B7100D hydraulic flush

[Ragnorok]

My inability to find things here is vexing - it seems unlikely hydraulic flush info on such a common tractor wouldn't be here, but I can't find it.

I got this tractor last Fall, and now Spring is looking immenent I'm changing the fluid out, put new seals in the 3pt hitch piston, and am generally doing maintenance. I've never changed hydraulic fluid on this scale before, but it seemed like it shouldn't be any more difficult than oil or brake lines. There are two drain plugs on the B7100D on the back axle, easily accessed.

My issues are one plug didn't result in normal looking hydraulic fluid. It was some brown goo that was significantly more viscous than I'd expect hyrdaulic fluid to be. The other plug let out about a cup of water, then more normal looking hydraulic fluid followed. Now that it's "empty" I also cleaned the hyrdaulic filter, which seemed perfectly normal to me. No gunk, no clearly beading up water, no shavings.

I'm thinking a Real Good Flush is order to get all the gunk out, but I'm not sure how do go about that. Do I fill it, run the hydraulics a bit, then drain it? Do I use some special "hydraulic flush" stuff to clean it? Something else?

I'm also wondering why it wasn't just dirty hydraulic fluid? Air ingress? Another post on this forum was about that sort of thing, and it could easily be happening here, but I don't know what muddy looking viscous fluid is a symptom of.

Thanks for your time...

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

No special fluid, you can safely use cheap hydraulic fluid for the flush.
Put it in run it for a while then drain again.

There should be 3 drains on that model.
2 on the axle cases and 1 on the transmission (yellow).
Also a good idea to pull the drain plug on the clutch housing (green), if you get fluid or water you have a problem.

 

[Ragnorok]

I was thinking put some number of hours on, then drain & fill again, but I didn't trust myself on that. (grin) I'll definitely remove the third plug and check the clutch, just to be sure. Many thanks!

 

[GreensvilleJay]

might want to investigate this...
The other plug let out about a cup of water, then more normal looking hydraulic fluid followed. N

ANY water where oil should be is generally a bad thing.

As for 'running with flushing oil'.... maybe until it's 'warm' so that it flows out better ?

 

[Ragnorok]

The third plug on the transmission didn't yield much, and I can't find a plug on the bell housing. I see a milled shoulder where one might tap it and put a plug, about where it's shown on the diagram, so i'm thinking this one doesn't have that. On the water bit I'm going to see if any shows up when the "cleaning" fluid is removed. It's been run for hours and hours and hours with what I just took out, so I'm thinking a few more hours before the next drain, with clean fluid, won't do anything more and it may tell me something. I also ordered some new O-rings and seals and stuff, just to put new ones on all the plugs & filter when I drain it again soon. Some of them looked "well loved". Thanks for everyone's help!