Hyd fluid and filter on 544

DANWV

Member
As I stated in a previous post I bought an IH Farmall 544 and it has a loud whine from the hydraulic system. I went to a local fellow that has been repairing tractors for 50years especially red ones. I asked him which fluid he would recommend and he told me to get this universal tractor hyd fluid from a local oil distributor. I bought a new filter from him and it came with a gasket and a lot more free advice.
I read on the tractor data web site that the 544 takes 80qts. So I bought 4 - 5 gallon buckets and home I went to get started.
He told me where all the drain plugs were to drain the system. I pulled the plug on the under side of the tractor close to the filter housing. The 1/2 inch pipe plug that points forward. Drained about 6-7 gallons from there. after that was empty I pulled the filter cover and got about a qt from there. Wiped the housing out and cleaned the filter screen. Lots of debris on it. Installed new filter and clean screen and gasket. last moved to the rear differential. Pulled the plug on it and a few oz of water came out and then a little fluid and then it all but stopped. I stuck a piece of copper wire in the drain hole and swirled it around. This hole is about an inch opening. A huge gob of sludge came out and then the fluid with other gobs of crap chunking out. Got about 5 gallons out of the rear diff. When I first went to look the tractor over before I bought it I pulled the hyd dipstick and the oil looked quite clean. This however was not the case at all. The oil in the white buckets was a dark gray color. Nothing clear about it.
Like I said Tractor Data stated it held 80 qt. At best I drained 12 - 13 gallons total. I am wondering if Tractor Data was speaking of a 544 Hydro capacity. Mine is a gear tractor. Does this sound like the correct amount of fluid. The stick was showing just above the add mark before draining.
I left the diff open to drain overnight as there were still gobs of sludge plopping out. I would like to flush the rear diff out with some diesel fuel but I don't know how to get it into just the rear diff and not the rest of the system. Should I worry about the remaining sludge or let sleeping dogs lie and just put the plug in and fill it up. From the looks of the fluid and the filter/screen I am betting this is the cause of my whine.
 
Could rig a hand pump and hose fittings to
pump in via drain hole. Or find neighbor
who wants to change fluid in a Boxcar
Magnum. Get his used fluid. If fluid isn't
contaminated flush whole system couple of
times. Probably change filter again. Help
if you can work tractor or Hydraulic system
enough to get warmed up good.
 
I bet 80 quarts was for the hydrostatic trans, your gear drive is around 14 gallons. The idea of filling
a pump up sprayer with a couple gallons of diesel fuel is a good one. Look at a parts book on-line, on
the large frame tractors the 3-point hitch top link bracket unbolts to give access into the differential
and final drive. I'm not sure the small frame has the same design. Pete23 or someone else familiar with
the 544/656 will hopefully comment.

The globs of oil draining out is the old Hytran that had picked up all the water from condensation it
could hold. Sounds like it was well past time for new trans fluid and filter.

C/IH HyTran is usually recommended to use in tractors with Torque-Amplifier. Hopefully your tractor Buddy
has some experience with this universal fluid and TA's.

If you can get the last of those globs flushed out I bet your hyd pump whine goes away.
 
Good ideas. I was wondering if the top link bracket was open behind it or just solid. I will go outside and have a look in a bit. IF it is open that would be a big advantage. I believe the majority of the goop is in the bottom of the diff housing. The filter housing and the smaller plug did not have many solids or sediment in them.
 
OK. Got it done. Pulled the top link bracket and there is a big opening there behind it. Poured a gallon or so of diesel in the diff housing and took a paint stick and scraped and stirred for about 10 minutes and pulled the plug. Gave a final rinse with the rest of the diesel and tied a rag to the end of the paint stick and mopped around what I could get to. When I pulled the rag back out it was mostly just wet with diesel and some goop. There were also some small bits of metal shavings. I don't believe the hyd fluid had ever been changed. All that is left is to torque bolts on filter cover and top link bracket and fill with fluid. Thanks for all the ideas.
I will start it when full and hopefully the whining will be gone.
What a messy job this was but it is done and I feel much better about the hyd system now.
Will let you know the results.
 
We always call that glob paraffine and weWould put 5 gallons of diesel fuel in the hydraulics with the oil and start it
run it and get it hot driving up down on the road drain Fluid let it set some people say you?re going to ruin your
hydraulic pumps we never had a problem with that but it would clean that stuff ou
 
DONE! Added fluid and fired it up and it made a couple little groans and then went silent. Unbelievable difference. Even low idle, stopped on the black top turning the steering and no noise.
All smiles I tell you.
Thanks for all the help from this forum and it's members.
I wish I would have taken a video of it whining and one after cause you wouldn't believe it.
I am going out and video it now and I will post a link to it on the YOUTUBE if ya want to look it over.
Thanks again.
 
I would pick up at least one more filter as it will surely plug again shortly while cleaning out the rest of the sludge. We used to run into filter plugging when just doing a maintenance changing of fluid. The newer Hy Tran was so much more detergent than the older oils that it would start cleaning things up and of course the filter caught the crud and we caught the heaaaaaaaaaaa for doing something wrong.

When you get inside of the large housings on tractors, if there is a film, every so light, of sludge, you waited too long to change fluid. One of the first things a company rep would look at if we had a major failure of a power train . Usually happened on out of warranty tractors that were low houred and customer was way upset. Company should pay. And so it went.
 
One thing you want to do keep it inside because if it sits outside Some how water get through the top cover and
you?ll have to start all over but use a good grade of hydraulic oil where I live co-op was a big Problem with their
hydraulic Yeah it did the same thing what happened to you
 
Here is the link to the YOUTUBE video if you want to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdpCt8PV6qA
 

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