JD 165 Need help!!!

gregww

Well-known Member
I should know by now to leave well enough alone, but I didn't. I have an old JD 165 hydrostatic lawn tractor. Under the seat is a fill tube with a dipstick. I pulled it out and nothing registered on the stick. I decided to drain the rear end and replace the fluid completely. I have come to find out that I don't think I drained what I thought I was draining. Apparently (if I have this right) there is the hydro pump, and the rear end. Separate things. I believe I drained the rear end. What I drained appeared to be 80/90 weight gear oil from the rear end. What the dipstick measures is hydro fluid. I THINK ! AND I MUST STRESS THE "[b:670b92f5e2]I THINK[/b:670b92f5e2]" PART OF THIS. If I am correct, I cannot find where to replace the 80/90 weight gear oil for the rear end. Also, I don't know what kind of fluid to use to top off the hydro oil. Am I wrong on all this? Can anyone help? PLEASE!
 
You can get some help on the WFMachines.com wbsite.
Lawn Tractor and Late Model Section.
I guarantee someone else has made the same mistake.
 
fill plug is directly above the bottom plug you removed to drain, it should be right behind the cast brace on the top of the larger casing.
 
I finally got it figured out. While I have done a couple of rebuilds on lawn tractors, I have always shyed away from the transaxle/transmission. The terms confuse me. Transaxle, transmission, gearbox, hydro pump, differential, and so on. Today when I checked the dipstick under my seat, the fluid didn't show. I looked underneath, and there was a drain plug. Being the wizard that I am, I assumed fill tube on top, drain plug on bottom. Not rocket science right? I was wrong. The fill tube on top had nothing to do with the drain plug on the bottom. I was checking the fluid level in the hydro pump, but I drained the gear box. Stupid Stupid Stupid. I'm just glad I didn't go so far as to fill the hydro pump with 80/90 weight gear oil. Something tells me that would have been really bad. I finally found the plug for re-filling the gear box. Took a while, access is terrible, but with a suction gun, some hose, a barbed fitting, and some help from my wife, I was able to refill the gear box. I put in a lot more oil than I took out, so it was probably a good thing this happened. I guess. Now I am afraid to drain the hydro pump. Think I will just top it off and let it go.
 
(quoted from post at 17:23:19 06/10/20) fill plug is directly above the bottom plug you removed to drain, it should be right behind the cast brace on the top of the larger casing.
am not familiar with all the different transaxles/transmissions used in a 165. Mine is an Eaton. The fill port for my gear box is in the front of the gear box. not on the top, not on the right or left side, but in the front. Towards the motor. You have to raise the tractor and crawl under it to see it. Here is some info that may be useful to others.

[color=red:faf187dc71]John Deere Manual [/color:faf187dc71]
 

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