Help the Newbie Shibaura SD2203

[pabney]

First I want to say hello to the forum. This is my first of what I expect to be many questions and I want to say thanks for the help.

I just drove 150 miles to pick up my Shibaura 2203 tractor. Everything worked fine at dealer, so I brought it home.

The problem: the hydrolics no longer work. They do not go up, they do not go down. I light on the console is on. It is a picture of a gear with a dotted line horizontaly thru the middle of it. It has a solid drop above the line and a hollow drop below the line.

I assume this is for the hyd. fluid but the dipstick looks full. I am completely lost.

As I said this is the first of many many questions so I am looking forward to learning everything I can from this forum.

Thanks again,
Paul

 

[pabney]

As a follow up I felt I should include the following information. I started the tractor this morning and it lifted the bushhog all the way up, only very very slowly. I then let it down, whiched worked correctly but would not lift again. I noticed that when the lever is in the down position that the light on the dash came on, but when the lever is in the up position it comes on and goes off irregularly.

Thanks again for the help.

Paul

 

[brianidaho]

I'm guessing, but had a similar problem with my D23F. It sounds like either the hydraulic inlet strainer/screen or filter is plugged. The light seems to come on when the intake of the hydraulic pump pulls a vacuum.

Here's what worked on mine. If you look under the tractor from the right side, you should see a fairly large (around 1") line that comes from the transmission casting and runs to the hyd pump on the engine. On mine, there is a spin-on filter, as well as a strainer at the trans. To check/clean the strainer, you need to drain the hydro oil, and pull the inlet flange. On mine, there is a triangular flange on the end of the hydraulic line, when you remove this you should see the strainer. It may be plugged. Mine also had several magnets held to the screen with a spring, pull the mags before attempting to clean the screen, makes life much easier.

You might as well change the hydraulic fluid and the spin-on filter (if yours has one) as well at this time.

If this is all your problem is, it is a no-cost fix and doesn't take too long, just a bit messy. Good luck.

Brian

 

[brianidaho]

Shortened Long Link

OK, here's my old post when I had this problem....

MikePA: Cleaned up long URL. Please review your message before posting it. It's simple not to do this. Just insert a descriptive word or two between the {url=http://whatever}<font color="red">Enter words here</font>{/url} instead of the entire URL. Replace parentheses {} with square brackets in previous example.

 

[pabney]

After draining the fluid, which looked like coffee with cream I pulled the bottom plate and found several inches of sludge. I cleaned this out as much as possible. I then pulled the filter (not a spin on) and cleaned it as best I could.
I am at a loss as what to do now. Do I just refill the fluid or do I need to flush the system somehow?

Thanks everyone for their help so far. I have already learned so much.

Paul

 

[pabney]

This weekend I replaced the hydraulic fluid and everything seemed fine. The light was no longer on and I grated my driveway without any problems. So it SEEMED fixed.

The next day I put on my mower and started on my yard. After
about an two hours the light came on and the mower went back
to the ground.

After a couple hours of cooling, every thing worked again, for a bit and so on.

Any clues where to go next?

 

[DAIRYMAN]

You may go back and re-check the fluid. Another thing that may help is after you drain the fluid, pour some diesel in the rearend to help wash out some of the sludge built up on the bottom. Eventually I think you will be ok, you just need to get the system completely clean!