50 hour maintenance - metal shavings in front axle hydraulic oil

[sewells1951]

I would imagine that some spec sized metal shavings would be normal when draining the hydraulic fluid from the front axle of my GC1705. I pulled the 50 hour initial maintenance today and everything seemed fine but there were quite a few pieces of metal, mostly specs but some small flakes, when I drained the hydraulic fluid from the front axle. I'd imagine this kind of thing is why they schedule an initial 50 hour maintenance interval but being new to owing this tractor I thought I'd just ask to see if there is anything to be concerned about if there is a small amount of metal in the drained fluid.

Thanks in advance for any advice or input.

 

[ray66v]

That is exactly what I saw in mine.

And, it is all normal.

When you do it again at 300 hrs., you will see metal then too.

 

[sewells1951]

That's what I figured but I also figured better safe than sorry. Thanks for the reply.

 

[ray66v]

You can put EP gear lube in the front axle, instead of the hydraulic transmission oil, for a degree of extra protection.

I found some synthetic for around $5 a quart, last time I changed mine.

 

[MoMower]

You can put EP gear lube in the front axle, instead of the hydraulic transmission oil, for a degree of extra protection.

I found some synthetic for around $5 a quart, last time I changed mine.

I asked the dealer about the change over to gear lube in the front axel and he said no, had one in with a blown axel from it? I went with the hydro fluid at the 50 hr change as recommended in the book.

 

[ray66v]

I asked the dealer about the change over to gear lube in the front axel and he said no, had one in with a blown axel from it? I went with the hydro fluid at the 50 hr change as recommended in the book.

To suggest that gear lube caused the axle failure is ignorant. If the axle failed, it did not fail from 90w gear oil.

You can put gear lube in there, according to my GC 2300 owners manual, and an owner who had a gear failure, (while using permatran), was told directly by MF that it was okay.

Fact: There is little difference between the hydraulic oil and 90W gear lube. The hydraulic transmission oil IS gear oil.

Since most people are under the incorrect belief that the 90W gear oil is much heavier than the transmission oil, it causes confusion. Both fluids are nearly identical. One has a bunch of different additives to allow it to do lots of different things. And, the other one is designed specifically to protect gears.

I also discussed this particular application with a former failure analysis engineer for TRW, years ago. He said he EP gear lube, is your best protection on hypoid gears.

The member here who had a failure, was told by MF, they did not harden the gears properly in his unit.

I would not accept the advice of the dealer on this, but go directly to MF engineering department with the question. You can E-mail MF, and they are prettty good about forwarding to the proper person, and answering.

I was easily able to exchange E-mails with one of the MF engineers in 2006, about the transmission filter shield ,(actually the lack there of, at the time).

In the meantime, you can obviously use the Permatran. I will continue to use the gear oil

 

[MoMower]

While the GC 2xxx series tractors recommend gear oil as acceptable, in the manual, it does not in the GC 17xx series manual.

I'm not questioning your knowledge, just passing on info that was provided to me or found in the manual, and being that the dealer is the first line as far as warranty Svc is concerned, not worth the risk to me, FWIW.

That being said, I just did my 50Hr Svc and chose the proper Amsoil alternative to Permatrans

 

[ray66v]

While the GC 2xxx series tractors recommend gear oil as acceptable, in the manual, it does not in the GC 17xx series manual.

I'm not questioning your knowledge, just passing on info that was provided to me or found in the manual, and being that the dealer is the first line as far as warranty Svc is concerned, not worth the risk to me, FWIW.

That being said, I just did my 50Hr Svc and chose the proper Amsoil alternative to Permatrans

There is no real risk to you, or anyone else who chooses to run gear oil.

If there is a failure, it is going to be due to a serious defect, and not the oil.

MF is not going to do an oil analysis, to try and get out of paying for it. They will see the defective parts, and pay for the repair.

The one failure we saw here, the owner misused the 4wd, and MF still paid for it. Because the parts were still defective.