Changing oil in skidsteer

Rgillard · Apr 7, 2010

Hi Guys,

I noticed that the hydraulic oil in my skid steer had gone milky so I got oil and filters. My neighbour who is a mechanic for the last 35 yrs came up to give me a hand. When draining the hydraulic oil he told me to start the engine for 5 secs to get as much oil out as possible. Obviously the pump will have run dry. I thought it was strange myself but he assured me that it would do no harm. We refilled the system and all is working fine now.. Do I have anything to worry about? It obviously ran dry again when restarted also for a few seconds..

Thanks,
Ron

tractorsanmore · Apr 7, 2010

In my opinon you should not run a pump dry . If you operated it with the water in the hyd system , then its in all the hyd . cylinders and hoses anyway and not going to come out by letting it run for 5 sec . I would have drained tank and maybe some large hoses and dump out filter , refill with oil and use it for a few hrs. and repeat with a new filter when the oil is clean .

galen1115 · Apr 7, 2010

I would run it for no more than 2-3 minutes so the oil will flow easy. Then change but as was said before me, don't run a pump dry. Changing the filter was and is the best advise.

some zilch · Apr 7, 2010

the pump is not going to be hurt in 5 seconds of no oil @ idle speed. i have seen, and purpose-fully made machines do this to clean them out. several minutes may cause issues, but 5 seconds is not.

Wayne County Hose · Apr 7, 2010

That's the lazy way to do it. Best way is to get the oil up to operating temp and remove the drain plug from the bottom of the sump. All the crud settles to the bottom. The way you did it, there is still oil in the bottom of the sump and it's the oil with the most amount of contaminants. If he told you his way will get out the most oil, he is obviously ignorant.

Rgillard · Apr 8, 2010

Thanks guys,

What we actually did was:

1. Opened the drain plug at the bottom of the hydraulic tank. In the manual it said that we should get 26 litres of oil.

2. We got about 20 litres, so he told me to start engine and we got the other 6 litres. I think we did it 3 times for 5 sec at a time.

3. The pump did start to sound different.

4. We changed the filter and replaced the oil then.

5. We didn't prime the pump but after a few seconds of running the loader was moving.

6. I ran the rams through their stroke but not to the very end of it a few times as stated in manual.

This guy has been a heavy equipment mechanic for 40 years and anything he has ever done for me has been 100%...I completely trust his work. I just read a think from hydraulic supermarket online and it said that these systems are not self priming and should never be ran without oil (just like you wouldnt run an engine without engine oil). It says that doing this will cause premature failure of the pump..