Bucket lift trailer

I am helping a fella get his new to him trailer manlift going. The hydraulic system is severely water contaminated. Can't really get the cylinders off to clean and purge. Oil is an emulsion blend and does not want to seperate. Drained reservoir once and refilled. Looks like a milk shake. I was considering heating the milky oil to boil the water out.

Obviously the man lift will be more complicated, but this is how I fixed the same problem with my big wood splitter. First, I drained the reservoir, then flushed it with diesel fuel. Then I put the plug back in and added five gallons of new oil. I took the filter off, put a bucket under the housing an ran the machine until clean oil came out. I put on a new filter, added another five gallons of oil, then unhooked the rod end hose from the splitter cylinder, and put it in a bucket. Operated the splitter cylinder to push the contaminated oil ou of it. Raised the log lift, blocked it up and disconnected the hose from the valve. Stuck the hose in a bucket and unblocked the lift, allowing the single acting lift cylinder to collapse and force the contaminated oil out of it. Reconnected the hose and topped up the oil.

The man lift probably has more cylinders, and some failsafe valving that may have to be allowed for, but I would think that uncoupling the return line line to the reservoir and running the pump briefly as you cycle each cylinder in turn shoul let you purge most of it. If it is an on demand electric pump should be no problem. An engine drive will require a lot of starting and quick shutdown to avoid wasting fluid, or running the system dry.