Zero Turn Hydraulic Help

Morgan Flowers · May 4, 2017

I am working on my aunt's Derby ZT2354 (Ferris) zero turn mower and am looking for some advice. At the start of the summer the mower was working great but one of the hydraulic hoses going to the right wheel motor was leaking (it has 2 pumps and 2 wheel motors but 1 reservoir). I replaced the hose and now cannot get the air and topped off the fluid with 15w50 mobil synthetic (what it calls for) and mowed about 100 yards and the right side quit working. I opened up the bypass relief valve and followed the book instructions to purge the system to no avail. I have tried bleeding the line at the wheel motor and also changed the hydraulic filter. The left side has worked perfect all along but the right is still not working right. Does anyone have any ideas? I have checked the suction hose and is good and I have pressurized the reservoir with air also. I don't know what else it could be. Any ideas?? I replaced the other hose on the same side a couple years ago and had no issues whatsoever. Thank you in advance for your help!

JF in MI · May 4, 2017

Don't know if it will help but I had the same issue after a routine oil and filter change on one side of mine. I finally jacked the wheels up off the
ground and ran it for a while full forward with no load on it. Worked the relief valve also while running. Eventually purged the air out.

JD Seller · May 4, 2017

Did you have the hose made locally??? Did you blow the hose out before you installed it???? Most guys cut hoses with a chop saw. The inside is filled with grit and steel from cutting the hose. So if you did not blow it out the grit and filling go into whatever the hose supplies.

I have seen several different type of things messed up this way. The most expensive was the hydrostatic motor on a JD 9660 combine. Fellow added rear wheel drive an had some hoses made and the junk got into the hydrostat.

So I hope it is just air locked.

John B. · May 5, 2017

That was what I was going to mention is to jack it up and let it run for a while in forward and reverse modes.

PJH · May 5, 2017

Are the pumps belt drive?

On my Grasshopper, it has two pumps that are driven by the same belt. When the belt gets worn badly, you'll swear that one of the drives is failing. It only shows slippage on one side, I guess due to the configuration of the belt. A new belt always fixes it. My yard is hilly, and I only get maybe three years out of a belt.

Morgan Flowers · May 15, 2017

(quoted from post at 02:50:12 05/05/17) I am working on my aunt's Derby ZT2354 (Ferris) zero turn mower and am looking for some advice. At the start of the summer the mower was working great but one of the hydraulic hoses going to the right wheel motor was leaking (it has 2 pumps and 2 wheel motors but 1 reservoir). I replaced the hose and now cannot get the air and topped off the fluid with 15w50 mobil synthetic (what it calls for) and mowed about 100 yards and the right side quit working. I opened up the bypass relief valve and followed the book instructions to purge the system to no avail. I have tried bleeding the line at the wheel motor and also changed the hydraulic filter. The left side has worked perfect all along but the right is still not working right. Does anyone have any ideas? I have checked the suction hose and is good and I have pressurized the reservoir with air also. I don't know what else it could be. Any ideas?? I replaced the other hose on the same side a couple years ago and had no issues whatsoever. Thank you in advance for your help!

These are all good replies. I have been working on it in my spare time and I am starting to think the pump or motor is bad as JD Seller suggested. The hose was made locally and perhaps there were some rubber shavings in the hose that made their way into the pump or motor. There is a return line from each pump that comes up and enters the top of the reservoir. The return line from the side that doesn't work has a stream of fluid coming into the reservoir but there are air pockets coming through also. How could it be sucking air like that? I have taken off all of the suction lines are they are in excellent condition upon visual inspection. Again, 1 reservoir with two pump and one pump and wheel motor are still working perfectly. I guess I am going to take the pump off and check it out on the bench to see if I can see anything. Thanks for your help!

Zero Turn Hydraulic Help

Morgan Flowers

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JF in MI

Well-known Member

JD Seller

Well-known Member

John B.

Well-known Member

PJH

Well-known Member

Morgan Flowers

Member

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