Question about TO-35...

[kebo]

My hunt club has a '57 TO-35 and the 3pt lift doesn't work sometimes. There's supposed to be a filter (or screen?) for the hydraulic fluid inside the trans. housing on the lefthand side, just behind a round access cover. I think the cover is also where the PTO engagement lever exits the tranny, but I'm going by memory on that so I could be wrong.
Is it possible to pull the round access cover off, and remove the filter for cleaning/replacement without draining all the fluid out? Seems like the round cover is probably above the fluid line, so we were wondering if we could check the filter without pulling the drain plug. Or should we just go ahead and plan on pulling the plug??? We just want to pull the filter and make sure it's not clogged up or anything. Thanks!

 

[JJ. in B.C.]

To remove the side cover you need to drain oil below bottom bolt hole of cover, but... your 1957 TO35 won't have a hydraulic filter, the early style pumps didn't have one, if it turns out your pump is bad you will have to replace it with the later style pump as i don't think rebuild kits are available for the early pumps.

 

[Mike476]

I don't know if the TO 35 would be much different from my 66 135. Mine was acting similar to what you're describing shortly after I bought it. Hyd fluid was so full of water it looked like a caramel milkshake, it was a wonder I didn't burn the pump out of it. Changed the fluid, opened it up to make sure the ring on the lift cylinder etc was still in good shape. Have had to rig the linkages for better response this past year and change the upper link spring but it's working great.

A few pics of what mine looked like tore apart.

 

[beenthere]

kebo
Do you have the Ferguson Shop Manual (I&T Shop Service Manuals) ??

That would be a good place to start, if you don't. They are pretty helpful, along with the great info from here on TBN

I had a TO-30, and at 10 below F one winter, the hyd. lift quit.
I backed it in the garage, read the R&R section of the I&T manual for hyd. pump repair. The first thing I noticed was to drain the oil. It was so cold, took 2 days to drain.
Removed the pump, had it on my bench. Went back to read more detail in the I&T manual and the first sentence read something like "Before pulling the pump, reach in the side port/cover and see if some rod was sticking. Loosen and test the hyd. to make sure that is the only problem". Turns out that was the only problem, and in my haste I had a perfectly good pump, 3 days of time invested. Put it all back together and never had another problem with the hydraulics. But it wasn't the manuals fault.

 

[Mike476]

Sounds like a similar setup to mine beenthere.

Also, when looking through your side cover, the standpipe (upper left photo, running from the pump to the upper left corner of the photo) that comes from the pump up to the aux block on mine has o-rings on either end.

I've had to replace the top o-ring (took the block off, curiosity got the better of me and when checking it after re-installing, fluid sprayed everywhere , looked like a shower when looking in through the side cover). Surprising how little it takes to lose pressure when the pump only delivers 4.5 gpm. Fortunately you can change them without removing the top cover, that weighs a ton......

 

[beenthere]

............Fortunately you can change them without removing the top cover, that weighs a ton......

That thought went through my mid when I saw the pics. Did you have a tranny lift to get it up?

 

[Mike476]

No, unfortunately not. A good friend who like me belongs to the strong back / weak mind club.....

Was glad to have taken the opportunity to take a good look at everything, gives me confidence. I sure wouldn't do it solely out of curiosity, like you said, three days work.

 

[kebo]

Thanks for the responses, and for the pic's too. Gonna see if I can get my balky HP printer to work and print off copies of the pic's. We do have an IT manual for the tractor, but it's in the cabin up at the hunt club, where the tractor is too obviously.

We plan to get up there in the next week or two and will probably drain out the fluid anyway so we can take the side covers off and have a look see at everything. we changed out the fluid last year but found out later we used the wrong stuff. We put in some multi viscosity tractor/trans fluid. Should have used a multigrade 15W/30 GL1 type oil. That may be part of our problem.

This has brought up a couple other questions:
When we pull the left side cover off that has the PTO engage lever in it, is there anything tricky about it? It looks like it just has a shaft that snugs up underneath a groove on the sliding collar on the main shaft. If I'm right, after you loosen the bolts, you just pull it straight out? To reinstall, just slide it in straight so it lines back up?

Thanks again!

 

[JJ. in B.C.]

Kebo, the oil you have in your TO35 could be the whole problem, you should be using GL1 90wt MINERAL oil to MF specs M1103, you can get it at NAPA in 5 and 1gal containers.

 

[beenthere]

My recollection is you can take the covers off without draining the tranny. Could be wrong, but check it out.

 

[Mike476]

Don't have to drain it entirely to take the side cover off, a couple quarts to get below the lowest bolt on the cover if I remember correctly.

 

[JJ. in B.C.]

My recollection is you can take the covers off without draining the tranny. Could be wrong, but check it out.

You are wrong, you will finish up with a couple gallons of oil pouring outta there !!, and why would he wanna take an oil bath when he has the wrong oil in there anyway ??

 

[kebo]

Well, a little update on the lift problem with our TO35. Today we drained out the tractor/trans multi viscosity fluid from the tractor. It came out looking pretty brownish, but not milky. There was maybe 1/3 cup of water in it. Little history here, when we got it a year ago, the rubber boot for the shift lever was dry rotted so it allowed water to leak in. The seller left it sitting outside, so when we got it, it had a fair amount of water inside the trans, hyd, and rear end housings. We drained & flushed best we could, and got most of it out. Maybe that little bit of water was from condensation? Anyway, the fluid that we had in there was pretty thin. There was some sludge in it, but not too much of that either.
After letting it drain for an hour, we put the (correct) fluid back in, 90wt mineral based GL1 that we got at TSC. This is a thicker fluid so taking advice from John in UK (great guy to give helpful advice btw), we poured in 2 gals. at a time and let it sit a few minutes between each pouring, giving the fluid time to settle in. We finally got the 8 gals in and it was right at the top of the fill mark on the dipstick. Now for the test. Cranked it up and started working the lift with no attachment hooked up. At first it was a bit balky but then it started working ok with no implement. Maybe it had a bit of air in the system? Hooked up the 500lb bush hog and it seemed to lift it pretty easily and consistently. So far, it seems to be doing much better than it was before with the old fluid in it. I still think there is a problem of some sort with the hydraulic system because it pulsates at a rapid rate when it lifts an attachment and holds it up. It should be a smooth steady lift without the pulsation.

We also changed out the engine oil and filter today so it's ready to go. We are going to run it for the next few weeks to do all of the bushhogging at our club, as well as disking & seeding to put in our food plots and grading some of the roads that have washed out with all the rain we've had lately. We will also have my tractor there and probably one or two others to help out with all the work. We're talking about 650 acres at our main tract, and several smaller tracts at our other leases so it's a big effort to get it all done in a short timeframe.

If the TO35 continues to have problems with the lift, we will see if we can "limp" it through the work we need to get done the next several weeks. Then, get down there one day and drain out 2-3 gal's of fluid, pull off one (or both) of the inspection port covers, and see if we can tell what's going on. Thanks for everyone's replies!!