1910 Milky hydraulic oil/transmission housing crack

[wood butcher]

Bob, where do you suspect the water to be coming from in your tractor? Is it condensation or is it seeping in due to sitting out in the elements? Seems like once a person gets water in there, you always have water. Very frustrating with the cost of the filter/fluid.

 

[JFS2295]

This issue has been around for years; I've dealt with it for the 20 years I've owned this used tractor. Do we really need to call the factory in Japan and complain about a design that was made 25 to 30 years ago?

Recently it was mentioned to me on this site to check the rubber boot for the splitter trans and that does appear to be where my water issue comes from. It's not, nor would it ever be condensation, to have that much water in the sump.

Cutting the filter with a hacksaw blade is the dirty way to do it. The way it's done for test examination is to use a muffler cutter on an air hammer, keeping the membrane clear.

 

[Jbrink64]

This issue has been around for years; I've dealt with it for the 20 years I've owned this used tractor. Do we really need to call the factory in Japan and complain about a design that was made 25 to 30 years ago?



I'm sure Shibaura would love to hear about this, especially since NH took away their business and sent it to LS..

 

[SixHoeBob]

My point is that nobody at FNH cares. Today I started my L35, cleared the snow, did not lose my patience, and basically enjoyed myself. Then I put the 1910 in the garage. After it has a few days to throughly defrost, I will change the filter and oil. The only thing the tractor is good for is preparing yards with the Gill pulverizer, about 10 hrs per year.
To cut apart the filter, I will try the muffler cutter for the air chisel.

 

[Jbrink64]

I'm intrigued by the comment "nobody at FNH cares". What would you like NH to do? Keep in mind this is a 20 some year old machine. When that much water is getting into the oil, there is usually a reason. I suspect the stress of a loader and backhoe. Brand new, those transmissions were sealed up very well. The three-bond sealant used in the factory is a durable sealer. The water in the oil shouldn't be happening. But IMO it can be fixed. Might not be easy or cheap, but can be fixed.

 

[AndyG]

Sometimes you can drain some of the water off by carefully loosening the drain plug so that only water drips out. Retighten the plug when oil starts comming out. Oil does naturally separate from water but the warmer the better. Crude oil pumpers around here use a small boiler looking unit to heat the crude so that the water pumped out with the oil will separate better in the winter time.

 

[SixHoeBob]

Why would I say FNH does not care?

I had a then new JD 310SG out on rental/demonstration. Put 70 hours on the machine. There are at least 12 design flaws on that machine, mostly as a result of cost cutting. I called the factory and discussed the issues with a Deere engineer. He took notes. I also talked with him about 27C issues, and JD skid steer loader issues. Called New Holland to ask why there is not a block drain on my 885 skid loader engine. Deere doesn't have a block drain ether. Called Yanmar to find out why they only sell mini-excavators with hydraulic couplers. Kubota has the best backhoe bucket coupler. Called Kubota to tell them that the blade functions should not slow the travel speed as much as it does on an U25. Called Caterpillar to tell them a 933C (Mine- I bought it used) should not be sold with triple grouser tracks for use on topsoil, clay or shale. Maybe they work good in sand. Track pad bolts keep breaking, another case of being over torqued at the factory.

I think the engineers could use some customer feed back, as the customer
is dealing with the issues in real time.

The dealers sell what the manufactures send them. Customer feed back gets watered down or forgotten

The Kubota engineer said it best "Bob, we are not going to build a machine just for you"

 

[JFS2295]

Ahh, so this is your hobby. :laughing:

......I think the engineers could use some customer feed back, as the customer is dealing with the issues in real time. .....

Then I would bypass calling New Holland, get the number for Shibaura and see if they can pull up the phone numbers for the *most likely* retired engineers that designed this tractor 25 years ago.

The Kubota engineer said it best "Bob, we are not going to build a machine just for you"

Yes, yes he did. All designs are a compromise. This issue is an issue of aging as for me the problem has gotten worse with time. During the prototype testing no one would have picked up on this, nor during the time period before the next design was finalized.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Ive got milky hydro fluid as well. I plan on pulling the plugs and letting it drain for days...until I can get back to it. I will take all of the hoses loose and blow them out and drain the lift cylinders as well. No other way to do it. Seafoam is supposed to work to help eliminate the moisture as well. I'll soon be an expert at removing moisture from a 1920.

Sea Foam did finally work for me on our old backhoe. The boots are bad (ordered new ones but they have not jumped out of the box and on to the tractor yet) but power users tell me the sweating and low use makes for milky fluids.

I got the fluid to change it but was working it alot so I dumped in a quart of Sea Foam (total cap. in our case is 8 gallons. After 20 hours of hard working it in hot dry weather it was still milky so I dumped in another quart and forgot about it.

Between some hard freezes I used it to scatter some tobacco stalks and checked the level and BINGO it was not milky any more.

Now that was $25 of Sea Foam but with all the lines and hoses that one can not drain without a lot of work I think now I can get by with one change fluid/filters.

The base oil is the only thing that does not evaporate out of a transmission, lift or with crank case use of Sea Foam. I guess it just takes the water out with it.

With no known downside to Sea Foam use I gave it a shot and on the second one it finally worked. Cleaning valve bodies, etc should be a plus too especially on equipment not used enough to keep the water boiled out.