Kubota M62 HST Filter Change w/o Draining Fluid?

[LS Tractor Owner]

The shop vac trick works very well. I use a smaller shop vac, I believe a 4 gal. size. If I used the big Rigid one, it would suck the fluid out the fill port! (not really), but it causes too many bubbles that splash into the hose.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

The shop vac trick works very well. I use a smaller shop vac, I believe a 4 gal. size. If I used the big Rigid one, it would suck the fluid out the fill port! (not really), but it causes too many bubbles that splash into the hose.

Oh, so you use the shop vac just to keep the oil out of the filter, and not suck the oil out? Sounds too good to be true!

 

[Bavarian]

The shop vac trick works very well. I use a smaller shop vac, I believe a 4 gal. size. If I used the big Rigid one, it would suck the fluid out the fill port! (not really), but it causes too many bubbles that splash into the hose.

I worked on excavators for some time a few moons ago. We had very tiny suction pumps that we attached to the hydraulic tank and opened a 2" suction line at the main pumps. It worked flawless.
Just the other day my son wanted to change the filter at the log splitter. It's got the filter at the suction side. My wife almost freaked out when I came up with the shop vac. All worked well.

 

[ptsg]

Last time I had to pull the hydraulic fluid out of the tractor to fix the suction pipe and change the filter, I just disconnected one line off the hydraulic winch, put it in a container and actuated the lever with the engine running. Once I saw the first signs of the pumps not getting enough fluid, I turned the tractor off.

Then just needed to drain what was left using the drain plugs. I was easily less than 5 liters left. Very easy to handle comparing to the full 34 liters and little to no mess during the process.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Just to finish this off, I took Ted's advise and hooked the shop vac up to the oil filler port, and hardly any oil came out when I changed the filter. That's on a Kubota M62, and I can understand that it may not work on all vehicles. Sure was worth a try in this case, so thanks for the good advise, Ted!

 

[jonsstihl]

plus one for the shop vac in the filler port when you do the 200 HR HST filter change. I hardly lost any oil last time I did it. I probably wouldn't do it to change the suction filter but it worked well for the HST filter.

 

[Captain Dirty]

Five months late to the party or 5 years early. See my post of December 1, 2019 Kubota L45 hydraulic fluid maintenance. Glad it worked out.