Oil & Fuel Changing hydraulic oil in 425 power-trac

[Kaon99]

Dear Forum,

I have had my PT-425 since Dec. 2002 and plan to change the hydraulic oil this week. I am at somewhat of a loss as to how to deal with the 10 gal of old motor oil. I would really like to know what some of your guys/gals have done. I would appreciate and advice and details you can provide. Thanks in advance. Ken in Mississippi

 

[KMA]

Local auto parts stores (e.g. Autozone) often take up to 5 gallons at a time. I put the used oil into 5 gallon buckets and brought them in separately to be recycled. No charge.

 

[MossRoad]

Check with your local car part stores as mentioned. Don't tell them its from a tractor or the may get confused and label you as an Agricultural user. Tell them it is from your lawn mower. Ask how much they can take at a time. Many of them take it for free.

As mentioned, find some 5 gallon buckets with lids. Those work great. Or, as a temporary solution, find a 55 gallon plastic drum complete with lids. Drain your oil, pour it in the 55 gallon drum. Add your new oil to the tractor, then transfer the old oil from the 55 gallon drum to the now empty new containers and take those in for recycling. When I had my big tractor, I had to do that. It took 20 gallons of hydraulic fluid. Took me a few months to get it all recycled.

 

[coolconnection]

Take to TSC (tractor supply) that is where I take my used oil. Doesn't matter what type, YOU will have to dump it into their tank and sign a waver stating it isn't any other chemical but oil. They sell it cheap and it is cleaned and used for what they told me school heating oil.

 

[Kaon99]

Guys,
Thanks for the info, it is very helpful. Here is another question. When you change hydraulic fluid, do you worry about the contaminated fluid that is already in the hydraulic lines? I know there is not much and I did not plan to try to get it out. What do you think? Ken in Mississippi

 

[MossRoad]

I wouldn't worry about it. It is more important to keep the filter changed on a regular basis, dirt away from the filler when opening, keeping the quick connects clean, etc... in my opinion.

Now, if you had some catastrophic failure that spewed metal chunks into the system, that would be another story. But for a normal fluid change like that I wouldn't be concerned.

 

[Kaon99]

Guys,

A word of warning. Be careful with the plug on the oil reservoir. I just stripped the hex threads on the plug (ouch!). I used wd40 and the right size hex wrench, but it still stripped. I called Terry at Power-Trac and he said he had stripped the plug himself in the past. The remedy is to weld a nut onto the hex plug. If it is really stuck like mine is, I think the only way to get the plug out without stripping it is to heat the outside part first. If anyone knows a better way, please add your comments. - Ken in Mississippi

 

[MossRoad]

Heat on an oil reservoir? Yikes. Maybe run the unit until the oil gets really hot, then try breaking it loose.

Worse comes to worse, slowly shove 5' of hose down in the tank through the filler except for the last 6 inches.
Plug the end of the hose and yank it up and over the side to a drainpan on the ground.
Remove the plug and is should start siphoning out on its own.
Keep the end in the tank near the bottom and you should get most of the oil out.

You could also try an easy-out like these:
Irwin 53535 5 pc Easy Out Screw Extractor Set
I have a set and they work really well.

 

[toy]

Guys,

A word of warning. Be careful with the plug on the oil reservoir. I just stripped the hex threads on the plug (ouch!). I used wd40 and the right size hex wrench, but it still stripped. I called Terry at Power-Trac and he said he had stripped the plug himself in the past. The remedy is to weld a nut onto the hex plug. If it is really stuck like mine is, I think the only way to get the plug out without stripping it is to heat the outside part first. If anyone knows a better way, please add your comments. - Ken in Mississippi

If you decide to use easy outs proto has a square easy out that is tapered length wise, they have hardened sharp corners that will cut into the metal and get a good bite to turn it out. Use the largest one that you can drive into the hex socket, remember you have a limited distance that you can drive it in unless you drill the bottom of the hex plug out. If you do resort to drilling through the plug if you use left hand drill bits [you drill in reverse] the drill when it starts cutting it is cutting in the direction that you would want to turn the drain plug so in most cases when it bites in the piece that you want out will often back out. Take my advise for what it is worth, if you do use this method try to get the metal shavings out as best you can if there is any and make sure you don't drill into the threads that is in the tank drain port. I don't know if pipe dope was used on the threads of the plug or not, but if there was that might make removing harder and someone else might have an idea. Remember you are the one doing the work and sometimes really good suggestions don't work but sometimes they do. If you are trying the easy outs a crescent wrench on the head and tapping the end of the easy out with a hammer as you are trying to turn it sometimes helps. Make sure before you remove the old plug that you have a new one on hand to replace it with beforehand. No oftener than you would change the oil out of the hydraulic tank, Mosses Idea of syphoning out the oil is a real good idea, one of those squeeze bulb hand pumps that you transfer kerosine into a heater would work to get the oil out.

 

[toy]

Your filter will probably catch the metal shavings also before it gets to the pumps. Hope you get it figured out with the least trouble.

 

[woodlandfarms]

From what I understand, heating, and even welding on and oil tank is moderate risk. Takes a lot to light oil on fire. Throw a match on oil once, you will learn it takes a lot more to get it going. Not to say it isn't dangerous, just not like welding on a gas tank.

As for the filter, on my 1850 we have 3 output hoses from the oil tank. Only one is filtered (the wheel motor lines) which makes no sense at all as the wheel motors don't use a lot of oil from what I understand (it is kind of close to a closed loop system) I do have a second filter on the lift tilt dump circuit that is high pressure. But it is downstream of the pumps so a bit worthless as well.

 

[MossRoad]

Your filter will probably catch the metal shavings also before it gets to the pumps. Hope you get it figured out with the least trouble.

Its my understanding that the filter is only on the charge pump side of the tram pump and does not filter anything going to the PTO pumps. I.E. the filter only protects the tram pump and wheel motors. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks.

 

[KentT]

Coming from someone who's changed out their oil, I think you'd be surprised at the amount of metal particles in it. I stored the old oil in 1 gallon jugs for possible reuse for other purposes -- I was thinking perhaps to oil the chainsaw chains. After a few months of sitting, there was a thin layer of grey sludge/metal coating the bottom of each jug that settled out of the oil. Given that, I decided not to reuse it and took it to the disposal center...

Though there may be a 10 micron filter in there, it doesn't filter all the oil all the time... and metal is metal, regardless of how small the shaving is...

I don't regret the expense...

 

[SpringHollow]

In case there is any doubt that there are metal filings in there look what is on the tank magnets:



Ken

 

[Kaon99]

Guys,
I had a welding shop put a handle on the oil drain plug. It moves now just fine. The main reason I am changing the hydraulic fluid is that it appears to have water in it. There is a brownish layer on the top of the oil. Has anyone had water (or something else) suddenly appear in the hydraulic fluid? Ken

 

[woodlandfarms]

Befor changing suck the layer our. About tho only way to get water in the system is through washing. Maybe a rain...

 

[J_J]

Using my 1445 as a reference,

I believe the only filtering that is done on the PT is through the charge filter for use by the VSP pump, which is a 10 micron suction filter.

This filter is necessary to keep the VSP pump clean and working, especially since it is a closed loop hyd system and only gets makeup fluid when fluid is flushed through the pumps case , and then to tank

The the other two pumps fluid go to tank with no filtering, so it is not hard to see that there could be metal, rubber,trash, etc in the tank.

You could perhaps add a return filter before the tank return, but there might be several tank returns.