I've had this machine for over 20 years by now. Been stone reliable other than normal wear items. The transmission fluid has always had a pinkish tint to it. I have never been able to figure out how water gets in there, maybe it's just condensation. It's been in residential use so may not really get "fully" up to working temperature, whatever that might mean given that I might use it for eight hours in a day... None the less.... two years ago, I had a major kingpin (front wheel) issue, finally got it out. While machine was down & out for that, I replaced the engine isolation mounts, changed fluids.... the transmission fluid was more pink than usual so I bought another 5 gallon bucket of oil so I could drain it.... put new fluid in it for while, drain again and put new oil in again. Not having used it much, I started to notice/suspect that something was odd.... engine rpm's go up....road speed (in field by house, not on road) doesn't go up proportionally) Knowing cold weather is around the corner, decided to dig into it. Pulled up near house, pulled dipstick out and I don't have "red" fluid on it....I don't have "PINK" fluid on it. Imagine a gallon of cool whip that is "loosened up" a bit so that it's more like creamy foam. This is what was on the dipstick. So, now I know why the road speed is strange. But DANG, how does this water get in here??? 2-3 months ago is when most of this happened. I noticed my dump cylinder hoses were down to braided steel (been on machine since I've had it) Got new hoses and alas.... while I was under there I noticed something. Sidestory (yeah, going to make it longer!! HA!) Machine has a cab, missing ALL windows but for the rear side window and back side window (facing hoe). The rubber boot where the shifter goes through the floor has rotted up, deformed and needs replaced. So I'm putting these hoses on and BOOM! I find my likely culpret for the water in transmission. The shift lever goes through the "Gaiter" (rubber boot) on the floorboard, continues down to the transmission where there is a SECOND "Gaiter" (English word, sue them, not me please). This lower Gaiter seals around the lever where it enters the transmission. I think the picture speaks for itself. I'm speculating since I didn't witness it.....but I'd say it's a good bet water hit shifter, went down, through the upper gaiter and simply followed the shifter right into the trans. Over weekend, drained it. Came out like foam. Put some diesel in it, ran for minute...drained. More foam. Did more diesel, ran it....drained it.... now it's "runny" foam. Did this about 4 times while running it through the gears and forward/reverse. Liquid is still coming out "foamy" but it's a very light foam so I'm getting it out. Got dark so had to let it sit until probably next weekend when I plan to "rinse" it 2-3 more times, then use the dirty diesel to start my fires. I'll replace with new fluid and probably in spring, do it once or three more times. I give you my lead suspect as to cause.... When this is done, this part will be replaced (already done) and I'll have the cab gaiter also replaced. It's ready to install, I'm just waiting to close it up in case I need access in the meantime. I didn't even recognize what this was as I pulled it off, until I "reassembled" it HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I just said reassembled.... and look at it.
Hopefully no permanent damage was done running with foamy oil. But you put diesel in the transmission?? I'm not sure that was a good idea.
The machine has not been "driven" (as in moving along the road), rear end is jacked up with stabilizers and rotating in place. It might not be good idea however, a trusted machinest friend said that was best way to 'wash/rinse' interior. The diesel has some lubricity (sp?) and it's only running for 2-5 minutes. (bit of his history, 75 years old, worked on a Ferrari race team years ago, local Porsche dealer uses him for some of their non-warranty over-flow if/when they get swamped, he at one time, had a Rolls Royce jet engine in shop.... guess it needed new spark plugs lol. Point being, he's forgotten more than I'll ever know and was instrumental in helping me get my frozen (steering) kingpin out. I'll say this.... the reaction of the drive wheels is better with the diesel in there than with the foamy fluid in there. Meaning, hit reverse directly from forward, the wheels slowed down, then went other direction.... a lag between operations. Now that the fluid has been washed out a bit, you change direction and the change of wheel direction is much more crisp. I want to say it "slams" into other direction but some might interpret my use of the word 'slam' to mean just that, I'm slamming gears... so I use the word crisp. This is still evolving. Next weekend, weather/wife's projects allowing, I'll rinse it a couple more times with diesel. I'll then rinse it with some transmission fluid and then fill it with the balance of the new fluid (ALL fluids go in the top and drained out the bottom into waste bucket, nobody needs to think any fluids are being reused) I'll know more after I rinse with transmission fluid, refill it and then go for a ride.
The problem is when you drain the trans, there's still a lot of fluid in the valve body and torque converter and lines. You'll never get all the diesel out.
I flushed my trans out with diesel a couple of years ago trying to clean the pickup screen. Still going strong.
AT least diesel is oil based!
I've been living in a closet I guess.... I want to flush this a couple more times, using a new filter each time (and toss filter). Went to town to buy a couple yesterday.... the least expensive (no idea of brand) was $90 and went all the way up to $120. Yikes, welcome to coming out of the closet. For a filter I was expecting to pay maybe $20+. I guess my stockpiling of these things over the years has helped keep me in the dark because I usually buy several and put them on the shelf. I'm down to my last JCB branded filter...so thought I'd go buy some 'cheap' throw-away's.... (I have three new filters sitting on shelf for my car as another example) So I might just dump fluid, empty filter, wash out with some diesel and put back on for next flush...then put the new filter on when I fill it (for real) with the trans-fluid. My intent is to use it for while and then in spring, flush again.
Maybe try Ebay? That seems really high.
If the first filter has little no contamination other than milky looking oil, I would remove the second one and wash and dry it and reuse it, and repeat that until the flush is done. Then put a new one in it.
Drained everything again yesterday, filled with fresh fluid and new (JCB) filter. Fluid that came out was still pink so my saga isn't over. That said the transmission response has VASTLY improved since the "foam" is now gone and I actually have oil. It will now snap forward/reverse whereas, a week ago, it would move back/forth but very sluggish. Irrespective, it's in a better place now. I DO think I need to adjust the angle of the shift lever as it seems to hit the metal cutout when going into 4th for example (which I rarely use BUT never clanked before) so I'm glad I've not yet put the in-cab floor boot back on as I have easy access to the assembly. I'll use this over the winter time as the machine won't get anywhere near as much use as warmer months (I don't like the cold so if I can put it off...) I do however, have a couple trees I'm looking to take down so I'm going to work on those on nice days. Rather than cut them down and dig root ball, if the tree looks manageable, I dig around the root with tree standing, leaving one side as my ground hinge and then push entire tree over, popping root ball up at same time.