In The Hydraulic Troubleshooting Handbook I lay out a step-by-step SYSTEM for reliable and efficient troubleshooting. But there’s another prerequisite you won’t find in the job description: the ability to educate and convince the most ardent sceptics of your diagnosis – usually engineers with limited hydraulics knowledge. This story, sent to me by Joachim Renner, one of our members from … Read more

One of our members wrote me about the following problem:

“I wonder if you could help shine some light on a problem I am having with my railroad club locomotive. It is a 1/8th scale, gasoline-hydraulic driven unit. Up until a few months ago the locomotive was able to pull 10 heavy cars up a 2% grade without any problem.… Read more

Contaminants of hydraulic oil are broadly defined as any substance that impairs the proper functioning of the fluid. Air fits this definition and therefore when air becomes entrained in the oil, corrective action is required to prevent damage to both the oil and the other components in the hydraulic system.

Air can be present in four forms:

1. Free air … Read more