Beware of the shop-vac trick when changing hydraulic filters...

[old and tired]

I drove my L2800 up on a block to make access a wee-bit easier, (off the ground and tilted) hooked up the shopvac and attached the hose to the filler hole in the back of the tractor. Loosen the filter then turned the shop vac on, had the new filter handy and ready to go... hoping to lose a drop or two; got the filter 3/4 off and There she BLOWS... I thought, I'm not in Yellowstone, why is there a hydraulic geyser. I'm trying to catch it in the bucket when I decided to screw the filter back on. (thank God it wasn't all the way off the threads).

Remember to hook the shop vac hose to the IN-take and not blow air into the filler hole!!!

My mom said I was "special"... I didn't know this is what she meant! Lost about a half gallon... It was one of those WTF moments...

 

[MossRoad]

Nice!

And thanks for the heads-up..

 

[newbury]

Never thought of blowing the oil out.

 

[grsthegreat]

Haaaaaaaaaa.

would have loved to be a fly on the wall to watch that.

 

[mrmikey]

LOL, friend of mine that I worked with did that. A barbed nipple was leaking where it came out of a 30 gallon hydraulic tank behind the cab on a tandem plow truck. Brand spanking new truck we had just finished upfitting and ready to go out the door...other than the leak.
He puts the vacuum hose on the reservoir filler, wraps a couple layers of duct tape around so there's no leaks, turns on the vacuum and goes under the truck to take out the nipple and put in a new one. Pulls the hose off the end of the barb fitting and kersplash, out comes 30 gallons of hyd fluid which took all of about 5 seconds considering it was a 2-1/2" suction line. Never laughed so hard............Mike

 

[CH4Ohio]

What keeps the shop-vac from sucking fluid out of the fill opening?? Never heard of doing this. How do you know that your shop vac is perfectly balanced to pull a vacuum on top of the oil reservoir yet not so powerful as to suck fluid out?

 

[LouNY]

I need to do the 1000 hour service and I would be tempted to try it but I have a screen in the lower part of the rear end housing to pull and clean and a magnet in the belly to pull and check.
So there goes 15 gallons of fluid.

 

[CH4Ohio]

If I'm planning to save fluid or re-use it, I just make sure I'm catching it in a clean container and I always pour it across a magnet before it goes back in. Personally, I would not be attaching my shop vac to the oil fill port on my equipment.

 

[k0ua]

Guys, here is a better solution: Don't do the vac trick. Yeah it can work to an extent, but when I tried it, I sucked up a lot of "mist" of the air coming in the hydraulic filter hole and up thru the fluid fill and badly contaminated the shop vac's filter.

Better way: find your "vent" to the reservoir. On Kubota's or at least the ones I owned, it is under the seat. A little crocked piece of rubber. My Kioti has the vent as a crook in the filler cap. Stop up that vent. I used a screw of the correct size screwed into the vent hole. Make sure the dipstick is secure. The object is to prevent air from leaking into the reservoir.

Then change the hydraulic filter. VERY little fluid will drip out when you remove the filter. Sure have your new filter ready to go so no more than necessary has to drip put. Maybe a 1/2 cup at most. And that is if you take your time in getting the new filter on. Better way for me, hopefully a better way for you. DO NOT forget to remove the screw stopping up the vent hole. If you forget, as soon as you operate your loader, it will blow the dipstick out of the hole with some real force. Don't as how I know that.

 

[k0ua]

Remember this "trick of stopping up the vent hole is just so you can change the FILTER only, not the fluid and filter. If you are going to change the filter, then by all mean open up the big drain plug and let it rip.