buying an old Excavator John Deere 490D

found this old John Deere 490D that was just parked in a back yard after the owner retired. I had to have it! here is the story of getting it up and running again

[@RicWithE-ve6tn]

Great memories Wore two of those 490 out 17 years of seat time in a 490

[@AbramsExcavating]

Good old machines they are!

[@Frank-bh3cm]

Cool projects, please keep the videos coming 👍

[@AbramsExcavating]

Thanks, will do!

[@bobw7066]

Good repairs, I hate working on centre columns especially on big fifty ton machines some of them is a three man job. From Australia 👍🏻

[@AbramsExcavating]

Oh yea I can only imagine! The only benefit is they sit higher off the ground! But 3x as heavy parts isn’t fun! Thanks for watching!

[@TheTennesseeFrontier]

Good stuff man! Do you plan on putting a thumb on the 490D? - Samuel

[@benjamindiefenderfer2122]

I've had a 490D for 4 years now. Very nice little machine. I loved seeing the manifold repair. I have a minor leak in mine and it looks like something I could tackle. Ill bee looking for more videos with yours. Thanks

[@AbramsExcavating]

Yea it’s a great machine! The worst part of the manifold was getting it out of the machine!

[@brent9393]

What did you think of the 490? Looking at one for our farm

[@jasondunlap4942]

Nice find a good fix.

[@pandt2024]

FYI.. Apart from engine & possibly some electronic components , this Excavator appears to be identical to either a Hitachi EX100-1or EX120-1 from the late 1980,s...

[@AbramsExcavating]

This is a hitachi ex120-2 painted yellow with a John Deere engine instead of an Isuzu. Hitachi built deeres excavators from the mid 80s til just recently they parted ways.

[@nightstorm9128]

A machine sitting for 10 years..I wouldn't even dare start it..without doubt there's water in the fuel and a 10 year old fuel filter would be clogged up with gunk..get water in the HPFP and it will get real costly real quick..clean the whole system out first then new filters..and new fuel..

[@AbramsExcavating]

The fuel tank was abandoned on this machine when I first got it. It was full of water and gunk. It was running off a small boat fuel tank I use for getting equipment that’s been sitting running. The fuel lines were all replaced and I drained the injection pump along with filters. I didn’t actually show any of this in the video. I mainly covered the hydraulic repairs.

[@thomasbailey8306]

Those 490 Back then were digging Fools. I grew up on one, my Dad had. Put alot of hours in the seat of one. Great Machine. You found yourself a good one by the looks of it .It was Beat too Death..

[@AbramsExcavating]

it was a solid machine for sure, I ended up selling it to a friend. I wanted to find something a little newer. and here we are 6 months later with an extremely inflated used equipment market haha

[@azizchkour6106]

👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@rfair123]

Nice job. I'm going to look at one tomorrow so now I know a few things to look for. Have you switched the controls?

[@AbramsExcavating]

glad i could help! they are simple reliable machines that you can still work on with basic knowledge. I didnt switch the controls. I run deere controls so this was setup for me already.

[@oby-1607]

I have a 490D and have a weak right propel motor for the right track. Would a leak or seal gone bad in the rotary manifold cause this. I wish you had shown more on the removal and install of the manifold. Everything else works really good on this machine.

[@AbramsExcavating]

It could cause this, if the seals in the rotary manifold are leaking internally it will bypass the fluid/pressure to other ports. I couldn’t show a whole lot on the removal. It’s very dark and tight under there haha. But it’s pretty much self explanatory. What you see is what you have to remove. Just a few hard lines and I think it’s held in by 4 bolts on the bottom side. Top side is a few hydro lines

[@oby-1607]

@@AbramsExcavating I guess the older 490D version had ball bearings inside as well and the bit newer ones had a wear sleeve to contend with. I guess I will find out. I did replace one of the boom cylinder seals and they were hard and some of them even crumbled when removing them.

[@AbramsExcavating]

@@oby-1607 yea I don’t fully remember there being ball bearings in mine. But there may have been. Either way it was not a difficult job to replace the seals. Basically if you can get the unit out of the belly of the machine the rest is cake! Good luck hope you get her fixed!

[@kenkonstruction6127]

I’m looking at the same model and they said the swing bearing seal needs to be replaced. Is this the same seal that you did?

[@AbramsExcavating]

Well the swing bearing seal could be classified as the swing gearbox seal which is the 1st seal I replaced. The rotary union was actually the leaking part on my machine. If this machine you are looking at has no oil in the swing gearbox then it would need a new bottom seal on the swing box.

[@puertoricanpharmer9127]

What would be a fair price on one that model?

[@AbramsExcavating]

I sold this one for $17500. Depends on the market but I’d say 10-18,000 depending on condition

[@ferguson20diesel49]

Is this the same as dash 1 or 2 Hitachi. Dash 2/3 was pure wank. Single gear pump. Dash 1 and 5 were superior and FH versions we got got which the us didnt

[@AbramsExcavating]

so im not 100% sure but id assume it was the same as the dash1 hitachi. the dash 2/3 went to the electronic load sensing stuff which this didnt have. it was a good machine. I since sold it because i was going to buy a newer one then the prices went though the roof! id love to find a dash5 120 hitachi!

[@ferguson20diesel49]

@@AbramsExcavating it's looks to have dash 1 interior alright. So it must be based off. /1 dash 5 is great. Was a lot of them around Ireland. Man I work for still has his from new with 33k hrs on it. Had a telescopic dipper first. Then we put a boom and dipper on it from a Ex 135

[@AbramsExcavating]

@@ferguson20diesel49 wow it’s amazing how well and long these machines will go. This one had around 11k hours. She was showing it but still a solid machine! Unfortunately there aren’t many hitachi excavators here. So that makes it difficult to buy one

[@ferguson20diesel49]

@@AbramsExcavating Ireland would be a Hitachi county. We got other versions of them too. FH Hitachi and FK Hitachi. A lot of them modified for peat lands. Big undercarriages and what not. Zaxis dash 1 is the last of the good ones in my opinion. Of ever come across Ex120/5E buy it. Absolutely tank of a machine. Local quarry still using dash 5 hitachis. 3 Ex800s working at the face