L3400 sight glass leaking

[ccsial]

I guess this is a common problem. It happened at 180 hours. After three hours of mowing I drove back to the barn. I noticed drips of hydraulic fluid on the blacktop. It appears the sight glass is leaking. I wonder how long a new one would last. I'm thinking about plugging it and using a stick in the oil fill hole.

 

[Harvest Moon]

Yeah, mine just started leaking at 150 hours last week. I'm kind of hoping it just worked loose a bit and needs to be tightened. Probably not though, from what I've read about them in other posts.

 

[ccsial]

I just called my dealer and he said I just need to replace the O-ring. Told me to put a cement block under the left side wheels and then you don't need to drain any fluid. I think I'll start on it now. I may plug it if I can find a plug. I don't want to do this every 180 hours.
IMHO Plastic plug=Dumb idea.

 

[ccsial]

I found the plastic plug was cracked. Maybe it was over tightened at the plant. Any way, there is now a 3/4" pipe plug in there with a touch of thread seal. I'm shocked it wasn't some metric plug.

I made a dip stick form a welding rod to check the oil from the fill hole in the rear. I'd rather spend a minute to check the oil that way than risk another hydraulic spill.

PTO cable, your next!

 

[RobJ]

All you had to do is put a little sealer on it. I replaced mine because it was scratched up. No threads, I added a little black RTV sealer.

So spend a minute on some sealer and you will save more minutes by just looking at the site glass!!

 

[ccsial]

All you had to do is put a little sealer on it. I replaced mine because it was scratched up. No threads, I added a little black RTV sealer.

So spend a minute on some sealer and you will save more minutes by just looking at the site glass!!

In my case the plastic cap was actually cracked into two pieces. The outside plug had only one thread left and was barely hanging there. the rest of it came out easy.

 

[N80]

I hate that Kubota uses a sight glass at all. I hate them. They are prone to failure (by many accounts here) and they don't do the job they're designed to do either. Many of us don't have nice level concrete garage floors to park on and almost any terrain variation affects the level you see in the sight glass. And when my fluid was new, it was pretty clear and hard to see. I wish Kubota would get rid of the whole idea and put a simple dipstick somewhere. Can't imagine why they felt like they needed to re-invent the wheel.

Sigh. Rant over.

 

[RobJ]

Many of us don't have nice level concrete garage floors to park on and almost any terrain variation affects the level you see in the sight glass. And when my fluid was new, it was pretty clear and hard to see. Sigh. Rant over.

Well I can't help with the floor...hehe or the rant... But if you notice on mine I left the fluid at a level where you can see the bubble. The proper way to use the site glass. If there is no bubble then it could be over filled.

I will say I only glance at mine every now and then. If I don't see a leak, the fluid level should never change. If I put a hole in the system while in the woods, the 3pt should stop working before there is any damage to the tranny. The joy of a gear tractor!!

 

[N80]

If there is no bubble then it could be over filled.

Or just slightly up hill. Watch it sometimes. It takes very little incline to put the fluid level above or below the sight glass.

 

[RobJ]

Or just slightly up hill. Watch it sometimes. It takes very little incline to put the fluid level above or below the sight glass.

Agree, my driveway was enough this weekend. It has a little pitch being a corner lot with the short driveway. I did pull the cap for a looksee, all is well. I haven't put oil in since I changed it out over a year ago.