Oil & Fuel 2017 Kioti CK3510HST leaking hydraulic (I think) fluid

[TractorSheep]

Hi all;

I have a 2017 Kioti CK3510HST that just past the 4 year mark, problem free up until this point. Parked the tractor after doing some heavy mowing with a flail mower, then about two days later (not using it) I noticed a large puddle under the tractor. Did the usual Google searching, seems it's likely a seal. Appears to be common to have various leaks with these, but couldn't find one like this (at least with a picture; I'm unclear on the terminology so may be one I missed). Picture:

So would some kind soul please tell me what part this is that is actually leaking? It's coming from where the white shop towel is stuffed (cleaned up the area to locate the leak and for the picture). And in case it's not clear, this picture is from under the middle of the tractor looking at the rear. There was long grass wrapped around the shaft, so not sure if that could have caused this through extra strain or something, but that was the only different thing I noticed.

EDIT: Further research seems to show this is the propeller shaft. And after lots of part diagram searching, I found the below that shows an "oil seal" there (#6 in the linked diagram).

Parts Finder Michigan Iron & Equipment Morrice, MI (855) 265-4590

Parts Finder Michigan Iron & Equipment Morrice, MI (855) 265-4590

www.michiganironandequip.com

So still hoping someone can confirm this, and if anyone has experience replacing it that would be great to hear the details. Seems on some tractors you have to "split" it, but hoping that's not the case with this one.

Thanks in advance!
Scott

 

[Roadworthy]

Is that unit not covered under the Kioti six year power train warranty?

 

[TractorSheep]

Is that unit not covered under the Kioti six year power train warranty?

Thanks for the response! Looks like it could be; I did not see the additional two years of warranty they added on. Will ask the dealer tomorrow when I call (closed on Sundays), but ideally would still like to avoid bringing it in if possible as it's 1.5 hours each way. So hoping someone has experience replacing the seal (presuming that's what it is) to see how easy or difficult it is to be worth the trip.

 

[K5lwq]

I have not replaced that seal in your tractor before but looks fairly straight forward to me. You will have to drop the front driveshaft. It looks like you could possibly drive out the roll pin in the coupler and slide it back on the driveshaft. That may give you enough clearance to remove and replace the seal.

There may even be a easier way to go at it but without the service manual or seeing it in person I would not know. Hopefully someone else can offer better advice.

The grass wrapping around that shaft is what cut the seal. It is not from being overworked. Once you get it fixed, make sure you check that often and keep the grass cleaned off. Good luck!

 

[TractorSheep]

I have not replaced that seal in your tractor before but looks fairly straight forward to me. You will have to drop the front driveshaft. It looks like you could possibly drive out the roll pin in the coupler and slide it back on the driveshaft. That may give you enough clearance to remove and replace the seal.

There may even be a easier way to go at it but without the service manual or seeing it in person I would not know. Hopefully someone else can offer better advice.

The grass wrapping around that shaft is what cut the seal. It is not from being overworked. Once you get it fixed, make sure you check that often and keep the grass cleaned off. Good luck!

Thanks for the info! It does sound like it should be straight forward, but those are the things that tend to turn into a mess so I'm always hesitant hah! After I found out the name of the shaft, and did more searching, I found a few threads with similar issues (on other tractors) from grass. Sounds like the grass wraps up and then pushes the seal back basically and breaks it somehow. Unfortunate design as their isn't a ton of ground clearance, so I'd have to mow the pastures pretty often to keep it at a level low enough to not harm it, or stop constantly to check as you mentioned. Will have to look into possible shielding to see if anything can be done there.

RE: the service manual, I can't seem to find any for Kioti (much less my specific model), but will check with the dealer on that as well. Downside to having a more obscure brand vs Kubota or Deere! I have the owner's manual, but that doesn't show anything more than the basics, though I'm grateful to have that at least.

 

[ptsg]

Luckily for you, Kioti has pretty much the entire database open for public, so the all the manuals for any tractor are there available for everyone. Along with warranty claims and other things that shouldn't be public.

Check this thread. The link for yours may already be there. If not, let me and I'll try to find it for you later.

On the other hand, that looks like a simple job. Basically you'll need to punch out the roll pins on the splined couplers for the front axle prop shaft. From the parts manual, the end on the front diff uses a snap ring instead of a roll pin. Once you have the roll pin and snap ring out, you should be able to slide the splined couplers over the prop shaft and the shaft will come out.

Then you most likely need to drain the entire transmission as it will poor out once you pull the seal out. After you got it drained, you can screw some drywall screws on the face of the seal and then pull it out with a pair of pliers or something similar.

 

[K5lwq]

I forgot about that thread. Here is the link to the manual.

http://demss.co.kr/dossfile/manualnew/WM/TB150%5BCX2510(H),CX2510(H)(N)-EU%5D_ALL-201021.pdf

 

[TractorSheep]

I forgot about that thread. Here is the link to the manual.

http://demss.co.kr/dossfile/manualnew/WM/TB150%5BCX2510(H),CX2510(H)(N)-EU%5D_ALL-201021.pdf

Nice find with the manuals, thanks! The one you linked was for a different model (CX), but I was able to find the one for my model on that site still so worked out! Even in color which is great. I went by the dealer today to get the seal, luckily they had them in stock so I grabbed a couple. Will update once I go through with it. If you don't hear from me then it probably went horribly wrong and I went into hiding.

 

[K5lwq]

You should be fine. Using the screw technique as ptsg posted works great for removing the old seal. Just be careful not to screw in too deep. It only takes a couple of threads. Don’t want to hit the bearing if at all possible.

 

[TractorSheep]

Made time this morning to tackle the seal, seems to have worked so far; no initial leaking anyway after refilling with hydraulic fluid and driving it around in various gears and working the loader to get things moving. Will have to check later and hope it's still good!

Here's what I ended up doing for anyone interested or in the future:

1. Drained the hydraulic fluid via the red bolt below the seal (see pic in original post). This seemed to empty probably half the total fluid (~2.5 gallons) and was enough to stop it from leaking to get the work done, and saved me from having to empty the whole thing.
2. Took the pin out of the coupler connecting the two shafts near the seal. This was the first initial pain, as I had to spin the front tires a few times to get the pin whole lined up to a place where I could get it out. Used a basic pin punch set for this, fairly straight forward once the alignment was right.
3. Used a small prybar with a curved end to shift the coupler away from the seal and disconnect the two pieces of the shaft.
4. At this point I attempted to do the same for the front coupler (to fully remove the shaft), but I was unable to get an angle where I could get the pin out of the front coupler. Likely there is a trick here but I could not find it. Luckily I was able to move the rear coupler (near the seal) far enough back to create a gap between the shafts big enough to slide the seal between it.
5. Screwed a screw into the seal. The seal was a lot tougher than I imagined; took a bit of doing to actually get the screw to bite in. Tried drilling it first but couldn't find a drill bit that would bite in either. Partly due to odd angle, partly due to being afraid to press too hard and screw up the bearing or metal.
6. Used the same prybar to pry the screw out and the seal along with it. Came out fairly easy.
7. Slid the seal out between the small gap mentioned earlier between the two shaft pieces.
8. Got the new seal, put some grease around the outside of it and slid it back into the same location.
9. Now this is where not fully taking off the shaft bit me in the butt, as it was difficult to get the seal pressed in properly while trying to keep it going in even (not crooked) and not messing it or anything else up in the process. Used one of the large pin punches (anything with a flat roundish end would probably work) and tapped the seal back in very slowly in equal increments around the seal. Took quite a while (trying to be gentle, maybe too much so), didn't think it was going to work, but with a little persistence and some more force it went in eventually. Would definitely have been a lot easier with the shaft all the way off with room to put something on the whole seal to push it all in at once (saw some videos of people using large sockets, or large diameter PVC pipe to do so).
10. Next hard part was attaching the two shafts back together with the coupler. Had to pull the shaft to the side and upwards a bit to get it lined up, while at the same time trying to hit it forward. Eventually got it, but was a PITA. Again likely just me doing it wrong, but once it got lined up and engaged it slid back on easily.
11. Put the pin back in the coupler to lock the two shafts back together.
12. Refilled the hydraulic fluid and topped it off to replace what had leaked out over the past couple of days.

So overall was fairly easy, but definitely a few places where even a slight screw up could have pretty bad consequences regarding the seal and the area being sealed to begin with. But glad it's done, and glad I didn't have to haul it to the dealer at least.

Thanks again for the help K5lwq and ptsg!