Transmission Oil Check

mzimm

New member

Equipment
Kubota L3540 w/ LA724 loader
Mar 25, 2014
4
0
0
Winterville, NC
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?
 

North Idaho Wolfman

Moderator
Staff member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L3450DT-GST, Woods FEL, B7100 HSD, FEL, 60" SB, 743 Bobcat with V2203, and more
Jun 9, 2013
30,125
6,298
113
Sandpoint, ID
Real simple, 11.1 gallons is completely empty, draining the fluid you can never get everything out of it.
If it's at the top of the mark or just over don't sweat it, it will be fine.
If it's way too full just drain some out and save it for later. ;)

Oh and just for the record that wasn't a very dumb question, and I've heard dumber questions from some of the guys! :p:D:cool:
 
Last edited:

Justacafe

New member

Equipment
L4310
Apr 5, 2014
14
0
0
Madison, wi
I sure hope this doesn't fall into the category of "dumber questions", but my L4310 doesn't have a transmission dip stick. Just a sight glass. Having just changed my trans/hydraulic fluid, I watched as the oil went up and then completely covered the glass. How can I tell if I have too much in without a dip stick? Or, am I just another dip stick for asking this?
 

ETRon

New member

Equipment
M6040
Aug 4, 2010
128
0
0
Tellico Plains, TN
Just to state the "obvious". It doesn't take a whole lot of angle to affect the apparent level on the gauge/stick. Make sure the tractor is sitting on a pretty level area when checking.
 

North Idaho Wolfman

Moderator
Staff member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L3450DT-GST, Woods FEL, B7100 HSD, FEL, 60" SB, 743 Bobcat with V2203, and more
Jun 9, 2013
30,125
6,298
113
Sandpoint, ID
I sure hope this doesn't fall into the category of "dumber questions", but my L4310 doesn't have a transmission dip stick. Just a sight glass. Having just changed my trans/hydraulic fluid, I watched as the oil went up and then completely covered the glass. How can I tell if I have too much in without a dip stick? Or, am I just another dip stick for asking this?
ETRon hinted at how you can tell, just jack up the side with the glass and see if it pops into view, if it doesn't you might want to drain a little out just to be safe. ;)
 

mzimm

New member

Equipment
Kubota L3540 w/ LA724 loader
Mar 25, 2014
4
0
0
Winterville, NC
Thanks, everyone, for the discussion & suggestions! Haven't done it yet, but I'm going to drain some - maybe up to a gallon - and see what happens. Will post a reply to let you know how it went.