Metal Piece Found in Hydraulic Fluid, Advice Needed

[jekyl]

I have a 1988 John Deere 750. I was changing the hydraulic fluid today. As I was dumping out the old hydraulic fluid into a waste oil can I notice in the drain pain a piece of metal. I have attached some pics for you to view. It looks to me like maybe some type of snap ring. Yet I truly do not know. I have never opened up a transmission case before so I am not sure what I am looking at. Not even sure I would dare try and open up the transmission. You could also see small filings in the old oil in the drain pan. Not a lot but there was some. The tractor has been running fine. I simply started a fall maintenance on my tractor in preparation for this winter. Thats when I usually do an annual maintenance.

The only unusual situations I have experienced with this tractor is on two occasions the shifting lever felt mildly stiff. There was a slight resistance in moving the shifting lever from extreme left to extreme right. Like when you just wiggle the shifting lever left to right, and back right to left rapidly. It freed up almost as soon as I experienced it. Those two incidents happened several months, maybe even a year apart. The second unusual situation is the tractor shifts with some difficulty into reverse. It does not happen all the time but it does with some regularity. You really need to positively shift it into reverse otherwise it may not have gone in to reverse all the way.

I have looked on John Deere's website at the parts diagram to try and find what might be the part. There are plenty of snap rings but in the parts diagrams they appear to be flat not rounded like the piece I found.

So, I just don't know. My next step is to yank off the shifting lever cover to see what I can see there. Any advice though will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

If everything still works fine leave it alone. May be from a past repair.

 

[WranglerX]

I'm with ROUSTABOUT... But I would worry more if there were a large amount of metal filing is bottom of drain pan or oil has metallic sheen to it....

 

[s219]

I have to commend you on the great photos. So many times, someone will make this type of post with grainy blurry photos and we have no clue. These are great, probably better than I could see in person with my middle-aged eyesight.

I think you were smart to look over the parts diagram for a round wire type of ring, etc. That should admit or exclude most of the possibilities, if not all.

Is the material soft, malleable, bendable? If so, I'd lean to it being some scrap inadvertently left over from manufacturing or something that found its way in by accident. To me, if it's an actual important part related to the transmission, it would be a hardened or treated part with springiness and/or brittleness.

Small fine filings are normal in my opinion. Normally when something breaks or wears, you get slivers and chunks.

Also check any cannister filters that may have been replaced. Filters may contain a check valve inside the middle with a spring. They would have a round wire coil material in the spring. Usually you can see this from the opening in the center of the filter, but it's not hard to break the can open and look at the inside of the filter directly.

 

[jekyl]

I'm with ROUSTABOUT... But I would worry more if there were a large amount of metal filing is bottom of drain pan or oil has metallic sheen to it....

There were very small shiny pieces of metal in the bottom of the oil drain pan. Just my luck.

That is a good point about the previous repair. I had not thought about that. My inclination is that this is a recent occurrence. This is based on that fact that the last time I changed the hydraulic fluid I do not recall any metal filings in the oil. I cannot honestly say that I was looking for it though either. This is the first time I pulled the transmission screen to have a look at it. The filter was always changed. I was told that so long a you change the cartridge and change the oil you don't have to concern yourself with the screen. Bad advice I guess. There were no large pieces of metal on the screen. The screen does not have a magnet. There was a small amount of gray powdery build up on one end of the screen. Not a large amount. maybe the size of a dime.

Either of you guys ever tore apart a transmission? Super technical or not so bad?

The thing is, this tractor is 33 years old. Is it worth it? That said I have put a lot of money in to it. I try to do all the work myself. This has been a great little tractor.

Thanks for all your input. It's greatly appreciated.

 

[jekyl]

I have to commend you on the great photos. So many times, someone will make this type of post with grainy blurry photos and we have no clue. These are great, probably better than I could see in person with my middle-aged eyesight.

I think you were smart to look over the parts diagram for a round wire type of ring, etc. That should admit or exclude most of the possibilities, if not all.

Is the material soft, malleable, bendable? If so, I'd lean to it being some scrap inadvertently left over from manufacturing or something that found its way in by accident. To me, if it's an actual important part related to the transmission, it would be a hardened or treated part with springiness and/or brittleness.

Small fine filings are normal in my opinion. Normally when something breaks or wears, you get slivers and chunks.

Also check any cannister filters that may have been replaced. Filters may contain a check valve inside the middle with a spring. They would have a round wire coil material in the spring. Usually you can see this from the opening in the center of the filter, but it's not hard to break the can open and look at the inside of the filter directly.

Thank you! I sill have that cartridge filter. I am going to open it up. Good idea! Thank you.

The material seems hard. Not very bendable but it is quite short. I made that inspection from behind my desk. I'll look at it closer in the garage. See what I can do there. I would have to say that what I saw in the oil pan was both filings, and there were some small silvers, unfortunately. I would not describe any of the material as a chunk.

Thanks s219. Appreciate it.

 

[joecdeere]

Check your private messages

 

[etpm]

I have a 1988 John Deere 750. I was changing the hydraulic fluid today. As I was dumping out the old hydraulic fluid into a waste oil can I notice in the drain pain a piece of metal. I have attached some pics for you to view. It looks to me like maybe some type of snap ring. Yet I truly do not know. I have never opened up a transmission case before so I am not sure what I am looking at. Not even sure I would dare try and open up the transmission. You could also see small filings in the old oil in the drain pan. Not a lot but there was some. The tractor has been running fine. I simply started a fall maintenance on my tractor in preparation for this winter. Thats when I usually do an annual maintenance.

The only unusual situations I have experienced with this tractor is on two occasions the shifting lever felt mildly stiff. There was a slight resistance in moving the shifting lever from extreme left to extreme right. Like when you just wiggle the shifting lever left to right, and back right to left rapidly. It freed up almost as soon as I experienced it. Those two incidents happened several months, maybe even a year apart. The second unusual situation is the tractor shifts with some difficulty into reverse. It does not happen all the time but it does with some regularity. You really need to positively shift it into reverse otherwise it may not have gone in to reverse all the way.

I have looked on John Deere's website at the parts diagram to try and find what might be the part. There are plenty of snap rings but in the parts diagrams they appear to be flat not rounded like the piece I found.

So, I just don't know. My next step is to yank off the shifting lever cover to see what I can see there. Any advice though will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!


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It is hard to tell without handling the part but it looks to me like part of a coil spring. It could be a retainer of some sort too. If it is too hard for a file to cut it, or if a sharp file barely cuts it, then I would look for something with a coil spring, maybe from a filter. If the filter has a bypass valve that could be a piece of the spring used in the valve. It could also, like you suggested, be a piece of a retainer. Once again it might have come from inside of a filter. I would take apart any filter to see if it is missing any parts.
Eric

 

[jekyl]

Also check any cannister filters that may have been replaced. Filters may contain a check valve inside the middle with a spring. They would have a round wire coil material in the spring. Usually you can see this from the opening in the center of the filter, but it's not hard to break the can open and look at the inside of the filter directly.

Here is what I found. The filter was a John Deere filter. Unfortunately I think the spring material from the filter is both larger and smaller in diameter. I attached a photo. This was a great idea. Never tore apart a filter before. Educational.

 

[Leejohn]

I think it is retaining ring in place of a snap ring. Works and put together like the end on a starter drive.