Local dealer tells me I don't need to drain the hydraulic fluid to replace the hydraulic filter on a 310d. Just curious if this is true or not. Seems odd to me. Any help is appreciated.
Your dealer is right. The hydraulic filter is plumbed to the system but not attached to any tank or housing. Some guys change the filter from time to time but never replace the oil. I prefer changing the oil also but unlike engine oil, it does not soot up. The JD 310D owners manual says replace hydraulic oil filter every 500 hrs. and hydraulic oil every 1000 hrs. Hope this helps a little. Can I ask how many hours on your 310D and is it a turbo? I've got 8600 on mine.
If I recall working on the 310D, the filter is underneath the machine, under the floor plate, big spin on filter. Loosen the cap on hyd tank first to vent pressure in tank, then put cap back in place. When you take the filter loose, it will dump oil that's in the lines, and it's a good bit of oil, easy to make a mess with it. I would slightly loosen the filter, enough so I could turn it by hand, take a center punch and punch a hole in the center of filter bottom, then open the hole up with a big tapered drift pin, let oil drain from hole into large drain pan under filter. Spin filter off while it's draining from hole, drop filter in pan, and quickly pop a new filter in place.
Thank you for the input. Deon our machine has 3100 on it and it is a turbo. We just bought it for the farm and wanted to service it completely.