OK, so I have a dumb girl kind of question. Yes, I'm a girl, but maybe not too dumb, so here goes. I just bought a sweet little L3540 GST with FEL after a long and careful search for a tractor that would suit my needs on a small-ish hobby farm. I'm pretty handy, and I'm also good with following directions. So, I've acquired and digested as much of the WSM as I need to know right now, and went ahead with changing the engine oil, checking the fuel filter, blowing out the air filter, greasing, and now changing the transmission/hydraulic oil.
But that dipstick has me stumped! When I'd first bought the tractor, I checked the hyd oil and thought, huh! This guy had too much oil in the transmission. The dipstick read way over the tick marks at the end of the dipstick. The seller had told me he'd never changed the oil, but since the hours were near 400, it was due.
I wanted to get dirty anyways, not to mention get to know my tractor, so I bought a filter and oil, and proceeded to change it out. I drained what looks like about 10 gallons, maybe a little more (capacity on this model is 11.1 gal.) and put 11 gallons new back in, and swapped the filter. Checked the dipstick, and there it was, still showing way over the tick marks. WSM says run the tractor for a few minutes and check again, so I did: still no dice. Now I've checked the oil with engine running, with it not running, with it not running but still warm, with it not running but dead cold. You get the picture. I've tried to delicately insert and remove the dipstick so that it doesn't get smeared with oil and distort the reading, but nothing has made a difference to the reading on the dipstick. If this is typical, what good will checking the transmission oil do? How will I know if something's amiss? What gives?
But that dipstick has me stumped! When I'd first bought the tractor, I checked the hyd oil and thought, huh! This guy had too much oil in the transmission. The dipstick read way over the tick marks at the end of the dipstick. The seller had told me he'd never changed the oil, but since the hours were near 400, it was due.
I wanted to get dirty anyways, not to mention get to know my tractor, so I bought a filter and oil, and proceeded to change it out. I drained what looks like about 10 gallons, maybe a little more (capacity on this model is 11.1 gal.) and put 11 gallons new back in, and swapped the filter. Checked the dipstick, and there it was, still showing way over the tick marks. WSM says run the tractor for a few minutes and check again, so I did: still no dice. Now I've checked the oil with engine running, with it not running, with it not running but still warm, with it not running but dead cold. You get the picture. I've tried to delicately insert and remove the dipstick so that it doesn't get smeared with oil and distort the reading, but nothing has made a difference to the reading on the dipstick. If this is typical, what good will checking the transmission oil do? How will I know if something's amiss? What gives?
