Bleed or No-Bleed

[wonl2]

Hello Forum Members, I bought a Ford 1700 that was built in 1982 and only 550 hours! I was told that the tractor hasn't been started in at least 10 years. After a couple hours of trying to start the tractor (dead battery, lost key etc...) she came alive with the most beautiful sound you ever heard.

When I tried lifting the bucket, it only went up a foot or so then stopped. The 3 point hitch only move slightly. I figured that the old girl needs some TLC and maintenance. I drained the hydraulic oil and cleaned the filter. The oil looked "milky" and the filter was pretty dirty.

Ok, now for my questions?
1. What is the correct way of removing the air in the hydraulic lines?
2. Do I start with the bucket or the 3 point hitch?
3. Is there anything I'm missing?

I'm also planning on replacing the battery (dead), engine oil, radiator fluid, belts and hoses.
Thanks for you help and suggestions.

Phil

 

[SPYDERLK]

A few movement cycles will flush the air from the system. no bleeding needed.

 

[boggen]

A few movement cycles will flush the air from the system. no bleeding needed.

ditto...

just work the hyd cylinders (fully extend them, fully contract them), make sure you keep an eye on the hyd oil level as you do this.
you may need to shut tractor down, let things set for a few hours, and repeat, pending on how much air was in system. the waiting is more along the lines of letting the air float out of the hyd oil in the reseviour tank, and then just repeating. fully extending / contracting.

3pt hitch is same fully raise / fully lower

not a clue about specific tractor of yours, some tractors, the transmission, PTO, and 3pt hitch all use exact same hyd fluid / transmission fluid, some times they are split up into different oils / locations of were to check.
some times 3pt hitch is ran from hyd pump that the FEL (front end loader) is ran off of. other words if ya don't know the specifics for your tractor, keep an eye on all the oil levels. till ya get things figured out.

 

[bumperm]

What they said.

"Milky" is a classic sign there's water in the hydraulic fluid, so plan on changing that soon. Depending on what drains out, how bad it looks, you may need to flush the system . . . but you may want to just change the fluid and filters first. Give it a go, then check the fluid again by draining a little out the bottom drain after the tractor sits overnight.

bumper