OK........ Finished up a bit ago. I decided not to change out the Hydraulic/Trans at this time. Although I lost about 2.5 gallons of fluid changing the Hydraulic filter and cleaning the transmission strainer.
Changing the oil was a breeze. If you do your vehicles you can do the tractor. After I finished with the oil, I thought for a bit about changing out the trans/hydraulic fluid. The actual hours is 43 not 45 as I previously stated. I had my neighbor hanging out with me and he is an old time farmer and kind of talked me out of changing the fluid, especially if the manual isn't calling for it. He said, "you have 43 hours on it, its brand new and so is the fluid, no sense wasting over $100 in fluid if you don't have to do it til the 400 hour mark". So......today only all the filters were changed. I will not be waiting for the 400 hour mark, but at 43 hours, I can wait a bit.
After the oil, the next thing was the transmission filter. No problem there, basically the fluid that is in the filter is what you will lose, maybe a tiny bit more. Next was the hydraulic filter.........I was caught off gaurd here. I thought I would lose the same amount of fluid as I did with the trans filter......Nope. Steady gushin until you get the new filter on. I stalled waiting to see if the fluid would ever stop and it didn't so I hurried up to get the new filter on. I lost quite a bit doing that! So for the rest of the new guys out there that haven't done it before, move quick and get that filter on if you are not changing all the fluid to begin with.
Now onto the transmission strainer..... I searched for 30 minutes or so and removed 2 bolts that I thought was the strainer but weren't. I couldn't find the darn thing. Come to find out, I was searching on the same side as the hydraulic filter because in the manual the strainer is mentioned on the page right after the part that describes changing that filter. I thought to myself, if its called the "transmission strainer" maybe its on the same side as the transmission filter. Sure enough it was. Once removed, you will lose quite a bit of fluid while you clean the strainer. I hardly had any metal shavings on it. My manual states to rinse the strainer with a "non flammable" liquid?? What the **** is that? I really couldn't come up with anything other than a degreaser so I just used hot water and dried it with a towel and the air gun.
All said and done, I added about 2 gallons of new fluid and after running the tractor for a bit, it looks like I will have to add a bit more. I'm waiting for it to cool and I'll check the dipstick again. So it looks like the tractor got a partial fluid change after all, lol.
It really is a fairly easy job. If you own a tractor, chances are most are the working type and have turned a wrench or two in their day. There is no need to pay the dealer $3-400 bucks for this. I encourage all to try it and plus you get to know your way around the tractor.
