nspec
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2007
- Messages
- 628
- Location
- Southern Rhode Island
- Tractor
- Kubota B2630, '53 Farmall Super H, '47 Farmall AI, '44 Farmall A
Here's the background. B2630 - 260 hrs, 4 year old machine. I know it's not a lot, but I've used the daylights out of the machine for that time. Initial 100 hrs was mostly hard backhoe and loader work. Testing the limits of the machine moving very large rocks and digging out very large stumps. The remainder was mostly 3 point work - blade, tiller, wood chipper, post hole digger, and various loader work. Tractor has always performed flawlessly. I'm used to much larger equipment, so I'm pretty critical, too.
A couple of weeks ago, I was running the chipper for a half hour or so with the tractor on a pretty good slope - front end lower than the rear. Upon finishing this, I was moving some pretty good buckets full of firewood when I noticed my steering effort suddenly increased. It wasn't hard to steer, but the increase in effort was quite noticeable, especially turning left. I thought while I was in the woods maybe I hit a steering cylinder or overloaded the front end somehow with the weight of the firewood. No way, I've done all this plenty of times before. So I get to thinking that perhaps while running the tractor at pto speed on that sharp angle, maybe I sucked something up in a hydraulic filter.....
Decided to do my 300 hr service a little early. Imagine my surprise when I pulled the first filter off! This was the filter that faces front/rear, not left/right. It appears to be at the low point of the system also. It is my understanding that this filter that plugged is for the hydraulic circuit (including the steering) and the other is for the hydrostatic transmission.
The foreign matter appears to be some sort of excess sealant that was used to mate two surfaces and probably squeezed out as excess. As it was all in the return holes of the filter and not on the suction side, I think I'm fine. Tractor seemed fine after the fluid and filter change and steering was back to normal, I believe. I'm just a little surprised that this didn't happen a lot earlier.
On another note, I made the switch from regular UDT to Super UDT2 just for grins to see if there would be a difference in hydro whine. It was only $20 bucks more, so I figured what the heck. To all those doubters - I was one - there is a very noticeable difference! I was quite surprised - shocked, really. I honestly didn't expect a difference at all. Made the machine the whole lot quieter. The whine is not gone altogether, but close. Much, much better. I'm sold.
View attachment 297894View attachment 297895View attachment 297896
A couple of weeks ago, I was running the chipper for a half hour or so with the tractor on a pretty good slope - front end lower than the rear. Upon finishing this, I was moving some pretty good buckets full of firewood when I noticed my steering effort suddenly increased. It wasn't hard to steer, but the increase in effort was quite noticeable, especially turning left. I thought while I was in the woods maybe I hit a steering cylinder or overloaded the front end somehow with the weight of the firewood. No way, I've done all this plenty of times before. So I get to thinking that perhaps while running the tractor at pto speed on that sharp angle, maybe I sucked something up in a hydraulic filter.....
Decided to do my 300 hr service a little early. Imagine my surprise when I pulled the first filter off! This was the filter that faces front/rear, not left/right. It appears to be at the low point of the system also. It is my understanding that this filter that plugged is for the hydraulic circuit (including the steering) and the other is for the hydrostatic transmission.
The foreign matter appears to be some sort of excess sealant that was used to mate two surfaces and probably squeezed out as excess. As it was all in the return holes of the filter and not on the suction side, I think I'm fine. Tractor seemed fine after the fluid and filter change and steering was back to normal, I believe. I'm just a little surprised that this didn't happen a lot earlier.
On another note, I made the switch from regular UDT to Super UDT2 just for grins to see if there would be a difference in hydro whine. It was only $20 bucks more, so I figured what the heck. To all those doubters - I was one - there is a very noticeable difference! I was quite surprised - shocked, really. I honestly didn't expect a difference at all. Made the machine the whole lot quieter. The whine is not gone altogether, but close. Much, much better. I'm sold.
View attachment 297894View attachment 297895View attachment 297896
