milky hydraulic fluid

[itsmesrd]

Hello everyone, new guy here. Two weeks ago I bought a Mitsubishi D2000 from my nephew. The little tractor came with
a bush hog and a small set of chopper discs. Finally got it home day before yesterday, and discovered that the 3 point was
very slow lifting the bush hog unless the engine RPM was over 1000. Checked the fluid level and could see that it was water
contaminated. The boot on the shift lever has some cracks and splits could be the point of water entry.. I'm hoping to be
able to find new ones for both the PTO and shift lever. I also noticed that the lift arms are not at the same height, seems
like the right side at least 1.5" lower than the left side. I'm hoping to be able to remove one of the arms and reposition it.
I pulled the hyd. filter and cleaned it as well as drained the fluid. I used 5 gallons of diesel to try and flush the thing I let it
drain for a couple of hours, but can't seem to get all of the watery fluid out. Is there a drain plug or some other way to
Completely drain the hydraulic system.

 

[CincyFlyer]

If you want to grab all of the water, use some alcohol-based fluid, such as, um, alcohol. (I have five gallon cans of ethanol around.) Alcohols love to grab water, and will, to some degree or other, dissolve oils and gunk. I'd do that, let it sit, then dump some diesel or hyd/trans oil in to flush that out, and let it sit for a bit. Small amounts of water will evaporate if the fluid gets hot (mine gets over 120°F regularly, hotter if I use the backhoe a lot.)
Drain all of your cylinders (if you have a BH or a FEL or any implements) separately.
And, as you are already doing, stop water from infiltrating!

 

[void777]

itsmesrd
Welcome to TBN Cincy gave very sound advice clearing all cylinders and lines I use diesel then save it for the burn piles .

 

[itsmesrd]

Thanks CincyFlyer I should have thought of that to start with. Hytrans is nearly $40 for 5 gallons here so I need to minimize how much I waste. Can I run the engine with the alcohol in the trans? I think U should leave "some" hyd fluid for it to mix with. The only cylinders that are on the tractor is the self-contained one that works the 3 point lift. Seems like I would have to be able to cycle it a few times to get rid of that fluid also.
As a side note I've got hold of a copy of the parts manual for the D2000 that is a big help "to me anyway" when it comes to putting things back together. So if anyone needs info...
Thanks for the info, I need all the help I can get.

 

[LarJea]

I had the same water in the hydraulic oil problem on my old case 580. The problem in my area was condensation in the tank from the damp weather cooling down and heating back up. Fortunately I could drain the water at the bottom of the tank after siting for a long time. Looking back I think had I used that old backhoe more and worked it hard enough to get the oil hot enough for a long period of time I probably would not have had condensation problems.