Oh Crap....why do I smell hydro fluid???

[LEOLAV]

I was outside on the Kubota BX1500 yesterday rebuilding a stone wall. I removed all the stone with the bucket and as I was manuevering over a boulder, I smelt hydo/tranny fluid. I shut it down, I see a small leak under the filter assembly. Thankfully, I was less than 50 ft away from my shed. I topped it off with fluid,started it up and gunned it to the shed and shut it down. Turns out when I was going over the rock, the filter hit the rock and bent the inside of the filter so it was cocked a little off and was spraying the fluid everywhere. I put a bucket under the filter and shut it down for the night. I gotta get a new filter and hydro fluid tomorrow. I will fit it later this week. Thankfully, I didn't crack the tranny case which was my first thought... :banghead3 :banghead3

[freebird]

phew, close one. I'm sure your heart was in your throat!

[JDFANATIC]

Leo,

One of the advantages of these sub-CUT's is their low center of gravity; one of the disadvantages is that things like the filter you caught is close to the ground. That's why I keep an extra filter and fluid on hand.

Glad no harm was done!

Cheers

JDFANATIC

[USN_ED]

You could get a remote oil filter kit, mount the oil filter in a safer place and hopefully eliminate the problem.

[Carl]

Thank God for small favors. I've wondered about that type of accident. My NH is also low enough to get into trouble. Has anyone heard if there is a bash plate out there somewhere?

[USN_ED]

The bash plate will only lessen the ground-clearance ; however, it will decrease the risk of ripping the filter off the tractor.

[itsgottobegreen]

At least you caught it when you did. I ripped a filter right off my B7500 brush hogging. Thank god I had a spare filter. Always keep spare filters when your in the business.

BTW there is a guy on ebay selling skid plates for the BX for $135. Protects the filter. Worth the investment.

[LEOLAV]

I saw that last night. Might be the way to go. During the summer, I have the deck on and rarely would attempt to climb over a pile of stones. This one time, I let stupidity take over and it got the best of me. I'm pretty sure I lost some hydro fluid (given the fact that I had a streak all the way to my shed). I am going to get a couple of new filters today and some more hydro fluid just in case I do it again!

Scared the crap out of me. I thought I cracked the tranny case, but when I saw the rock mark on the filter, I was like "whew!!"

[Argee]

Scared the crap out of me. I thought I cracked the tranny case, but when I saw the rock mark on the filter, I was like "whew!!"

I can relate to that!! I cracked the differential case on my Case446 from the inside out three times. It's hard to describe the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when you turn around and see a stream of oil following you.

[LEOLAV]

Everything check out last night. I took the filter off and was praying that I didn't bend the spindle that the spindle spins onto. Thankfully, it spun off funky, but the new one spun on perfectly. I took the old one into my shop and cut it open with my bandsaw and the inside was severly dented in and was crushed.

No wonder the hydro was spewing everywhere!!

I drained the fluid out of the tractor and replaced it with brand new Super UDT and was up and running in no time. The tractor still had around 2.2 gallons of the 2.7 capacity so it is highly unlikely that anything was harmed in my jaunt to the shed. I basically lost a 1/2 gallon in 50 feet. Thats a pretty large amount to lose in such a short run.

Onward to my stupidity! I set up to drain the fluid out from under the tractor (in the dark as I have yet to run electrical to my shed!!) I put my oil pan under the tractor and start to drain it. Around 3/4 of the pan is full and I think..."isn't that a 5 quart oil pan???" Guess what happened next. I had a mad dash to seal it up before I have a gallon of hydro on the floor of my new shed. Well you can guess what happened next. I dropped the stupid nut right into the pan. By that time fluid is just pouring out so I quickly yanked the pan out from under it and dumped it into a pail and put it back. I felt like such a dumb ass after that. I was just thankfull that the machine was OK. I'll worry about the floor later!