50 Hour Service

[Snapper Head]

Thanks for all of the replies, I greatly appreciate it.

Certainly, I will follow the manual. We all know that manuals can be incomplete sometimes, and the power of an internet forum is in the vast real world experience that it contains, so I figured it would be beneficial to ask.

I figured the debate about re-using (or not) the fluid would get cranked back up. For me, the cost of new juice is very tolerable, so that is the way I will go.

It will be about a month or so before I have the time to do the work.

Thanks again for the feedback.


Big Al

 

[Snapper Head]

Update: This past weekend I was able to do the maintenance. I took a very careful look at the owner's manual, and it states that all filters (Engine oil, Trans, Hyd) should be changed at 50 hours. The Hyd fluid is good to go until 400 hours. I spoke with the dealer about this and he said that yes, that is the correct thing to do and is what he recommends to his customers, even hard heads like me who want to change out 11 gallons of expensive fluid. He sold me the filters (not exactly cheap, are they?), and said I might want to get a gallon of UDT because I will lose a bit when I change the trans and hyd units. Okey dokey. I also bought the 8 quarts of Kubota engine oil (I know, I know, but I was there and I like to support the local guy when I can).

I start with the engine oil and filter, which is very simple and I was pleasantly surprised that there was almost no drippage when changing the oil filter. Auto manufacturers could take some pointers from Kubota here. Only took 7 quarts to refill, though. So either there is a quart of oil hiding somewhere in the block, which is certainly possible, or the spec in the manual is incorrect.

I then removed the trans (left side) filter, and captured almost 2 gallons of fluid. Hmmm, seems the dealer miscalculated. I then removed the right side (hyd) filter, and captured a bit over 4 gallons of fluid. Yikes. So I got back and get 6 gallons more UDT and refill. I did not want to reuse the original, that simply goes against my grain. Filled up, fired up, let it warm up, ran hydraulics through full ranges, shut down, let cool, checked flud levels, then proceeded to put it to work. All is well.

Cleaned the air filter and greased, but was still too lazy to wash the thing. It's been blasted off with air, but never washed down. Hey, it's a tractor.

Thanks to all for the advice and feedback.


Big Al

 

[MHarryE]

My book differs from yours. Mine says to change the engine oil and filter - okay, no problem. It also says to change the transmission filter. That was no problem, unlike you I only lost a little over a quart of oil. Then came the hydraulic filter. I had forgot the comments about the vacuum cleaner, only remembering people saying they lost very little oil. Fortunately I had a large drain pan that caught the 2+ gallons of oil I lost before getting the new filter installed. Then I went back to my book and discovered my L5740 says only to change the transmission filter at 50 hours, not the hydraulic filter. I could have sworn I read to change it at the first 50 hours but my manual, for L3240-3 through L5740-3, states on page 73 to replace the hydraulic oil filter only after 400 hours.

Prior to retiring 2 years ago, I worked for a major construction equipment company. Part of my job was setting the maintenance intervals for my product line, all hydrostatic mobile equipment. Based on my experience, the change intervals are extremely conservative. I came up with my service intervals by sampling oil at the first 5 and 50 hours, and after that 250 hours on a test fleet of about 25 machines located around the world. My last machines went out with 500 hour engine oil change and 4,000 hour hydraulic oil change with sampling, 2,000 hour if you don't sample. Oil degradation was never a problem in these intervals. Cleanliness - new oil always the dirtiest with the filter cleaning things up in a few hours.

Hours of life with these change intervals? Never wore one out but I did have a customer who bought the test machine I had provided him once our test was complete and last I talked to him he had over 20,000 hours, operating at a coal mine outside Johannesburg. Only major expense had been tire replacement - still running the same 3 hydro pumps and motors.

But I am not going to risk going outside Kubota's recommendations. I will, however, sample oils at least once a year. I only wish I had remembered to take the samples before I did my first service. The bottles are sitting in the container where I keep my filters but it slipped my mind.

 

[Snapper Head]

Harry,

I did change the engine oil and filter. Only changed the filters on the trans and hydraulics, though lost the 6 gallons of fluid. I cracked the filters open and let the fluid drain until it stopped, as opposed to doing a quick on/off method. This was due mostly to being signifcantly interrupted during the process.


Big Al

 

[crazyal]

On my 4240 the fill point for the hydraulic fluid is also he vent. What I did was put a rubber cork in place of the fill/ vent cap and just had the new filter ready to go asap. Some people actually use a shop vac so it sucks air into vs let oil out once the filter is removed.

I think I lost maybe 2 quarts but you need to be fast, have all your motions planned out (unscrew the old filter with your left hand while having the new filter in reach of or in your right hand), and you'll want to put a little oil on the rubber seals on the new filters before you start to remove the old one. Now you've done it once the next time will be easier. If it's like the 4240 at 200 hours you need to do your engine oil/ filter and HST filter. Practice makes perfect, right? :laughing: