John Deere 1050 Hy-Gard vs Hy-Gard Low Viscosity

[kleinhhl]

I recently had to split my John Deere 1050 into three pieces to replace two seals in the clutch input shafts. What a job!

When I went to the John Deere dealership to buy new hydraulic fluid, I was about to pick up regular Hy-Gard but the man behind the counter said, "Wait! You need to use Low Viscosity in the 950 & 1050s!" So that's what I bought --- 6 gallons cost $165!

I did do a cursory look online and found a JD document that stated both were acceptable in these tractors.

However, I have since found the temperature graph below and it's got me worried that I should have gone with regular Hy-Gard due to the max air operating temperature of Low Viscosity being only 86F --- which in Virginia it gets much hotter.

After putting everything back together, the tractor runs & operates as normal but I now have a slight grinding when putting her into gear if I don't wait an extra second or two for the gears to stop spinning. Never had that problem when I ran straight Hy-Gard.

My experience is similar to this post: John Deere 950 light grinding into gear

I know the clutch is adjusted properly because I checked when she was apart with a feeler gauge and special tool JDG-52 (yes, I bought it for $99!!! ). By the way, I'll beposting the measurements of that special tool in case someone wants to re-create it for their own use.

I do need to check the adjustment of the clutch petal but I think it's also okay.

I'm thinking that the lower viscosity is letting the gears spin freer hence the extra time to wait for them to stop spinning before I can shift.

Overall, it's not much of a problem just different from before. Should I run the Low Viscosity Hy-Gard or switch out to regular Hy-Gard?

Love the JD1050, she's a beast. It has a Woods loader and I run a grapple, 3ph round bale spear and Woods grader.

 

[oldnslo]

Any idea what oil was in it before you tore it apart? If no trouble with regular hygard I would continue using that.

As point of reference to thin in usually more of a problem than to thick unless used a lot in the winter.

I mix regular and lo vis in my Branson since had trouble with blowing HST filter while blowing snow in winter. Mine holds little over 3 gallons so use 1 gallon low vis and fill rest with regular hygard. Had no trouble since with filter.

 

[rScotty]

I had a similar question with the oil in our JD310SG.

My JD dealer - for the yellow JDs, not the green ones - checked with the factory and said that the Regular and the Low Viscosity Hy-Gard can be mixed in any proportion without problem.

You might want to check with your JD Dealer or the factory for confirmation. But that could be the easy solution to your oil question.
rScotty

 

[kleinhhl]

Thanks for the replies rScotty and oldnslo...

I'm going to call the service department at the dealership rather than rely on the parts guy's opinion... Might try to call the JD tech line.

Of course, this is for a 37 year old tractor that isn't really being supported by JD anymore.

They quote me ~$5,000 to split the tractor and fix whatever the problem was. Only paid $7,500 for it.

No independent tractor mechanics wanted to touch it.

 

[nisaacs]

I think you will be fine.

What I found on my 970's after doing some heavy research, is, the early gear tractors started with regular HI-gard, then when the hydrostatic came out they switched to low viscosity, and now recommend it.

When they made the switch they also did an upgrade to the filter. The early tractors used a AR99998 33 micron hydraulic filter. Now they use the RE27284 11 micron filter.

When I bought my second 970 I used the regular tractor fluid with the new style filter and on a cold day I would get some cavitation on my powersteering pump. Warm days it is fine. So, I switched to the old style filter and it was okay. I just ordered a 5 gallon bucket ($127) of low viscosity and will change it out and go back to the new filter.

 

[rScotty]

Thanks for the replies rScotty and oldnslo...

I'm going to call the service department at the dealership rather than rely on the parts guy's opinion... Might try to call the JD tech line.

Of course, this is for a 37 year old tractor that isn't really being supported by JD anymore.

They quote me ~$5,000 to split the tractor and fix whatever the problem was. Only paid $7,500 for it.

No independent tractor mechanics wanted to touch it.

The oil question should be independent of what model the Hy-Gard is being used in. Locally it is common for the service techs, parts guys, and the service manager at the yellow JD dealers to be dedicated professionals versus the help at the green JD dealer which are not that well qualified. Huge difference. IN the case of the oil question, I asked the service manager, he called technical at JD on the spot, and then turned to me and said that the difference between the regular and low viscosity Hy-Gard was in the proportions of the additives used, so they could be mixed for intermediate values.

For all I know, he might have been talking to Santa Claus - and you don't know me either. So it doesn't do any harm to confirm this.

Any independent mechanic who won't touch a JD1050 is not someone I'd want to use for anything, even oil changes. The JD1050 is actually an older model Yanmar tractor to which some updates were added.
There aren't many simpler tractors ever built. Should be near bulletproof, and the mechanical/hydraulic features are common to all the tractors of that era - just somewhat better built than most.

You might want to shift down to the Yanmar forum for some alternate info.

rScotty