Normal Front Axle Temp

MSU_Keith · Sep 10, 2005

After doing some medium duty grading for several hours I was cleaning the chunks out from behind my front wheels by hand when I happened to lean on my front axle housing. The housing was almost to hot to keep my hand on for long than 5 seconds. Just curious if this normal or if I have a problem. FYI -CK30HST and was running in 4x4 full time.

RedRocker · Sep 10, 2005

Can't say I've ever checked that.

JJT · Sep 10, 2005

Mine will get warm to the touch after a few hours of hard work in 4wd, but not hot. Is the fluid up where it needs to be? How long has it been since you've changed the fluid? Any chance you've got some water in there?

MSU_Keith · Sep 10, 2005

Fluid has never been changed - only 40 hours on the tractor. Not sure on the water - I have been playing in lots of mud, is there a way to check without draining? Maybe I'm just overly concerned and the temp is normal - when I was a boy my hands could never handle the temp my mom washed dishs with /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.

Boomerang1 · Sep 10, 2005

Seems normal. Where I live, you can not pick up a steel tool after it has been in the sun for 2 or 3 minutes. Anything over 140 degrees will burn bare skin. My guess is that axle temps could hit 200 degrees fairly easy.

VictorW · Sep 10, 2005

Can't say that I've ever touched mine after use so can't help you with the temp. As far as checking for water, Kioti uses the hydro fluid for front axle lube. At least that was what I drained out at the 50 hour service. If you let the tractor sit overnight, the water should try to settle to the lowest point. The two drains at each end of the axle should be easy to open for a second or two and catch it in a clean container. At 40 hours, if you question water at all, I'd drain and refill with SAE 90 as the manual suggests. More importantly, if you find water, I'd think something is wrong with a seal and maybe talk to your dealer.

Boomerang1 · Sep 11, 2005

Water will get drawn into the axle through the seals if the axle was hot when it was driven through water or mud. The seals do not have to be defective for this to happen. Always cool down before driving into water. This same thing happens when you solder a copper pipe, you heat one side of the fitting and the solder gets sucked in around the entire fitting. Remember this if you use your trucks in water also. You should also run a length of plastic or rubber hose from your axle vent up to the frame.

TBDonnelly · Sep 11, 2005

<font color="blue"> You should also run a length of plastic or rubber hose from your axle vent up to the frame.</font>

The CK30 front axle is vented from the factory. There should be a rubber hose hanging along the axle on the exhaust pipe side of the tractor. I would check to make sure it's not plugged with mud.....

Don

IH3444 · Sep 12, 2005

A few buddies of mine and I went through this with our rear axles on our pickup trucks about 10 years. They all were too hot to touch after a drive home in the summer. I wouldn't worry about it. At most I would say it's running betwenn 160-180 degrees hot. Your axle lube is more than adaquate to protect your internal parts. If you are still worried, change it to Mobil 1 75-90 synthetic.

Mavrik02 · Sep 12, 2005

Now that I actually own a tractor I can contribute to some of these discussions... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I was working with my CK30HST this weekend and inadvertently grabbed the front axle after a few hours of operations...ouch it was hot! It was about 78 degrees out and I ran the tractor on and off all day (about 6 hrs) in 4WD. The front axle was too hot to hold. The tractor is brand new (~10 hours) and the oil is fine. I assumed that it just got hot...maybe due to the hydraulic cylinder moving in/out???

Does anyone know?