Broken hydraulic filter housing

[workmytractor]

I am wondering if anyone else managed to break off their hydraulic filter like I did. If so, how much am I looking at for the new housing? While I am on the subject, has anyone built a skid plate for their Branson? Mine is a 3520H.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Man, sorry to hear about that. Just curious, do you know how it happened? Have a log pop up under you as you drove over it?

Wondering if I should look at a skid plate too.

 

[workmytractor]

I was pushing down some small trees and had just grabbed one with the box blade to drag to the debris pile. When I backed up to untangle it from the root rakes, I guess a limb had found it's way under there and pried off the filter and broke the houseing. I am just hoping this is a one time fluke kind of thing.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Ah, yeah that's rough. Did you lose all your fluid, or were you able to shut it down in time?

 

[LincTex]

This is an easy repair for any competent machinist, providing you can remove that portion from the tractor & bring it to him. That 1-1/2" threaded nipple is actually available for sale on eBay, & welding it on would not be that big of a deal.

 

[Oldtractorfixer]

You want to gamble on a "farmer fix" for a few dollars? I doubt you would save much having a machinist figure it out vs a new part. The machinist fix may or may not work and not leak, or worse yet leak internally. If you have to change the oil one extra time over this it will cost more than the difference.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Why is that oil on the ground so white? How did water get into the hydraulic system?

 

[LincTex]

You want to gamble on a "farmer fix" for a few dollars? I doubt you would save much having a machinist figure it out vs a new part.

You obviously do not have much experience in the world of repairs. I am an AWS certified aerospace welder ~ are you trying to tell me that welded parts should not be allowed an aircraft, either? Well, you are flat wrong ~ aircraft components are welded & put back into service **ALL THE TIME**. Find out the price of this part from Branson & then tell me if you think it would be cheaper to buy a new one then to fix it.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Some of the comments here are interesting to say the least. I have an engineer friend who works at MacDon in Winnipeg. He enjoys going to see what farmers have done to repair or re engineer their products to keep going during harvest. His attitude is that I might learn a new innovative way of doing things. I think calling something a "farmer fix" is selling it short. Those guys have a lot invested into their crops and they need to do what needs to be done in order to get the crops off in a timely manner.

If the oil filter housing is reasonably priced I would just buy a new one. If it isn't them I would have the part threaded for the proper size pipe nipple if the threads for the filter are the same and there is room inside the filter housing to do so.

I still think the considerably more important issue is the color of the oil on the ground.

 

[workmytractor]

Why is that oil on the ground so white? How did water get into the hydraulic system?

I have never seen hydraulic fluid spilled out like that so I have no idea what color it should be. The tractor has less than 3 hours on it... so if it has water in the system it was there from the factory. Can anyone confirm or deny based on their experience whether there may have been water in the fluid?

If you zoom in to that photo, you can still see it coming out of the tractor. I noticed it looked somewhat foamy i thought, but dismissed it. And for the record I shut down the tractor as soon as I noticed which was within seconds of the part breaking off.

You have my curiosity peaked big time right now! Brand new tractor shouldn't have water in the hydraulic fluid