Front axle leak

[PaulB]

For about a year I have found that every month or 2 I am down half a quart of fluid in the front axle case of my 1999 B1700 HST. I looked and looked and could never see a leak. The book says to use either super UDT OR 80 weight gear oil ( which is weird, kind of like dating Heather Locklear OR Rosie O'Donnel) , so the first thing I did was go to the heavier oil. Now I can finally see where the leak is coming from, and it is where the axle pivots on the frame. I have adjusted this pivot point per the service directions, and still the leak is there. My questions are - is this a do it at home repair, if not is it going to kill me financially to have the dealer do it, and what happens if I just live with it and add oil every so often ?
thanks for any input,
PaulB

 

[btolle]

Go to Tractorsmart Parts Manuals and download the parts manual for your tractor. That will give you a picture of what parts are involved and some clue as to how hard it will be to repair.

I looked at the parts manual for my B7510 and there appears to be an O ring seal on each side of the housing where the bolt goes through that holds the axle on. Looks fairly simple but I have not taken one apart so I can't tell for sure.

Bill Tolle

 

[theboman]

I just had one replaced on my B7500. Took the dealer's guy an hour. He told me it wasn't too hard to do

 

[B2400]

Do you have Bi-Speed Turn? If so, it is a rather involved job. I've replaced the rear O-ring twice now on my B2400, and I can do it in 4.5 hrs not including oil fill. If yours doesn't have this option it should be fairly easy and I can see it taking an hour or so. If you do have Bi-speed, send me a PM and I'll try to give you some tips to lessen your aggravation. The first one took three of us almost 8 hours to fix!

 

[PaulB]

NOT a bispeed thankfully. If its only an hour job for the dealer, I'll have him do it rather than take the risk of listening to my wife say "I told you so ".

thanks for the responses, great help.
PaulB

 

[PaulB]

Hey, since Bo and B2400 have both had this problem I am wondering, is this really common in the B1700/2100/2400 series? If so, I bet there are a lot of guys out there (gals too, lets be politically correct) running low fluid without even knowing it.
PaulB

 

[theboman]

I think it's common. There are several instances on here mentioning the leak. I think I read that the hub gets hot and the seal breaks down... I could be 100% off bass to.

 

[Pks]

I think the original post was about the axle pivot seal. My B2400's seals are 690 hours and 7 years old. No leak yet.

 

[PaulB]

Thats right, the seal I am having trouble with is on the pivot , not the hub. By the way, 6 years old, 800 hours.
PaulB

 

[B2400]

Mine started leaking after I carried a +400lb lawn roller in the bucket from my parents house( 1/2 mi away) and had went down a rather steep hill. Steep enough that the tractor was on the front wheels for the entire trip down hill! I also had the MMM on at this time,so the weight load was pretty high on the front axle pivot. When I disassembled it there was quite a bit of galling on the pivot trunion and the housing bearing surface. I did my best with emery cloth to clean up both surfaces but the o-ring began leaking 100hrs later. This time I used a slightly thicker 0-ring and switched from Mobil1 synthetic(75W-90) to Lucas 80W-90. I haven't put many hours on it since the last repair but so far no leak. Time will tell but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. This drought has really cut into my mowing time, I haven't mowed since June 23rd and It doesn't look like it needs it anytime soon.