TLB hydraulic reservoir - rain

Was doing Spring maintenance checks on my Ford 755 TLB over the weekend. Everything looked good but I removed the hyd oil reservoir dipstick to get a little oil to lube the metal flange of the inner air filter (they're kind of a pain to get back in dry) and can't remember putting it back. It rained last night and supposed to get some more rain this week. Probability is that I DID put it back as there's a lot of things I don't remember doing nowadays and then I go check and find out I did it. :? The TLB is at my property about a half hour away and I won't be back there until Saturday. Hate to make a special trip just to find I put the dipstick back in. Considering the system holds 55 gals of hyd oil and the reservoir hole is maybe an inch in diameter kind of protected by the cab, I wouldn't think a few raindrops would hurt the system, but I thought I'd pick the brains of the forum.

While I'm at it, what about changing the engine oil? Do you guys change the oil religously even on low-use machines? I changed it with a new filter 2 years ago, but have used the TLB sparingly since (maybe 60 hrs, tops). I don't have a problem with doing proper maintenance, but just hate spending money when I don't need to.

Speaking of filters, the inner air filter says "Do not clean". I replaced it when I bought the machine 4 yrs ago and it looks good as new. The outer one takes the abuse and I've cleaned/ replaced it a couple of times. Anybody know why they don't recommend cleaning the inner one?

Nearly every system is subject to getting moisture in it from vents, condensation, etc so the water alone isn"t a cause for grief as long as you drain it off. So, in your case, if you left the cap off, and if any water gets in the system through that little hole you should be able to drain it off provided you don"t run the machine and emulisfy the oil and water. As long as the two are seperate draining will work but if you run the machine before draining you take a chance of emulisfying the two making it impossible to drain.

On the engine oil, personally I wouldn"t worry about it. Oil doesn"t usually "wear out" per se just from sitting. When oil "wears out" it"s the additive package that "wears out" because it diminishes to a point the oil isn"t doing everything it"s supposed to do. Unless the oil your using is subject to the additives simply "dropping out" from lack of use, and you"dd have to ask the mfg about that, then changing it won"t acomplish anything but dropping the cash from your wallet.

The inner filter, as you might guess, is designed to trap any particles that get past the outer filter. When you clean a filter particles that the filter had trapped, in use, on the outside can and do get pushed through to the inside of the filter. Most mfgs don"t condone cleaning the outter filter but then again some do...Why many take one position and others the other is anybodies guess....although I have seen it condoned more and more over the years as the media used has gotten better and more damage resistant and as the use of the inner filters have gotten more prevelant. That said if you were to clean the inner filter, which I know of NO mfg that condones that practice, it would tend to push particles that were trapped through to the inside. There they would be readily sucked into the engine since there is nothing stopping them, like the inner filter would do for particles coming through the outer one.

Hope that answers your questions.

Getting to the age where silly stuff like that is happening, gives me a sympathetic view!

I would not be too worried about it there are donaldson filters with water absorbing ability (about 4 oz per filter) in the system. The filters are only a couple bucks more per each and that's a cheap insurance policy. You may want to see if there is a cross over filter like that for your system and if there is pop one in.

If your spring has been a dry as our Wisconsin spring, you must be pretty happy to see the rain. It's been dry as a pop-corn fart here, but with the last 2 days of drizzle everything is popping out and turning green.

jb

john_Bud,
Thanks. I'll check it into them. Seems to be a normal Spring around here in Michigan, maybe a little wetter tthan usual. Had a LOT OF SNOW this Winter so the ground is saturated and all the lakes/ponds seem pretty full. We had a little rain on Sunday and the local golf courses and parks that double as flood control areas are completely covered and I mean by 4-5 ft of water. Haven't seen the sun much. The pond on my property is in overflow mode and excess is draining into a County drain on its way out into the Great Lake system. Lots of people in the Southwest would probably cringe at seeing that excess water flow away.

The old saying in Michigan is : "if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes, it will change".

That's amazing. My melt pond only got 1/2 full this year and is down to the August level now. Was messing around with the tractor the other day and the ground turned to fine powder dust after a few passes. Even after our rain, it's still dry.

jb