Oil & Fuel Kama 554 Transmission & Transfer Case Oil Change

[3RRL]

Nearing the last of the 400 hour maintenance on my Kama 554, I changed the transmission and transfer case oils. For those of you contemplating this, here are a couple photos in case you have not done this yet.
Here is the rear end of the Kama 554 from underneath. The transmission and rear end share oil... a lot of it.
See the plugs on each side of the differential? Remove them to drain.



Start draining them first to get most of the oil out.
Be sure to have at least two large containers to catch the old oil and dispose of properly. I brought my old oil to a Napa store and they took all of it.



The transfer case is a separate unit.

 

[3RRL]

My manual showed there to be a center drain plug too, but mine did not have one. With most of the oil drained out, you can then remove the 4 bolts that hold the magnet on the rear end case.



You can see what would happen if you took this cover off first. lol ... It gets ALL of the oil out in a hurry.

 

[3RRL]

The magnet will catch metal shavings, so it is very important to clean it off every time you change the oil.
You can see mine is covered with shavings after 400 hours of hard use.



You will need to clean it off before putting it back, of course. Before I crawled out from under the Kama to do that, I also stuck my hand inside the opening to wipe out as much other crud as I could. There was plenty around the opening, so do that too, until the inside of the casing is as clean as you can get it.

 

[3RRL]

I cleaned most of the crud off the magnet, but here you can see what it looks like. Also, carefully remove the gasket so you can re-use it. It works fine if not damaged, otherwise, make a new one.





Then clean the cap and magnet off completely. I used a small container with diesel in it to do the cleaning up. I changed the diesel for the final cleaning, since the first batch was full of debris and crud.



You will have to pull the metal particles off the magnet to get it really clean.

 

[3RRL]

Look what I found in my oil case.



It is a small roll pin that goes somewhere? I tried to figure out where it came from, but none of the levers that showed the roll pins in them were loose.



After inspecting this one carefully, it looks like it was never installed? There is no wear nor any marks on it, and it still has the lead in on one end that looks untouched too. I think it's brand new.
Plus all my stuff works properly so I'm not going to sweat it. Perhaps it was dropped during the assembly procedure and never recovered? At least I hope so.

 

[3RRL]

OK, now I'm ready to re-assemble the magnet back to the housing. It is nicely cleaned up now.
Here is a good picture of it.



I also cleaned up the gasket and was able to reuse it. You may want to change yours, but this one was just fine.



When replacing the magnet, be sure to replace the other two drain plugs and snug them all down. Then you can move over to draining the transfer case oil.

 

[3RRL]

Here is the drain plug for the transfer case. It is actually on the lower connection where the front wheel drive shaft connects to the transfer case.



Remove that plug and drain. You should have a large enough container for this drain too. I cut off the top of a 5 gallon pail and it was enough.



BTW, before I drained these oils, I spent an hour smoothing my road at fairly high speed to get the oil hot and mixed up first.

 

[3RRL]

Again, be sure to put that plug back in before you refill the transfer case.
Here is a picture from topside showing where the fill plugs are.
The one open is for the transmission and rear end. The one on the lower left is for the transfer case. Both have dip sticks with minimum and maximum fill level markings.



Then use your favorite gear oil to refill them both. I used 85w140 gear oil for mine.
It is interesting to note that the manual suggests 14 to 14.5 liters in the transmission or 14.8 to 15.5 quarts. I checked the dip sticks sitting on top of the threads and also screwed down. Filling the trans to the full level with the dip stick screwed down, it took over 18 quarts.

The transfer case (middle box) also had a dip stick, and I checked it the same way. The manual says it should take between 2.5 to 3 liters, or 2.6 to 3 quarts. It also took more than that to fill ... about 5 quarts total, filling it to the top level when screwed down. I had bought two 5 gallon pails for when I changed the front differential and to do this oil change, so I had enough. You may want to check yours in case it is different than mine. when the dipsticks sat on top of the threaded openings, they read in between the two fill marks, but screwed down they both went to the full mark.

Anyway, when I was all done, I tried out the tractor and shifted everything I could think of. The shifting was a lot smoother right away. I could feel that "oily" smooth feel when operating it.