hydrostatic drive warn out! Heavy oil yes or no

Roto · Feb 4, 2005

Well this is the story. I have a 1969 IH 2544. Its like a 544 international but the yellow industrial version. It has hydrostaic drive foot pedal design. Whe it is hot and runnuing at rpm like haying in summer it barely wants to go. In the winter its absolutly mint and anytime i use it it goes good except after a few hours of haying in hot weather 80's and the temp guage starts going up and the tractor starts getting slower. Ive talked to a few IH mechanics and they all seem to think like me that the hydostatic tranny is warn out. Now, its gonna be around 3k to fix from what i understand. have to split tractor and tear all apart and rebuild pump and hydraulic motor and gonna be expensive. I would like to get another a year out of it or two if I could then buy another tractor. It has power steering and hydro drive and pto and 3 point hitch. I run hy-tran hydraulic oil in it, the regular stuff you would get at a IH dealer. I have changed the oil around 600 houirs ago i guess but changed filter last year. A couple people have said to try a heavier oil and that may help it get by a couple more years. one of these guys rebuilds hydrostaic drives and hydraulics for a living and his only concern was something about brakes but i think my brakes are dry no fluid. It makes sense that heavier fluid will help because in the winter at 0 degrees it goes great because oil is heavy and thick so heavier oil should help right? Another IH service mechanic said heavier oil will make porblem worse but he is only one that said that. I would like to try it if you guys think it may help and need to know how thick i can go and what type or viscocity i should get. i dont know what regular hy-tran is 30weight? or less but i would like to go thicker unless someone can think of another way to get a couple more years out of it without rebuilding it. i am also thinking about flushing both radiaters out good for better cooling and maybe replacing the rubber hoses for tranny cooler incase there collapsed or something. But I want to discuss weather heavier oil may help and what to use. i want the heaviest you think i can run without damaging anything. thanks for listening. i know soundguy will jump in here hehehehe

Mike

JimR · Feb 4, 2005

The heavier oil will make it work better so you can get a few more years out of it. It will be thick oil in the winter though.

SeymourBota · Feb 4, 2005

Maybe I'm out in left field, but have you considered installing some type of trans fluid cooler?
Something like this:
trans cooler

Junkman · Feb 5, 2005

Don't know if this will apply to your tractor, but I was talking to a friend that has a older Bolens Garden Tractor. He put Hi Trans oil in that hydrostatic transmission and it would work well until it got hot, then it wouldn't go any further. He was told that the Hy Trans was no good for his garden tractor and to go back to using type F transmission oil, which was the original fill from the factory. When he went back to the type F, the problem went away. Try to find out what the original spec was and change it back to what was the factory fill.... who knows, you might just solve the problem. Not all fluids work for all applications. That is why there are service manuals... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Roto · Feb 5, 2005

The manual says dont use anything but Hy-tran oil and thats all that has ever been used. Of course manual is 1969 so lots of better oils have been made since then. It has an tranny oil cooler and i thought about adding another one or bigger one but its in front of radiator and the engine gets hot too so i dont want to obstruct it anymore.

Mike

Henro · Feb 5, 2005

Just a thought, but you might want to make sure the oil cooler is not blocked internally by crud or something.

Maybe take the lines off it if possible and blow some air through it to make sure it is not plugged up?

5030 · Feb 5, 2005

Your pump is shot. Clearances in a hydro pump are really close....the surfaces are actually lapped. Very little wear will result in loss of motovation as the oil gets thinner and the viscosity lessens. You could go to a straight weight oil but you have to experiment. Most AW hydraulic oil is around 10 weight SAE. You might try a straight weight 20 and then 30. In the end, you are going to need a pump rebuild. Be apprised though that with heavier oil, other parts will suffer and may fail. The system is designed for flow as well as viscosity. Heavier oil will impede that flow.

I had an old Case lawn tractor with a hydro years ago. Same problem. I finally ended up running 30 weight oil and then dumping it. The hotter it got, the slower it went. Sort of like American factory workers. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Soundguy · Feb 7, 2005

I agree with the others.. the hytran type oil is going to be similar to the UTF oils and NH 134d.. which is somehwere between a 10w or 20w oil.

I'm guessing 30w straight is going to be your ticket.. however.. I think it will be a bandaid. For what it's worth.. the hydro trans in alot of our 60's and 70's cat equipment uses straight 30w oil ( but was designed for it.. ).

Soundguy

Roto · Feb 7, 2005

Well I think i will try the strait 30w oil. Are you guys 100% sure that the hy-tran is sae 20 or less? My next question is what type of sae30. any recommendations on what brand to meat better specs? can I just run to napa and get sae 30w oil or should I go with something like what CAT must have used in the 60's and 70's? Are we talking detergent or non-detergent also?

im not too afraid of the heavier oil making other parts wear since this tractor lately has been used only in winter plowing when its 10 - 20 degrees out and I am done plowing before the temperature guage even moves so its used to having thick oil and everything still works great in winter. I just want to get a year or 2 more out of it haying and then i will get a new tractor.

thanks!

Mike