I drained the milkshake colored hydraulic fluid today and pulled the suction strainer. The pic shows what was in the strainer. Mostly black rubber pieces and some white teflon. Very few ferrous metal slivers and just a few aluminum slivers. What are your thoughts?
I don't know if it's the picture or what, but I see what appears to be brass. If that's the case, I would spin down the case drain filter and open it up. I'm concerned that you have a rotating assembly failing.
It's the picture, that was the first thing I looked for was brass.
So, it's not uncommon to see vinyl scraps in the filter or suction strainer. Since you have the oil drained and the suction out, I would complete the service, replacing the pilot screen, the return filter and the case drain. I'd also drain cylinders of any oil I could get out of them. Normally, I wouldn't suggest that much, but you stated the oil is saturated with it water.
How many hours on the machine? Wondering if a seal(s) might be starting to deteriorate. When my skid steer needed new bucket cylinder seals they were pretty chewed up when I took the cylinders apart.
I opened up the case drain filter, nothing but really small black particles like from an oring or a hose coming apart. No brass. I did relook at the shop towel and I counted about 10 very tiny brass pieces. Considering the lack of maintenance on the machine, I'm guessing the suction filter had never been pulled.