Thanks to the information in this post (and several other related posts) I can report that I did not have an "oil slick" during the drain and re-fill of the hydraulic fluid on my
B2710... As a matter of fact I spilled more fluid trying to re-fill the transmission than I did draining it out.
I spent a ton of time researching this job before I actually did it and I'd like to summarize what I learned so that the info is all in one place for anyone else looking at doing this job themselves. This would apply to a Kubota
B2710,
B2410,
B2910, and perhaps the
B7800 as well. I have the "one hydraulic filter" version of the
B2710, so anyone with a
B2910, a newer
B2710 (and probably a
B7800) that have two filters for the hydraulics would need to read make note that their "milage may vary" from mine... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
As was mentioned by one of the posts I read, I drained the front transmission case first. This reduced the amount of fluid that I remained when I drained the other parts of the system. A 14mm socket is required to remove the drain plug which resides below the drive line and faces the rear of the tractor. I drained almost a gallon of fluid from this port.
I drained the mid-transmission port next. This plug is on the mid PTO itself and requires a 17mm box wrench to remove (my socket wrench was too thick to fit up agains the body of the PTO). This is where the bulk of the fluid was drained from.
Finally I pulled the two drains on the rear transmission (17mm socket or box wrench). Because most of the fluid had been drained by this time, I did not get the oil slick that was reported by other folks.
The oil filter (on the left side only on my tractor) required the use of a small "strap style" filter wrench (which took a bit of work to get it on the filter and under the various pipes and linkages near the filter). The type of filter wrench that fits on the end of the filter body (cap style) would have been a better bet. The replacement filter is Kubota# 66021-36060.
The screens took a bit of doing to get off. The left side screen was the tightest but I was able to break it free after cutting the paint around the bolt head. A breaker bar would have helped here. The orignal post in this thread had reported in another post that this was a 27mm bolt but in fact is is a 26mm bolt - a socket is needed to get around the various plumbing around the bolt. There was very little in the way of metal filings on this screen. The right hand screen was much easier to break loose (also 26mm) and contained considerable more metal shavings than the left hand screen. Maybe the same volume as a quarter.
Putting the new fluid in was much more of a pain since the fill is located behind the seat and almost directly under the cross piece that joins the two rear fenders. The tool box that is mounted under the seat is also in the way and I removed that to give me more room (10mm socket). A long, flexible spout funnel would have made this part of the job trouble free but I managed with a small funnel that fit under the cross piece. I also used a clean 1 gallon milk jug to transfer the new fluid from the 2.5 gallon containers to the transmission (half a gallon at a time). I put in about 3 and a quarter gallons against the listed 3.7 gallon capacity. I do need to run the tractor for a bit and see if the level drops any.
Thanks to all who had taken on this job in the past and who had taken the time to make comments...it made my job much easier! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
