L47 Transmission Oil Filter replacement

[HighlandFarm]

Good morning folks. I'm staying on top of my L47 service by the book, but the book is a little confusing on this one.

The service manual says to replace the HST transmission oil filter every 200 hours and replacing the transmission fluid every 400 hours along with the two other hydraulic oil filters. However you have to drain the fluid to replace the filter every 200 hours. Does this imply reusing (and presumably screening) the fluid at the 200 hour service? Then a full fluid change at 400 hours... or am I misunderstanding and I should actually replace 12+ gallons of transmission fluid every 200 hours?

Many thanks for your advice!

 

[crashz]

If its similar to the other L series tractors, you can spin the old one off and spin the new one on without a huge loss of fluid (<1 gallon). Or do the shop vac trick and put a vacuum on the fill port. This keeps all of the fluid in the trans. I just have the new one ready, break the old one loose, put a drain pan under the filter and quickly swap them. I top off with some Super UDT2 and move on.

 

[rScotty]

Our M59 schedule is similar and has the same problem. Kubota didn't think that through so well. Or more likely, the employees who wrote the operator's servicing instructions didn't communicate with the designers of the system.

It won't hurt to change everything at 50 and then at 200 hours for a couple of times. After that you may want to go to 400 hrs or some intermediate number. The difference in price is negligible compared to the alternatives.

No, I wouldn't screen that oil. Reason is that you don't want to take the chance on introducing any abrasive dirt or even dust. Inside the tractor that oil goes through several very close tolerance pumps, half a dozen close tolerance valves, and the steering system. Last thing you want is to introduce any crud. And if your screening is less than about 20 microns that is exactly what you may do.

Some guys do swap out the filters fast enough to lose only a little oil, but not me. I like to take my time to clean and inspect the mounting surfaces.
NOTE: You should pay special attention to the threaded nipple that the filter screws onto. Two of mine were loose in the housing. When I unscrewed them (needing only with finger pressure) I found that they sure looked like standard tapered thread plumbing parts.
Although being Japanese, they probably use the British rather than the USA tapered thread standard.
Anyway, the point is that they needed to be looked at and tightened properly. That wouldn't have happened with a rush job.
rScotty

 

[HighlandFarm]

Thanks rScotty and crashz for your replies! I think I'll try a combination of your two approaches: use the shop vac trick and pull the filter so that I can make sure threads are fine before swapping the new filter. It's actually the 600 hour service, which falls on the 200 hour schedule, so I'm happy to wait until I hit 800 before another fluid change.

 

[Roadworthy]

The vacuum trick works but be sure to have a bucket on hand to catch the little fluid which will drain from the filter and line. You may lose a quart or less doing the change this way.

 

[mikester]

The vacuum trick works but be sure to have a bucket on hand to catch the little fluid which will drain from the filter and line. You may lose a quart or less doing the change this way.

My experience on the M59 is that the vacuum trick DOES NOT work. You might have luck with a smaller tractor with less fluids in it.

 

[Smokeydog]

On the three (B20, B26, M59) Kubota TLBs I’ve owned the HST filters are high enough above the sump level to have little oil loss at 200hr change. I do change with the filter slightly up hill slope at the shop. The hydraulic filter(s) are well below the sump level but are changed with the fluid change anyway at 400hr.

Keeping the oil clean by changing the filters is important. I worry that using the vacuum trick to prevent oil loss essentially back flows from filter to the sump and pulls debris from the filter back to sump. To be re-filtered by the new filter.

Spend more $$$ on one 400hr maintenance on these new tractors than 20 years on my old MF135. But they can do so much more so not a fair comparison.

 

[fried1765]

My experience on the M59 is that the vacuum trick DOES NOT work. You might have luck with a smaller tractor with less fluids in it.

Thanks!
I was going to try that vacuum trick with my L48 TLB.
System holds 15 gal. Now I won't bother.