Breather Cap Question

[marrt]

I've never been very happy with the quality of the PT hydraulic oil breather cap. I'm concerned this cap could let in too much contamination (particularly water contamination). Anyone know of a better breather cap (the ¼ turn variety)? I know there are some good threaded caps available. However, retrofitting one of those looks to be more trouble than I would like.

 

[Sedgewood]

<font color="green"> I've never been very happy with the quality of the PT hydraulic oil breather cap. I'm concerned this cap could let in too much contamination (particularly water contamination). Anyone know of a better breather cap (the ¼ turn variety)? </font>

As part of the fire damage rebuild of my 1845 I upgraded the cap to a Parker with a 10 micron filter. It doesn't address the water contamination issue but I figured it was a major upgrade over the unfiltered cap PT uses. To mount it I had to machine the old neck off the reservoir cover and drill and tap new bolt holes for the cap mount.

Sedgewood

 

[marrt]

That sounds like a nice modification. PT now uses a filtered cap on their larger machines. I’ll call them Monday and see if the new caps will fit older tractors.

 

[ponytug]

Anyone ever clean or disassemble their breather cap to clean it?

If so, any tips?

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

WOW! 19 year old thread revival, yet still pertinent information.

Gongrats! I think that make you the current front runner in the ‘deep search’ contest.

 

[ponytug]

I did think about starting a new one, but this seemed on topic.

So....Have you ever cleaned yours?

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

No, I don’t have one. Just a filler cap/dipstick.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[ponytug]

I was thinking after fifteen years, perhaps it should get cleaned.

Mine is a plastic cap with a dipstick with some sort of coarse weave 3D plastic strings, like the material that you see around pools or in building entryway to trap/scrub dirt from shoes. (3M Nomad?)
like this stuff;

 

[MossRoad]

I’ll have to look at the underside of the cap and see what’s in there.

 

[ponytug]

Well, I seem to have not succeeded. I tried spraying it out/off with brake cleaner, soaking the top in acetone, sloshing it around, and blowing it out with clean compressed air (a fair amount of oil came off, but not much of the dirt). If nobody knows how to disassemble it, I'm inclined to think that an ultrasonic cleaner cleaner would be the way to go.

All the best,

Peter

 

[woodlandfarms]

Your guys caps don’t leak? When I am up steep at a side angle I would think the tank would leak with that type of cap

 

[ponytug]

Your guys caps don’t leak? When I am up steep at a side angle I would think the tank would leak with that type of cap

Not so far...then again, I wimp out at 30ish degrees, at which point I am not moving quickly. I have hit too many rocks and gopher holes at 30 degrees that become 35 in an instant.

What do you use for a cap?

All the best,

Peter

 

[woodlandfarms]

Some metal cap with a terrible stick for a measuring device. It does not breath near as I can tell