560 cold weather hydraulics

tomk

New User
I have a 560 gas with a Koyker (I believe that's the brand) loader on it. Every winter once it is below freezing, the grapple on the loader and the quick tach, will not raise up. My hydralic oil was white in color, so last fall I changed it before winter, but still had the same problem once it was cold. Is it possible I didn't get all of the oil drained from the entire tractor? I did pull all three plugs on the bottom of the tractor and changed the filter. What else can I try?
 
There is really no way to get all the contaminated (water) out of the system. The best procedure is to run it hard enough long enough to get it
hot enough to evaporate the remaining moisture out of the system. Real Hytran, or Hyguard (JD) oil has the ability to hold some water in
suspension. Many others that claim compatibility do not. Work it hard, and it just may serve. Change the filter again. Jim
 
Hy-Tran does absorb water, something like 2% according to what Ken Updike has written in Red Power magazine. No hydraulic/transmission oil sold by Deere has any ability to absorb water from what I've read about it.

When you have sluggish hydraulics in cold weather you have water in your hyd fluid, and it's freezing, and ice doesn't flow well. Will probably take several fluid changes to get things working properly. The 460/560 were the first IH tractors to use the transmission and final drive oil for hydraulics and power steering. That's a lot of fluid to change but also takes a lot of water to contaminate it. Have to Cycle the bucket tilt and loader raise and grapple many times to get all the contaminated oil out of the cylinders so they will work properly in cold weather.
 
I would flush it with cheaper but IH rated trans/hyd fluid till things work and then put in the Hy-Tran. If you have a friend with a Magnum and no known issues offer him a little for the fluid he drains from it. That will get you over 2 flushes in the 560.
 
You'll never get it all out but you will dilute it with regular oil changes and use.

So only SOME of the functions stop working when it gets cold? I would suspect an issue with the valves.
 

Thanks for the suggestions. I will be changing the oil and filter again after running it as much as possible. I don't do any farming with it, just use for pushing snow and feeding bales in the winter. I will also grab a gage today to hook to the couplers in the back to see what kind of pressure I am running. I know a few years ago, I could barely lift my sickle mower off the ground and ended up replacing the hydraulic pump with a used one from a salvage yard. So maybe it could be wore out also?
 
Well I haven't gotten the oil and filter changed yet, but did finally get my gage set up bought and hooked up to the hydraulic line that runs the grapple fork. I have attached two pictures of the setup so you could understand what I did. The two lines that run the grapple, come from under the seat and must go to the outside valve under the steering wheel. When I lifted the grapple fork up, I was only seeing about 400 psi. I thought I had read somewhere that the hydraulics should run about 1900 psi, does that sound correct? If so, I guess I should start with a different hydraulic pump? Any thoughts?
mvphoto42450.jpg


mvphoto42453.jpg
 
finally got a new pump and got the oil and filter changed also. Fired it up tonight and had around 1500 psi. Although I just changed all the oil, after running for a few minutes, I pulled the oil level plug and the oil was already somewhat whiteish. I do believe that the pump was a major issue, especially after see the pressure difference. but may need to drain one more time before the cold weather hits.

(quoted from post at 16:07:17 09/01/19) Hy-Tran does absorb water, something like 2% according to what Ken Updike has written in Red Power magazine. No hydraulic/transmission oil sold by Deere has any ability to absorb water from what I've read about it.

When you have sluggish hydraulics in cold weather you have water in your hyd fluid, and it's freezing, and ice doesn't flow well. Will probably take several fluid changes to get things working properly. The 460/560 were the first IH tractors to use the transmission and final drive oil for hydraulics and power steering. That's a lot of fluid to change but also takes a lot of water to contaminate it. Have to Cycle the bucket tilt and loader raise and grapple many times to get all the contaminated oil out of the cylinders so they will work properly in cold weather.
 

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