly accepted
Manitou MT 727 1994
- Thread starter birdy
- Start date
Spotty Dog
Member
- Location
- Northumberland
Steering doesn't use the same oil as the drive. Check oil level in transmission first, if thats ok then the torque convertor charge pump may be on the way out ? I had one of these with 13000 hrs on it and never had a drive problem.
- Location
- Oxon
Should have equal size wheels so something is a miss, either its no longer 4wd or its an an axle ratio swap or its miles out of ratio with odd sized wheels.
Should have equal size wheels ? i am pretty certain the machine is as it came from the factory regards wheel size ,
- Location
- Oxon
I had a MT 727 near me, and it was just bare bones builders spec, rear wheel steer only and equal size wheels.
They were bought on price only as the 4 wheel steer machines were out long before these 727's, awful things too drive IMO compared to the 4ws.
I find it ok to drive being just rear wheel steer suppose its what you are used to i like older style levers rather than joysticks with complicated electronics .Had a chap go over machine today he owned a couple over 20 yrs ago .All dipsticks pulled engine oil on full mark and very clean it should be its supposed just had a service ,Hyd oil to full mark and he sniffed at dipstick and said thats fresh so OK i take that to mean .After finding ATF dipstick that took a good while as its well camouflaged the level was massively overfull prob about 3inches above the full mark i must assume thats not good ,he drove it and noticed a mettalicy grind noise especially when put under load pushing back woodchip he said it could be the Plates ? He also said parts are fairly easy to get as they are used in several plant machines. Any input gladly recieved guys
- Location
- Oxon
You check transmission oil with engine running so it may not be over filled. Even if it is it wont hurt it just spit it out the breather.
Transmission rebuilds are not uncommon on that age, but as I said I'm sure your wheels should be equal size so check that there not scrubbing bad or that someones took the rear diff out or planetary gears to make it 2wd only.
MT727 was an odd ball machine there was also a MT927 - both back wheel steer and had uneaqual wheel size and from memory had a 2/4 wd disconnect - if it has had the wrong size tyres fitted as some point you may find the WIND UP when working on hard surfaces can cause the transmission if in a higher gear to refuse to drive - so first of all put it in 2 wd - and try that first. The transmission is only the standard Dana Spicer Compact Shuttle fitted in all Manitous of that era so all the usual checks required. Odd ones I came across suffered rear axle Planetary Hub Problems so I would be taking filler plugs out to check Oil Quality/ signs of metal/ greying of the oil.
- Location
- Oxon
one local to me rear wheel steer but all same size wheels on it.
Very Rare - never seen one except on brochure
lloyd
Member
- Location
- Herefordshire
What hope does birdy have when two experts cant agree. 
i am starting to think gearbox may be faulty - i just cant get my head round why it would drive better with wheels pointing forward ,if on full lock it pretty much refused to go forward or reverse .The hydraulics all work fine and steering is ok ,what is likely cost to get another gearbox from a plant breakers etc ,and are these gearboxes used in many different plant machines ? sure the chap that looked at it said they were used in Benford dumpers.
Machine has a set of forks and a new bucket was purchased with machine its a JCB bucket thats been modified to fit Manitou headstock ..There are two lugs on bucket that slot into headstock ,the chap that looked at it said we needed to weld a steel bar in between these lugs to provide rigidity as without excessive wear would be caused to headstock and probably lead to bits snapping off and headstock needing replacement . The headstock looks to already have been replaced it looks fairly newish ,the new bucket has already been deformed slightly concave in front of headstock the chap reckons something to do with it being originally a jcb rather than manitou bucket that he said are strengthened differently.