L3240HST 1st 50 hour service

[TalonDancer]

I'm doing the first 50 hour service on my L3240 HST today. I have a few quick questions...

1 - Roughly how much UDT comes out of each of the three drain plugs? IOW how big do the buckets need to be for each drain?

2 - Are there any tricks to getting the 11+ gals of UDT out with only a single 5 gal bucket? For example, only opening one drain plug at a time?

3- Does it matter which order they are opened (e.g. more or less volume per drain plug).

Thanks In advance - Talon Dancer

 

[art]

Shouldn't you only be changing that filter at 50 hours?

 

[TalonDancer]

Shouldn't you only be changing that filter at 50 hours?

The Maintenance Table has Double Circles ("must be done after first 50 hours") for "Replace Transmission Oil Filter[HST]" and "Replace Hydraulic Oil Filter" with no indication to change the "Transmision Fluid" BUT...

The first step in the instructions for "Replacing Tranmission Oil Filter [HST Type] reads...

"1. Remove the drain plugs at the bottom of the transmission case and drain the oil completely into the drain pan."

So I took that to mean that Kubota expects you to change the UDT not just the filters. FWIW that is what my dealer said they would do ihad them do the 50 hr maint.

Talon Dancer

 

[canoetrpr]

The 50 hr service on my L3400 involved changing all fluids and filters.

I was shocked at how much hydraulic fluid came out and the velocity at which it came out at... and I don't think that the capacity is as much as yours (<7 gal).

My plan was to get a big bucket under one of the two main drain bolts and then get to the next one or the two on the rear. Figured I'd have enough time to get another bolt done and a drain pan underneath it before the first bucket filled up. FWIW - the bucket capacity was about 18L - 4.5gal or so.

The bucket filled faster than I could contemplate getting another drain bolt off.

My advice - get a monster pail to hold the hyd. fluid. Not sure where I'll get one but I will be looking hard before the next time I do a hyd. fluid change!.

Also get a few bags of kittie litter to pick up the spills. I think I spent more time cleaning up than I spent doing the service!

 

[wushaw]

I use one of them 15 gallon drain pans on wheels I got from northerntool for 75$ a few years ago, It is long enough that I can just start pulling plugs and let her drain till she's empty... It really is nice for my tractor and my truck since the truck holds 38qts.
I use my pallet forks for the FEL to lift the pan up for draining back into 5gal buckets for taking back to parts house recycling drum.

 

[TalonDancer]

I've completed the 1st 50 hr maintenance

It took a little longer than I thought. I'm not new to oil changes etc. but just handling the volume of used UTD was a big time consumer. I'm used to doing oil changes of 11 quarts not 11 gal. So my supply of 1gal jugs etc. that I normal use to transport used fluids to recycling was stretched a bit until I could transfer it to the now empty 5 and 2.5 gal containers the new oil came in. Hopefully I'll be able to hang on to these larger containers so I won't have to transfer the UDT twice next time.

Of course it didn't help that I was working outside in 90+ degree heat using a tarp as the surrogate for the floor of the garage that I'll be building as soon as I get the site prep'ed for the foundation -- hence the tractor. Hopefully I'll be doing the next major maintenance inside said garage on a level concrete floor

Talon Dancer

 

[Rebel]

Newbie question.

What on earth does UDT stand for?

 

[TalonDancer]

Newbie question.

What on earth does UDT stand for?

You're going to wish you never asked

UDT is....

Talon Dancer

 

[TalonDancer]

Some observations about changing the "11 gals" of UDT and both filters...
1 - Its probably obvious, but removing any back-hoe or 3 point implement and even the 3 point hitch gear, makes it a lot easier to access the transmission drain plugs with 5 gal buckets AND the transmission dip stick / filler.

2- You can raise the rear of an L3240 enough to get a standard 5 gal bucket under ALL drains buy driving over a single 2X10-12 with the rear wheels.

3 - I used the FEL to raise the front of the tractor to level it and let it down on 2 2x10s due to the sloping ground.

4- The two drains on the rear axle dumped less than 2 gallons total (e.g. about 3/4 gal each).

5- The center drain on the tranny dumped the rest (nearly 8 gals), requiring me to re-plug the drain when my 5 gal bucket was nearly full. This is very messy. I had a drip pan under the 5 gal bucket to catch the run off UDT while I blocked it's decent into the 5 gal bucket and re - inserted the drain plug.

6 - I only recovered approx. 9 gals of UDT even though I allowed all drains to run till they were "dripping". It took just under 10 gallons to re-fill after running the engine a few minutes to fill the filters.

7 - Thank goodness the "suction filter" has a magnet which captured 2 large pieces of shrapnel and lots of fine metal debris

8- The filter on the left side took forever to unscrew because the threaded part of the filter housing nearly unscrewed with the filter I screwed it back into the housing prior to installing the new filter.

9 - I used a brand new flexible funnel (w/ screw on lids to keep it clean) to access the UDT fill port.

10 - The sharp threads in the UDT fill port can severely scar a flexible funnel to the point of potentially dropping little bits of plastic into the tranny and hydraulics

11- You really can't use the capacities listed in the manual to determine how much UDT etc. to purchase/install. They may be the amount required when completely dry. But the drain plug design/locations do not allow fully draining anything I've tried so far

Talon Dancer

 

[Double Orange]

Talon Dancer. Thanks for the informative post. I'm curius about the 2 large pieces of metal. Can you snap a shot and post it? Thanks
Frank