Oil & Fuel oil cap/trans

[roy weidner]

YM 1500 there is an oil cap next to gear shift.
What is it to ?
What type oil ?
What capacity ?

 

[CoyPatton]

That would be to your common sump/reservoir for your hydraulics (3PH) and transmission.
The standard for these tractors back in the day was JD303. An oil that is unavailable many places. The upgrade is JD Hy-Gard. I believe this is a J20c rated oil.
Your front 4x4 axle most likely uses a 80w90 gear oil.

 

[winston1]

Cap should include a dip stick. Go by it. Holds appx 10 quarts.

 

[HoyeTractor]

Some YM1500 have the dipstick attached to the fill plug and some have a separate dipstick. It look like yours will be the style with the dipstick located just behind the fill fill plug. It has a little black rubber knob.

 

[roy weidner]

Thank you Aaron, was going to call Hoyes in the morning to see if you sold the dipsticks/caps.

Can I order the specified oil through Hoyes ?

 

[CoyPatton]

Thank you Aaron, was going to call Hoyes in the morning to see if you sold the dipsticks/caps.

Can I order the specified oil through Hoyes ?

You should be able to pick up a J20c hydraulic store at any farm center type store. Not sure what might be in your area. But a Tractor Supply, Rural King, and most parts stores.

 

[HoyeTractor]

Thank you Aaron, was going to call Hoyes in the morning to see if you sold the dipsticks/caps.

Can I order the specified oil through Hoyes ?

We would appreciate your business! We do not currently sell the oil though due to the shipping limitations and, as Coy pointed out, it is available pretty much everywhere.

 

[California]

The transmission/hydraulic fluid for these and most older tractors is called UTF, Universal Tractor Fluid. When yours was built, Yanmar specified 'John Deere 303 or equivalent', a single-grade fluid aka J20A. Both specs are obsolete. For today, Deere spec J20C is multigrade UTF and a better spec.

There are UTF's sold today labelled '303' but because there is no specific formula for 303 these are reputed to be the worst quality of UTF. But they may be equal in quality to what Yanmar considered minimum acceptable back then. I've run cheap 303 in my manual transmission YM240 for years, but J20C equivalent in the Powershift YM186D, which I think is more sensitive to quality. If you aren't pushing that tractor hard in commercial service then any J20C-conforming brand of UTF should be fine.

Edit: Looked in my YM240 Operator Manual: "Use only John Deere Type 303 or Hy-Grad [sic] transmission and hydraulic oil or its equivalent in the transmission-hydraulic system." YM1500 is a few years older so this would have been its original recommendation too.

Deere literature says Hy-Gard should be used when J20C is required, and Lo-Temp Hy-Gard when J20D is required.

Seems to me anything with wet clutches or wet brakes needs quality fluids, but just gears aren't so picky.

 

[bmaverick]

YM 1500 there is an oil cap next to gear shift.
What is it to ?
What type oil ?
What capacity ?

View attachment 662918View attachment 662918

Roy,

The orange cap with the term oil is for the hydraulic fill.

Per the USA specs for the YM 3-digit series and the John Deere siblings, J20C is the specification to use. The JD-303 is actually banned in several states and has been obsoleted for nearly 45 years. It's original formula was based on whale oil. The 303 today is more of a smoke and mirrors with not much protection.

So, how much do you need for a YM1500 to flush, clean/replace the filter, and refill with new? My YM2610 took 19-quarts. I had just changed it in the fall of 2019. Your YM1500 is much smaller, and the Japanese manual of the YM1510 is the closest in the YM15 series I have showing 9.5-quarts. BUT, I'm not sure. A few others here have YM1500 machines and can chime in with the number of quarts to refill.

Also, here is where I've documented the process to change the hydraulic oil.
https://www.tractorforum.com/threads/hydraulic-fluid-change.39013/

 

[CoyPatton]

The transmission/hydraulic fluid for these and most older tractors is called UTF, Universal Tractor Fluid. When yours was built, Yanmar specified 'John Deere 303 or equivalent', a single-grade fluid aka J20A. Both specs are obsolete. For today, Deere spec J20C is multigrade UTF and a better spec.

There are UTF's sold today labelled '303' but because there is no specific formula for 303 these are reputed to be the worst quality of UTF. But they may be equal in quality to what Yanmar considered minimum acceptable back then. I've run cheap 303 in my manual transmission YM240 for years, but J20C equivalent in the Powershift YM186D, which I think is more sensitive to quality. If you aren't pushing that tractor hard in commercial service then any J20C-conforming brand of UTF should be fine.

Edit: Looked in my YM240 Operator Manual: "Use only John Deere Type 303 or Hy-Grad [sic] transmission and hydraulic oil or its equivalent in the transmission-hydraulic system." YM1500 is a few years older so this would have been its original recommendation too.

Deere literature says Hy-Gard should be used when J20C is required, and Lo-Temp Hy-Gard when J20D is required.

Seems to me anything with wet clutches or wet brakes needs quality fluids, but just gears aren't so picky.

Not sure if I mentioned before or not, but in many parts of the USA, JD303 is illegal to purchase/sell. Again the tractors calling for JD303 are near or older than 50 years. One of the problems with JD303 was the inconsistency of base oil used (I may be wrong, but I believe the original specs call for whale oil, which caused an issue when it was no longer available).
Personally, unless doing a quick system flush, I would buy a quality oil, just as I do for engine oil for all my engine needs!