I rest my Case

sts25straight said:

In low range in with the speed control lever in the fast position at 1/2 throttle the tractor will stop when going up a slight hill . Open it up to WOT and it starts to go up. The oil tank is 3/4 -full. The engine doesn't boog or lug at all.

What do you think the problem is?

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If you have not drained the hydraulic system and refilled it with 20W50 motor oil, then that's where you start with the diagnosis.

Oil is what transmits the engine hp to the rear wheels and the wrong oil won't do that job. Now if you change the oil and the performance fails to improve dramatically, then you move to the next step. You obtain a glycerin-filled pressure guage capable of reading up to 5000 PSI plus a hose and some fittings to allow you to plug it into the test port located on the underside of the travel valve.

Place the tractor in Hi Range and chain it securely to something immovable. Allow the engine and hydraulics to reach proper operating temps and then push the throttle to wide open. While watching the guage, move the travel lever forward slowly all the way and see what the max pressure is. If the pump is worn badly, then it won't put out the needed pressure or oil volume. A new $200.00 pump will cure that problem but it is still possible that you have an unacceptable amount of wear in the drive motor too.

However, you must approach this one step at a time and then see what the results are. Even that Ingersoll you tried might have badly worn components too so I wouldn't look to it as being the benchmark for these tractors.

Remove the deck.

Under the check plate floor, you will find the travel/lift valve.

On the underside of the valve you will find a hex-shaped pipe plug. It's a female hex designed to receive a standard Allen key.

This is the test port and the drain port for the system. Clean out the hex hole 100 percent and use a brand new tight-fitting decent quality Allen wrench and push it all the way home in that hole. You get one shot at cracking this plug loose and if you spin some well-worn or badly-fitting cheap-a$$ wrench in that plug then you are skrewed.

Remove the plug with a CLEAN, WHITE bucket underneath to catch the six quarts of oil. Start the engine at an idle and let the pump force the oil out but the instant it starts spurting air, shut down the engine.

Put some anti-seize paste on the plug threads and snug it back in. Put the pail somewhere safe for a few days and put a cover over it. Install roughly 5 to 6 quarts of 20W50 into the hydraulic tank. If your tank is under the battery, then it's full when the oil reaches 5 inches below the top of the fill neck. If the tank is up front next to the grille, then full is one inch below the actual top of the tank, not the top of the fill neck.

Start up the tractor, check for leaks and take it for a test run.

You need a fitting that will thread into that pipe plug hole to hook up the test guage so you may as well make note of that while you have the plug out. After a few days, uncover that bucket of oil and then very slowly and very carefully, tip the bucket and pour off the upper layer of oil into another container. The purpose here is to leave behind whatever may have settled out of the oil over the few days and a white bucket helps give you the contrast. You can run a magnet through the remaining oil to see how much metal was being circulated. If you see a heavy silver sheen to the oil, that's a good indicator of aluminum that has been ground away from the pump.

Let us know what the outcome was once you've performed the oil change.