I’m replacing the oil in the chain drive box’s in my 94 case 1840 skid loader and it calls for 10/30 engine oil and my question is if there is anything better to use or recommendations
10w30 works great and is cheap! Change it every year if it sits outside as they can collect water in the chain cases.
TIP - drain your hydraulic oil into a clean container & use it to run in the chain cases - put the new oil in the hydraulic tank It's a waste of money tipping new oil into chain cases ..... (unless you own a New Holland L555 that is.... )
It depends too on your operating temperature environment. I just put 0W-40 synthetic Shell Rotella T6 in my chain cases ... but we see temperatures down to -35 ... and occasionally colder.
thanks for the help I decided to drain my hydro tank and use that it makes perfect sense. next question is the book calls for 6 u.s. quarts in each compartment but when I drained them there was like 5 gallons in each side and it was grey gloppy crap that came out. so is 1 1/2 gallon each side enough ?
I got About 30 gallons of this hydraulic oil I believe used for Hydraulic elevators. Any idea if this would be good for the chain oil?
Jason Harding, The procedure for my Cat 242B and New Holland LS160 is to fill the drive chain case with oil to the bottom of the threads on the fill port. My manual for the LS160 said 6.8 L per case (1.8 gal) ... it actually took about 11 L per case (about the same volume that I drained) which is about 60% more than the book value. On my 242B, I drained out 9 L and replaced it with 9 L ... the book fill value was 8 L. I suspect that if your fill is 6 quarts and you drained out 20 quarts, it is possible that there could be a problem with oil leaking into your chain cased from your drive motors. Did you remove the fill plugs prior to draining the chain cases (to see if they were overfilled)? Have you noticed that the level of your hydraulic oil has been decreasing? This too might indicate hydraulic oil losses from drive motors into the drive chain case. If your gained some 14 quarts of extra volume each (230% gain), it has to be coming from somewhere ?? Unless Case has a different procedure, I would suggest filling to the bottom threads of the fill port and see how much volume of oil it takes. And keep an eye on your hydraulic oil level to check for "consumption" ... which in normal cases should be zero.
For a Case 1800 series skid steer six quarts of just about any oil should be fine. If the old stuff is grey and goopy you have water getting in and need to replace the seals/gaskets on the top covers or stop running in two feet of water!! I always think about the conditions a motorcycle chain run under so anything is better than water and mud. If you want to clean out one with the grey goop in it drain it as best as you can then block up with tires off the ground and dump a couple gallons of diesel in and spin tires for several minutes, drain and repeat till the stuff drains out looking as clean as when you put it in. Then dump in the 6 quarts of oil and put it to work!