I am a newbie heavy equipment owner and I recently purchased a Ford 655D, but the previous owner did not appear to be much on maintenance and could not tell me how many hours the engine or hydraulic oil had on it. The engine is an easy deal to replace, but what about the hydraulic oil? Do I need to start over and just replace everything in the tractor or is there a way to tell if the hyd. oil is good or bad? I know its not cheap to replace but neither are the parts...right. Thanks for any input!
Cat SOS or any other oil sample will give you an idea. The SOS bottle was $11 the last time I bought some, that includes the postage paid bottle, and the test results. Typically, if you drain and refill, you're only changing half the fluid anyway. So filtering is important, if you have water, that's another issue...
Big help...thanks Delmer!
How's the condition of the hydraulic hoses? Any of the cylinders or valves leaking anywhere? If you are planning on fixing any leaks, I'd do that before changing any hydraulic oil. That will get rid of more old oil and prevent wasting new oil. Those things can be done while you're waiting for the results from the oil analysis. I'd probably change the hydraulic oil anyway unless I was sure it had been done recently. Then you'll know how long before it needs to be done again.
Hydraulic oil runs from almost clear to a light amber, think Bud light color. Any darker than that or white tinge (water) change it for sure. But yeah as Delmer says SOS is your friend, just make sure to note the details on the slip that comes with the sample bottle, hours unknown, etc.
It does have 4 ugly lines, but I'll probably be replacing about 8. Tell me if this sounds right. While I am getting the new hoses made I'll send out the sample to be evaluated.If the results from the sample come out bad how do I get ALL of the bad oil out without hurting the pump. Do I use the old lines to purge the bad oil? Sorry, these may be dumb questions to most, but this is all new to me and I am waiting on my manual to arrive which will probably address some of my other questions. Thanks!
sniff and color test just like buying fish / if it smells and looks funky you never get the all oil out unless you dissamble half machine change out all you can and do again next year if you willing to spend and how much you run that thing
Thanks Bobby, I think I got bad fish, but I'll check it out. I like the idea of multiple change over the next two seasons.