JD 770 Water in the Hydraulics

tervuren · Sep 14, 2011

Ok, after doing numerous searches and talking with the JD dealership, I'm convinced that the hydraulics has water in it. It's the usual, milky oil, clogged pickup screen, jerky bucket operation, etc, etc. So, other then changing the hydraulic oil several times and get the old oil out of the bucket cylinders and the power steering. Do you guys have any tricks on getting all the water out? The JD Dealership mentioned and so did several posts here mention about putting 50% diesel fuel and 50% hydraulic oil and run it for 10 minutes and drain the oil/fuel mix. Is that done because the diesel fuel mixes better with the water? Any suggestion would be helpful. Tractor details, 680 hrs, JD 770, about 10-12 years old, and yes it sits outside all the time (poor thing). Oh, the JD dealership said it might be the shifter boot letting the water, if torn. I will be sure to check that first.

zzvyb6 · Sep 14, 2011

Since boiling point of water is lower that that of hydraulic fluid, it seems to me that you could heat the fluid and evaporate the water out of it. Either externally (by removing the fluid, treating it and returning it) or plumbing a bypass heater and boiling it off on the fly. A hydraulic 'still' so to speak.

tervuren · Sep 14, 2011

Thanks vvzyb6 for the reply, but what I really wanted to know is how I can get all of the water contaminated oil out of the tractors hydraulic system, without changing the hydraulic oil a bunch of times. I know I'll have to do once maybe twice, just would like to keep the oil changes to a minimum. After re-reading my post I can see I wasn't clear on that subject. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.