Water in the oil, first reduction gear cover (70D)

DrCharles

Member
My 70D has been sitting outside for several years, not tarped for the last two or three, and today I finally decided to change the oil (after fixing the huge leak from behind the flywheel - turns out the seal was not just leaking but completely gone, not even a piece remaining). Last week I did about an hour of bush hogging.

Anyhow, the crankcase oil came out black, and no water initially. But the 1st reduction cover drain was tan milkshake =8^O which means a well-mixed oil/water mixture, and a LOT of it. I mean over a gallon! I thought it was supposed to only hold a quart of oil? So obviously rainwater had been seeping into there somehow. But I can't figure out where it's getting in. Any ideas?

Now it occurs to me I'd better check the transmission oil for milkshake too...
-Charles
 
I read some more in the Operator's Manual and it appears that the 1st reduction gear is serviced with the transmission, not the engine. I had remembered the opposite.

That probably means my transmission oil is also "wet". It may also explain why milkshake kept slowly trickling out of the reduction cover drain plug, too (passing through a bearing?) But it doesn't smell like gear oil... I know I changed all the fluids years ago, according to the manual.

Anyway now I need to buy 7.5 gallons of GL-4 90W gear oil at the farm store!
 
Water can also get in there around the clutch fork operating lever. Water in the first reduction gear cover is a problem in a lost of two cylinders, that's why a drain was added to the bottom rear of the cover. If my tractors have been sitting outside I pull that little plug and drain the water before running them.
 
As I suspected, the unrealistically large volume of oil draining slowly from the 1st reduction cover was actually seeping through from the transmission... took out the front drain plug and several gallons of milkshake promptly drained. The rear plug was even worse - at least half a pint of pure water followed by the rest of the milkshake. Then I took out the reduction cover plug again, and got another pint of heavily contaminated oil. I feel guilty for letting my old 70D get so wet inside...

So I've got four 2-gallon jugs of 90W GL-4 lube ordered ($125 worth!) Time for a rest anyway (actually I just threw 3.2 tons of wood blocks down the cellar hatch, but it's a change from smelly gear oil) :)

-Charles
 

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