ShowroomShine
Gold Member
The good ol 444 I've been working on. Saw the hydraulic fluid was a little low per the manual the other day (manual states fluid level should be at the bottom of the plug channel on the top of the housing). Lift and hydraulics worked fine. Added 1 gal Hy-Tran equivalent fluid yesterday, ran it for an hour or so, fed a round bale to the horses, had a mile trip up the road, all was fine.
Go out today, find the lift and power steering not operational. I take the plug off the back to check the level, and fluid poured out. Not milky fluid, but not perfectly clean. Cranked the tractor back up, tried to operate the hydraulics and still nothing.
Take out the suction and orifice filter and drain the rest of the fluid. I notice when I drain the fluid gold flakes coming out with it. Orifice filter is clean, but the suction filter was pretty cruddy. I feel up in the suction filter hole, and find a ton of gunk mixed with shavings. I'd say enough gunk and shavings in that cavity to cup in your hand.*
Cleaned the filters, and plan to fill back with oil tomorrow and try it. What bothers me is that the system worked fine the other day, but now I have shavings which makes me think the pump has gone.*
So what happened here? When I filled fluid back up to proper level did I stir up crud that was already there? Did the pump just all of a sudden degrade at my new fluid? Did the fluid pour out because the pump was pumping but had no fluid to return?
Go out today, find the lift and power steering not operational. I take the plug off the back to check the level, and fluid poured out. Not milky fluid, but not perfectly clean. Cranked the tractor back up, tried to operate the hydraulics and still nothing.
Take out the suction and orifice filter and drain the rest of the fluid. I notice when I drain the fluid gold flakes coming out with it. Orifice filter is clean, but the suction filter was pretty cruddy. I feel up in the suction filter hole, and find a ton of gunk mixed with shavings. I'd say enough gunk and shavings in that cavity to cup in your hand.*
Cleaned the filters, and plan to fill back with oil tomorrow and try it. What bothers me is that the system worked fine the other day, but now I have shavings which makes me think the pump has gone.*
So what happened here? When I filled fluid back up to proper level did I stir up crud that was already there? Did the pump just all of a sudden degrade at my new fluid? Did the fluid pour out because the pump was pumping but had no fluid to return?