Hydraulic Motor Rebuild Near Me — Ames Hydraulics
If you typed hydraulic motor rebuild near me into your phone standing next to a piece of equipment that won’t turn, spin, or hold pressure, you’re in the right shop. We’re at 210 Freel Dr in Ames, and rebuilding hydraulic motors — and the cylinders that usually fail alongside them — is most of what we do all day. We’re not a parts counter that ships you a boxed unit and wishes you luck. We pull the motor, open it up on the bench, and tell you exactly what’s wearing out before we quote anything.
A lot of folks who search hydraulic motor rebuild near me are dealing with the same handful of problems: a skid steer that’s lost drive on one side, a wheel motor on a mower that whines under load, or an auger motor that’s leaking down every time the machine sits overnight. We see it constantly on our own bench schedule, and it almost never involves just one bad part — it’s usually a chain of wear that starts with a scored bore or a chewed-up seal and spreads from there.
How We Rebuild a Hydraulic Motor
When someone comes to us for a hydraulic motor rebuild near me search result, here’s the actual process we run at the bench, not a marketing version of it:
- Remove the motor from the machine (mileage applies if we come to you — 40 miles round trip no-trailer, or we can do shop lift-out for misc. tasks with one technician)
- Tear the motor down completely and inspect the housing, gears or vanes, shaft, and bearing races for scoring or galling
- Measure and replace head seals, piston seals, U-seals, and wiper seals to exact spec — we keep sizes like 3″ x 0.062″ head seals and 1-1/8″ x 1-3/8″ U-seals on hand because they come up so often
- Check the case drain and confirm internal leakage is within spec before it goes back together
- Reinstall, refill, and bleed the system so there’s no trapped air working against you later
- Run it under load on the machine before we call the job done
The reason people keep finding us under hydraulic motor rebuild near me instead of just ordering a remanufactured unit online is the same reason we tell customers up front: rebuild versus replace depends on what the bore and internal surfaces look like once we’re inside. If there’s scoring bad enough that a fresh seal set won’t hold pressure, we tell you before we button it up, not after.
Common Failure and Symptom Breakdown
Not every symptom means the same repair, so here’s how we sort it out when a machine comes in:
- Slow or no rotation under load — usually internal wear letting oil bypass instead of turning the motor. This is the classic hydraulic motor rebuild near me call.
- Leaking at the shaft seal — often just the wiper or shaft seal, a cheaper fix if caught early before it damages the bearing
- Grinding or metallic noise — bearing failure, sometimes from running low on oil for too long, and it can take the housing with it if ignored
- Works fine cold, weak when hot — classic sign of internal scoring; oil viscosity thins with heat and lets more slip past worn surfaces
- One side works, other side doesn’t (dual motor setups) — very common that once we rebuild one motor, the other side blows out shortly after from the same age and wear, similar to what we see with paired hydraulic cylinders
That last one catches people off guard. If a motor or cylinder is old enough to fail, its twin on the other side of the machine is usually not far behind. We flag that during every hydraulic motor rebuild near me job so you’re not surprised by a second failure two months later.
How Much Does a Hydraulic Motor Rebuild Cost
Every hydraulic motor rebuild near me quote we give is specific to what we find on teardown, but here’s the honest range based on jobs we’ve actually run:
- Small motor reseal (shaft/wiper seal only, no internal damage): roughly $200–$400
- Full internal rebuild with new seal kit, bearings if needed: typically $500–$1,200 depending on motor size and part availability
- If scoring is bad enough that a rebuild won’t hold and you need a replacement unit instead: add $300–$800 on top of labor already spent, depending on motor size
- Mileage charge if we come to your location: 40 miles round trip no-trailer is built into most on-site quotes
We’ve written a longer breakdown of pricing logic in our hydraulic cylinder rebuild cost guide since a lot of the same seal-and-bore math applies to motors. If your machine is an excavator with a swing motor or travel motor acting up, we’ve also got specifics in our excavator cylinder rebuild page for Boone-area customers. And if the symptom is actually coming from the final drive rather than the motor itself, check our final drive rebuild near me page before you commit to a motor teardown — sometimes it’s the drive, not the motor, and we’ll tell you straight which one it is.
We serve Ames and the surrounding area, including runs out toward Winterset for cylinder and motor work when it makes sense — see our Winterset cylinder repair page for that coverage area. Whether you found us searching hydraulic motor rebuild near me from a shop floor or a field with the machine dead in the mud, the process is the same: we look at it, we tell you what’s wrong, and we quote it honestly before we touch anything.
If you’ve got a motor that’s slow, leaking, or grinding and you’re tired of guessing, call us at 515-292-2599. We’ll get it on the bench, tell you what we find, and get your machine back to work.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a hydraulic motor rebuild take?
Most motor rebuilds take 1-3 days once we have the motor on the bench, depending on parts availability for seals and bearings. Rush jobs are possible if the machine is down and costing you money — call 515-292-2599 to ask about turnaround.
Can you rebuild my motor without removing it from the machine?
No, a proper rebuild requires the motor come off so we can inspect the internals, measure the bore, and replace seals correctly. We handle removal and reinstall as part of the job, including bleeding the system after.
Is it cheaper to rebuild or replace a hydraulic motor?
It depends on what we find inside. If the housing and internal surfaces are clean, a reseal or full rebuild is usually cheaper than a new unit. If there’s heavy scoring, rebuild costs plus a replacement can add up, so we tell you both numbers before we proceed.
Do you come to my farm or job site for a hydraulic motor rebuild near me?
Yes, we run mileage-based service calls within about 40 miles of our Ames shop at 210 Freel Dr. For bigger teardown jobs we sometimes recommend bringing the unit in, but we’ll tell you which makes more sense for your situation.
Why did my other motor or cylinder fail right after you fixed the first one?
It’s common on machines with paired motors or cylinders — if one failed from age and wear, the other side is usually close behind. We flag this risk during every hydraulic motor rebuild near me job so you know what to watch for.
Written by Josiah Ragsdale, Ames Hydraulics