Filling Hydro Trans Fluid

[bb_aess]

I have a 105 that my Dad bought in 1969. Growing up in South Dakota I used it for snow-blowing his office parking lot and neighbor's drives to get some spending money as a grade school and then junior and senior high school kid. When I went off to college he bought a farm and used it for tilling the new trees as well as a lot of grass mowing. When he passed I brought it out to Maryland with me, where it still gets plenty of use and just keeps on going! I rebuilt the engine a couple times, put in a new steering box, but mostly original. I don't know if he ever changed the hydro fluid (I know I never did) so thought it might be time, let's see 1969 - 2016 is 48 years. Somehow I think the manual wants it done more often, but I knew it was due, even though the hydrostatic transmission has never been a problem. But reading posts I was concerned about stories of sludge and gunk in oil when the back cover is removed. So when I got it off I was delighted to see the oil clean, non-foamy, no sludge, just like it was brand new - after 48 years of use! I won't get into the "what brand oil to buy discussion" - my thought was if the IH hydro fluid did this well after 48 years I was not going to try something different.

I read posts about how hard it was to put oil in and how long it took. I did it in about 15 minutes so thought I'd share my method with a couple photos.

After I got all the oil out and cleaned the gasket surfaces well I applied oil to both sides of the gasket and reinstalled the back cover. I heard moistening the gasket makes it seal better. After installing the new filter I made a small fitting to fill the oil. It consisted of two short lengths of 1/2" plastic pipe, two 45 degree elbows, a funnel and a small plastic tube. See first photo and note the small clear tube inside the funnel. When you pour into the funnel, be sure not to get oil into this small tubing so it can let air out as oil goes in. My manual says 7 quarts so I put about that much in (which I knew would overfill it since filter was empty). It just flowed right in for the few minutes it took. I then rotated the fill pipe down to let the excess flow back into the jug. See second photo. I then started the 105 and ran it a bit forward and reverse to get the fluid around and fill the filter. I then checked oil again and topped off. Very easy way to do this and no mess at all!

[Yosemite Sam]

Excellent work!

It's great to have a machine like that, that you have history with.

Now lets see the rest of it...

[ford4150]

good idea. thanks for sharing.

[john hall]

Yep, a vent tube is a great idea. I've got a flexible spout that screws on 5 gallon buckets that has its own vent tube. How about more pics of the tractor? Family heirlooms make for great threads!

[Jeff in Pa]

Welcome to OCC

Great idea and thanks for sharing an excellent tip in your first post.

Jeff

[drglinski]

I've got a funnel on a flexible straw type thing that seems to work well.