3038e - First Hydraulic Oil Change

nunyabinis · Nov 28, 2009

I planned to perform the first hydraulic oil change at 100 hours, however, the manual says to change it every 400 hours. It says nothing about the "first" hydraulic change being sooner than that.

Would changing the hyd. oil at 100 hours be overkill or cheap insurance?

nunyabinis · Nov 28, 2009

Oops. I meant to post this in "Owning/Operating".

More coffee. Need more coffee.

WH401 · Nov 28, 2009

Cheap insurance, it'll get any of the "wear particles" out of the system, which are especially noticeable in the front axle. Also you can refill it with low-viscosity Hygard, which will perform better all around, especially in cooler temps before the tractors has fully warmed up.

nunyabinis · Nov 28, 2009

Well, I changed my Hyd. Oil this afternoon. What a fiasco that was. Draining the oil was easy enough but I couldn't get the factory filter off. I tried three different types of filter wrenches with no success. The last wrench I used caved in the side of the filter so then I tried to use an air hammer with a spade bit to tap it at an angle around the edge of the filter near the flange. I nearly cut a hole in the filter but it still didn't budge. I finally had to take the left rear wheel off and then I drove a heavy duty screwdriver completely through the filter with a hammer so I could break the darn thing loose. It took about an hour and a half to change the cotton pickin' filter!!!

They had tightened it so tight from the factory that the rubber seal was completely compressed and the metal of the filter was pressed against the flange. The instructions say to turn the filter 3/4 of a turn after the rubber seal contacts the flange. They had turned it WAY past that!!! I don't see how in the heck they could even get it that tight without denting the sides of the filter in. I wonder if that was one of the parts the was "Assembled in America"?

Then, once I had refilled the tranny, the eHydro worked fine but I had no TPH, power steering or FEL pressure. It took a total of almost five minutes of engine running before I got any pressure to these components. I turned the tractor off twice to look around for leaks or stuff I had missed, read the manual again and scratch my head. The third time I cranked it up I started working the steering back and forth for about a minute and was just about to shut it off for good and call the JD Dealer on Monday to ask them what was wrong when it suddenly started pumping pressure to those components.

I then used my subsoiler for about an hour ripping roots around the edge of the field and used the subsoiler to pull a couple old lightered stumps out the ground. Everything seems to work just fine with no weird noises.

Is it normal to take that long to pump pressure to the TPH, Steering and FEL?

bp fick · Nov 28, 2009

That extra special oil filter wrench is familiar to most of us, from time to time.

WH401 · Nov 28, 2009

nunyabinis said:
Well, I changed my Hyd. Oil this afternoon. What a fiasco that was. Draining the oil was easy enough but I couldn't get the factory filter off. I tried three different types of filter wrenches with no success. The last wrench I used caved in the side of the filter so then I tried to use an air hammer with a spade bit to tap it at an angle around the edge of the filter near the flange. I nearly cut a hole in the filter but it still didn't budge. I finally had to take the left rear wheel off and then I drove a heavy duty screwdriver completely through the filter with a hammer so I could break the darn thing loose. It took about an hour and a half to change the cotton pickin' filter!!!

They had tightened it so tight from the factory that the rubber seal was completely compressed and the metal of the filter was pressed against the flange. The instructions say to turn the filter 3/4 of a turn after the rubber seal contacts the flange. They had turned it WAY past that!!! I don't see how in the heck they could even get it that tight without denting the sides of the filter in. I wonder if that was one of the parts the was "Assembled in America"?

Then, once I had refilled the tranny, the eHydro worked fine but I had no TPH, power steering or FEL pressure. It took a total of almost five minutes of engine running before I got any pressure to these components. I turned the tractor off twice to look around for leaks or stuff I had missed, read the manual again and scratch my head. The third time I cranked it up I started working the steering back and forth for about a minute and was just about to shut it off for good and call the JD Dealer on Monday to ask them what was wrong when it suddenly started pumping pressure to those components.

I then used my subsoiler for about an hour ripping roots around the edge of the field and used the subsoiler to pull a couple old lightered stumps out the ground. Everything seems to work just fine with no weird noises.

Is it normal to take that long to pump pressure to the TPH, Steering and FEL?

Too bad to hear about your filter issues, at least you were able to get it off though. No, I wouldn't say it's normal for the pressure to take that long to build up...a handful of seconds maybe, but not minutes. When I changed my 3320 I didn't run into this issue. I would just make a note of it for future reference, as it sounds like everything is working fine now.