Hello all- Just bought a JD 755 crawler loader. Need to know before running it hard what fluids to put where- other than the obvious diesel fuel in fuel tank and antifreeze in radiator. What should I be using in transmission? There are 2 tanks on back of machine. Are they for final drives and should I use hydraulic fluid or heavy gear lube? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also if anyone has manual for this crawler I have a couple of other questions as well, about filter location
Find out the oil spec from JD and don't scrimp on cheap oil. Might not have to be JD but get a good oil. There are no final drives as a 755 is a dual path hydrostatic transmission. Not sure about the 2 tanks as I haven't been around a 755 since I did a bunch of welding on a former neighbors used in demolition. One tank might be for equipment hyd's and the other for the transmissions. I believe behind one of the side panels are the hyd. and trans filters. It would be a good idea to cut the filters open and have them inspected as well as doing some oil samples. Repairing any part of the hydrostat makes my $6000 steering clutch rebuild seem like pocket change. It's a good idea to let the machine/oil warm up for a few minutes or longer on colder mornings. A JD755 is a good machine if everything works right but expensive to repair if it doesn't work right.
Correction please, there are final drives on a 755, one spur gear reduction and a planetary set as well on each side. I won't swear to it but I believe they are separated from the hydrostats and will use a different lubricant. The two hyd tanks are loader hyds and transmission hydrostats. There is also a splitter gearbox on the back of the engine with it's own dipstick. Best bet would be to call your local Deere dealer and ask nicely if they could send you copies of the owner's manual pages pertaining to service, lubricants, and service intervals?
I might be confusing the planetary set with a normal final drive. There is a gear reduction but I think it's driven off the track motor and not part of the hydrostat. I remember their advertising saying there isn't all the gears, steering clutches and other stuff of a conventional machine. There is a transmission disconnect for cold weather starting that was known to cause some problems. I think later machines didn't have it but not sure. It was back in the mid 80's when I was working on one. The neighbors 755 would easily out pull his 955K.