5 hours of use and leaked hydraulic fluid on my driveway 🙄

[halfBaked2024]

Gotta clean this up before the misses gets back home, yikes!

Was using BY85 backhoe on my TYM T574H and afterward, scooping up the spoil pile with the loader bucket. Going to check levels, but I don’t see anything on the fittings up front, could this be from the backhoe?

Any easy way to find hydraulic leaks, like infrared light or some kind of black magic?

 

[rScotty]

Ugh. If you find an easy way to find hydraulic leaks, be sure to post it. I've been wrenching over half a century and know nothing better than thoroughly cleaning the hose and area with hot soapy water until it is free of all oil - inspect with a powerful light, and then repeat as many times as it takes to finally find the source.

You may get lucky with lots of soap and cold water on the concrete if you get too it quick. Otherwise renting a "Hotsy" will get stubborn oil out of cured concrete if anything will. Basically it's a propane-heated soapy hot water version of a pressure washer. Be very careful with the hotsy. They will strip paint, decals, and erode concrete if you get too aggresive....don't ask how I know....

 

[ericm979]

It's a bummer that a new machine is leaking. But it may just be a quick connect that's dripping or a fitting that didn't get tightened enough.

With that much fluid on the ground there's a good chance there is some tell tale fluid left on or under the machine. You may see drips where you parked it after using it, if its parked on a hard surface. Or you can look at the sides and under it starting with the rough area that was above where the puddle on the ground started.

 

[halfBaked2024]

Thanks guys - I’ll top it off, park it in the shop overnight with a diaper underneath and check in the morning. Maybe cycle some hydraulics in the morning and reinspect.

 

[groundcover]

Don't check for leaks with your hands, fluid injected under pressure can ruin your day ! Use a piece of cardboard.

 

[halfBaked2024]

Don't check for leaks with your hands, fluid injected under pressure can ruin your day ! Use a piece of cardboard.

Thanks for this safety tip! Those hydraulics, being new to me, still raise the hair on the back of my neck. I’ll let you guys know what I find out.

 

[SmallChange]

I just looked at my NH with two different ultraviolet flashlights. AFAIK I do not have any hydraulic leaks. However, we should see some fluid on the rods, at least in a ring at the extent of travel for the seals, and also on the dipstick for the hydraulic fluid. I have used only the fluid sold at the NH dealer and I bought this tractor new, so it's a known system.

Huzzah! The hydraulic fluid glows ghostly greenish white under the 395 nm flashlight. It glows a bit brighter under the 365 nm flashlight, even though this flashlight has less output (it's more difficult to make the shorter wavelength with LEDs).

An ultraviolet light source can make some substances fluoresce: they emit visible light of wavelength longer than the ultraviolet. Thus we can use our eyes to look for the substances. It might be that an infrared source does something interesting, but you'd have to have a special camera to see infrared, and it's difficult for a light source to make a substance emit shorter wavelengths (such as infrared to visible). Oh, sure, anti-Stokes emissions in Raman scattering will do that, but it takes a lot of work to get that to happen, and it's VERY faint.

With these ultraviolet flashlights, just a few other things glowed, such as the orange knob on the gearshift, and the grease on the FEL pivots. Nothing on the cylinders or hoses or control valve glowed. If there were a leak on one of these, I think the flashlights would have helped identify it.

Conclusion: ultraviolet flashlights should be able to show some hydraulic fluid leaks.

 

[halfBaked2024]

I just looked at my NH with two different ultraviolet flashlights. AFAIK I do not have any hydraulic leaks. However, we should see some fluid on the rods, at least in a ring at the extent of travel for the seals, and also on the dipstick for the hydraulic fluid. I have used only the fluid sold at the NH dealer and I bought this tractor new, so it's a known system.

Huzzah! The hydraulic fluid glows ghostly greenish white under the 395 nm flashlight. It glows a bit brighter under the 365 nm flashlight, even though this flashlight has less output (it's more difficult to make the shorter wavelength with LEDs).

An ultraviolet light source can make some substances fluoresce: they emit visible light of wavelength longer than the ultraviolet. Thus we can use our eyes to look for the substances. It might be that an infrared source does something interesting, but you'd have to have a special camera to see infrared, and it's difficult for a light source to make a substance emit shorter wavelengths (such as infrared to visible). Oh, sure, anti-Stokes emissions in Raman scattering will do that, but it takes a lot of work to get that to happen, and it's VERY faint.

With these ultraviolet flashlights, just a few other things glowed, such as the orange knob on the gearshift, and the grease on the FEL pivots. Nothing on the cylinders or hoses or control valve glowed. If there were a leak on one of these, I think the flashlights would have helped identify it.

Conclusion: ultraviolet flashlights should be able to show some hydraulic fluid leaks.

This is awesome information! I will start researching.

 

[Jstpssng]

Unfortunately it happens. You hope that they did a thorough prep before you bought it but there are often a few dumb things to tweak. You'll get it situated and things will be fine for about 9 years or so until belts start getting weak and hoses start to fail.
My Kubota is 9 years old.

 

[halfBaked2024]

Just topped it off, I think we’re good now. I did notice the male 3rd function fitting up front was dripping from earlier in the day when I took the grapple off and mounted the loader bucket. After refilling, I went to dry it up and it seems that I pushed the dust cap on the male coupler on too snug and it was slightly actuating the tip detent and releasing fluid. Is that possible and, if so, why would they design a dust cap that way? I left it on much looser this time just in case.