Front Transfer Fluid

JimBinMI · Apr 25, 2000

Bird,
Just curious, if you thought that the minds at Kubota had the lighter hydraulic oil in there in the first place, why did you mess with Mother Kubota wisdom? /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif My TC18 manual does not even address using 85w-90w gear oil. I know mine has the lighter because I have checked the level before. Does NH using the hydraulic oil have anything to do with my fluid change recommendation being at 300 hours and Kubota's being at 200 hours as mentioned? JimBinMI

Anonymous Poster · Apr 25, 2000

I've decided to use the NH134. After thinking about it for awhile, the whole rear section including the rear transfere, rear brakes, three point hitch and front end loader all use the same fluid in the rear section. My main concern was, is the NH134 comparable to the Kubota fluid. After one of the guys responded that NH uses it for the same application, that made me feel that is is. Thanks for the info and advice. CCW

Anonymous Poster · Apr 25, 2000

Kubota specifies that the transfere oil be changed at 50 hous on the L2500. The shop manual allows for hydro or 80,90 gear oil. The factory put gear oil in. It may be that the factory uses the gear oil because of cost.

Bird · Apr 25, 2000

Jim, I can't say I've got a good answer for that. I've just always been accustomed to the heavier gear oil in differentials or gear cases, and since Kubota says either one, I decided on the heavier one. I can see putting the lighter stuff in for a break in period, and suppose it's all right to continue. Actually, I wish I knew!

Bird

W5FL · Apr 25, 2000

My dealer says either 90W gear oil or UDT or super UDT are acceptable for the front wheel drive differential and front wheel gear drives. They leave the choice to the customer.

Said some people like to just have one oil for hydraulics and front end rather than two types to deal with. The loads on the front end should certainly be lower than the loads on the rear end so I see no real preference and will probably use UDT in the front axle.

gordon · Apr 25, 2000

Thanks for the info thats a new one on me guess I'm from old school, but thats why I come here is to learn Thanks again gordon

Anonymous Poster · Apr 25, 2000

I am pondering the same issues because I need to change my front axle fluid in my L35. Here is the information that I have gathered. A trusted dealer told me that he was personally aware of a front drive axle failure in an L35 machine and that Kubota had linked the failure to the heavier weight oil in the transfer case. There reasoning was the transfer case is very small and the gears were not bathed properly in the heavier weight gear oil. Therefore Kubota recommended to him that he use the super UDT fluid to properly bath the gears. I understand the clearances inside these transfer case are very tight and it is necessary to use the thinner oil to fully lubricate the gears. I know this goes against all conventional wisdom of using gear oil in applications like this, however, this dealer had first hand experience. After talking to him, he convinced me to use super UDT. Also, I am thinking about using the super UDT in my drive axles on my Kubota excavator too.

W5FL · Apr 26, 2000

Jon, I live in North Central Texas and we will not see temperatures below 50 degrees before late November and will see a lot of 100+ F days this summer.

Wouldn't Super UDT be a very light weight fluid in this temperate of a climate? Yes, I noticed that they allowed all three Kubota oil's but my dealer said they only use Super UDT if the customer wants to use it and that UDT is entirely satisfactory in this climate.

The text does indeed say, "We recommend the use of Kubota Super UDT fluid for optimum protection and performance."

Unfortunately the transmission holds 55 quarts and the front end holds 13.8 quarts.

Anonymous Poster · Apr 26, 2000

I'm also wondering about the same thing with my L35. It's new but I'm curious as to what's in it now. Cars have the 80/90 although some people run the newer synthetic stuff. But cars and trucks are really "spinnin' the gears" tractors don't have much high rpm time I would think and maybe that is why the suggestion of the lighter stuff. I was blown away to see the manual recommending EITHER UDT or 80/90 with no comment as to why or under what circumstances you'd use either. If you are ever in under 40 degree temps I would think the udt is better since it would seem like it would take forever for the oil to ever warm in the front end.

oldcarparts@mygarage.com

I registered, could never get a message posted afterwards and I think that caused going from page to page to slowdown. So if you want to email me you can cut and paste my email from this message.

TomG · Apr 26, 2000

I'd go with the dealer recommendations. My ford 1710 manual calls for 134 in both the transmission and front axle cases. It gets cold here, and my dealer gave me 5 gallons of F200 oil with the tractor. F200 is multi-seasons oil, and probably lighter than 134 when cold.

After decades of amateur mechanics on trucks, it took me awhile to get used to the idea of using hydraulic oil in gear cases. But I got to thinking: Automatic transmissions have gears, and the fluid is really light. I don't suppose there's all that much difference in a gear's lubrication requirements whether it's in a transmission or a differential.

Maybe my 'If it's for gears then its got to be thick and gooey' attitude is just very dated. I also have to remember that the front axle oil on my 1710 the final reduction gears as well as the differential. Gear oil probably would work for the differential, but I don't know about the final reduction gears. I'm just happy I won't have to wait for 80/90 oil to drain out of the front axle and reduction gear cases.