New to me Beaver III, advice for my plans.

[cpy911]

First of all, I really appreciate all of the good advice and community found on this forum. I am new here and hope to be a good community member and contribute at some point.

I bought a new to me Beaver III S373D 4WD this weekend and brought her home.

The primary purpose of this machine is to do finish mowing and some very light brush hogging. With the FEL, I will be using it instead of a wheelbarrow and save my back to lift things I would otherwise do by hand. I do hope to eventually buy a tiller for a small garden spot.

The mostly good: Everything on the tractor works that I could tell, except the 3pt hitch does not drop down, it is in locked "up" position. I am hoping that is just a relieve valve settings? The tractor starts right up and engine sounds good. Gears shift well and clutch seems good.

The bad: All four tires are original and need replacement. I am looking at two of the Carlisle 8-16's for the rear.
One of the rear rims has rust damage and I am hoping to find a replacement. See image.

It is missing a headlight, not a show stopper but would be nice to get one.
The loader was damaged at some point and was repaired. It is painted in gold..I hope to do some basic paint work with it at some point.
The owner said that when he left it out in the rain, water would ingress into the hydralic fluid via the gear shift boot. This recently happened again. I have a new boot on order and will be draining and putting in new hydraulic fluid. Is the Walmart Super Tech Heavy Duty Tractor Hydraulic ok to use? He gave me about 3 gallons of it. Are there other areas I should look for water ingress? I do not plan on leaving it in the rain, it will be stored in a shop.

I plan to change every single fluid and filter on the tractor. I have an owners manual and it shows all of the service intervals. I plan on doing everything short of adjusting the valves as I have zero experience in that.

So, am I on the right track here? It has been a long time since I drove and fixed a JD 1050 with my Dad back in the 1980's, so I am just making sure I am thinking in the right direction. I just remember greasing every port on that JD 1050 religiously! Anyhow, I hope this machine gives a few more years of light duty work. Thanks!

 

[Roadworthy]

Hi, and welcome to TBN. I get many parts for my Mitsubishi from eBay or if things get serious I go to satohparts.com/ My Mitsubishi has a valve under the seat which controls bleed down of the three point from not at all to quite fast.

 

[fried1765]

First of all, I really appreciate all of the good advice and community found on this forum. I am new here and hope to be a good community member and contribute at some point.

I bought a new to me Beaver III S373D 4WD this weekend and brought her home.

The primary purpose of this machine is to do finish mowing and some very light brush hogging. With the FEL, I will be using it instead of a wheelbarrow and save my back to lift things I would otherwise do by hand. I do hope to eventually buy a tiller for a small garden spot.

The mostly good: Everything on the tractor works that I could tell, except the 3pt hitch does not drop down, it is in locked "up" position. I am hoping that is just a relieve valve settings? The tractor starts right up and engine sounds good. Gears shift well and clutch seems good.

The bad: All four tires are original and need replacement. I am looking at two of the Carlisle 8-16's for the rear.
One of the rear rims has rust damage and I am hoping to find a replacement. See image.

It is missing a headlight, not a show stopper but would be nice to get one.
The loader was damaged at some point and was repaired. It is painted in gold..I hope to do some basic paint work with it at some point.
The owner said that when he left it out in the rain, water would ingress into the hydralic fluid via the gear shift boot. This recently happened again. I have a new boot on order and will be draining and putting in new hydraulic fluid. Is the Walmart Super Tech Heavy Duty Tractor Hydraulic ok to use? He gave me about 3 gallons of it. Are there other areas I should look for water ingress? I do not plan on leaving it in the rain, it will be stored in a shop.

I plan to change every single fluid and filter on the tractor. I have an owners manual and it shows all of the service intervals. I plan on doing everything short of adjusting the valves as I have zero experience in that.

So, am I on the right track here? It has been a long time since I drove and fixed a JD 1050 with my Dad back in the 1980's, so I am just making sure I am thinking in the right direction. I just remember greasing every port on that JD 1050 religiously! Anyhow, I hope this machine gives a few more years of light duty work. Thanks!
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What is wrong with the tires, that you feel they need to be replaced?
I just changed the front tires on my Ford 8N about 5 years ago, they were 64 years old at the time.
It does not matter if tractor tires are badly cracked,...... and from your pictures they look good.
Save the tire money, and spend it on other things.

 

[cpy911]

What is wrong with the tires, that you feel they need to be replaced?
I just changed the front tires on my Ford 8N about 5 years ago, they were 64 years old at the time.
It does not matter if tractor tires are badly cracked,...... and from your pictures they look good.
Save the tire money, and spend it on other things.

One of the front tires has been replaced. The other side is pretty worn down, but I might run with it for a while. One of the back tires looks in bad shape with sidewall gone. Could I just replace the one tire or do they need to be in pairs?

 

[cpy911]

Here is a picture of the hydralic fluid that I drained out. It is red?! The stuff I have is yellow. Should I find some red kind somewhere? Confusing. I thought is was all yellow.

 

[Roadworthy]

I had no idea what hydraulic fluid to use in my Mitsubishi - about a 1975 model. I drained it, cleaned the filter screen, and refilled with #46 hydraulic fluid from Costco. It's been working fine for fifteen years. I did finally replace the back tires last year after destroying one. The pair was about $500 installed.

 

[airbiscuit]

 

[cpy911]

I had no idea what hydraulic fluid to use in my Mitsubishi - about a 1975 model. I drained it, cleaned the filter screen, and refilled with #46 hydraulic fluid from Costco. It's been working fine for fifteen years. I did finally replace the back tires last year after destroying one. The pair was about $500 installed.

Great. I drained out the fluid...it was red and got about 4 gallons. I plan to refill with the Walmart Super Tech Heavy Duty Tractor Hydraulic and Transmission fluid. I assume there will be fluid left in the loader? What is the process for that? I was going to drain and refill as much as I could get out of the system. The old stuff actually looked pretty good, no water or milky look to it!

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

I wouldn't get too hung up on the type of oil. I've never seen gears and other drive line components fail because of "the wrong oil". Because of no oil - yes. Are some oils "better" than others? Of course, but as long as it is some sort of hydraulic grade oil I doubt you'd notice the difference between it and "better" oils. Your bigger problems are leaks and water/dirt intrusion as you have experienced.

 

[cpy911]

I wouldn't get too hung up on the type of oil. I've never seen gears and other drive line components fail because of "the wrong oil". Because of no oil - yes. Are some oils "better" than others? Of course, but as long as it is some sort of hydraulic grade oil I doubt you'd notice the difference between it and "better" oils. Your bigger problems are leaks and water/dirt intrusion as you have experienced.

Thank you. This is the best advice I have heard in a long time.