Hydraulics in a 240-U

My 240-U is equipped with the hydra-touch 3-point as well as a front bucket/loader. When I purchased this tractor I knew it had a bad hose coming from the pump manifold to the control valve body, and I took it down and had a new one made for it. There is a small drip/leak that will empty the resevoir over time, (it took all winter) which I believe is coming from the front seal.

My problem is this. According to the shop manual, the resevoir takes 19 quarts of oil. I put in 5 gallons of oil, and nothing happens when I cycle the hydra-touch controls to purge the system. Looking down into the resevoir it seems to be about half full. The manual makes two different references of refill procedures One says you refll to the side plug on the resevoir which I couldn't find, and the other say to refill the resevoir to within 1/2 inch of the fill plug. If I do the later, its going to take somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-8 gallons of oil total, which is well over the reccomended 19 quarts. Should I go ahead an fill the resevoir to the top like the manual suggests?

I also noticed that when I checked the strainer screen on the right side of the control valve, that I too had milky white oil. I was wondering if this was caused by the air and moisture getting into the system from the broken hose I replaced?

One side note too, is this has a rebuilt Hydraulic pump that was put on a couple of months before it was parked, so I am thinking that I shouldn't have pump problems. According to the previous owner the system was working when he parked it, and the only major problem was the broken hose.

If anyone has some words of wisdome for me, I could sure use it. I am at a total loss when it comes to hydraulics. Thanks in advance guys.

The pump has been replaced, yet nothing happens when you try to cycle the system, and you have a milky oil appearance. Milky can is a sympton of moisture or air entrainment or both.

It sounds like the pump is not moving oil and may be pulling in air on the suction side of the pump. This where the air entrainment can happen.

If your 240 is similar to a 460's hydraulic system (I think they are), there is a suction pipe with a rubber ring seal which inserts into the suction side of the hydraulic pump body and provides the hydraulic and power steering pump with oil. Sometimes during pump/pump flange installation, the pipe, sealing ring or both may get damaged allowing the pump(s) to suck wind. These items are not hard to check. Just remove the pump mounting flange from the transmission/TA housing and give them a good look. Also look for the pipe not inserted properly into the pump body. The sealing ring and the little flange that backs it up are closer to one end of the suction pipe than the other. The LONG end of the suction pipe is what goes into the pump body. If the suction pipe got inverted, then the sealing ring will not be doing its job. Your shop manual will show you how the pipe is oriented.

One other interesting thing you said is that the sump leaks and loses its oil. I'm just wondering about an O-ring that seals the hydraulic oil passageway between the TA housing and the rear end. If this is bad, pump wind sucking will also happen, but I'm not sure if a bad O-ring will simply let hydraulic oil to leak out when the tractor is parked.

Having said all the above sort of flies in the face of the statement from the previous owner saying that the 240 worked fine before he parked it.

Could also be the regulator piston is stuck and holding the ball check valve open. If this is the case, hydraulic pressure will simply dump back into the sump and not be diverted to where you want to tell it to go--loader or hitch. Consult your manual for the location of these items. They're easy to service--at least they are on a 460.

Keep us posted on what you find.

My starter has a bolt coming up from the flywheel end of the starter that is conected to the solenoid by way of a metal strip that bolts to the post on the solenoid. I can send you a picture of it if you would like, just let me know.

Also, my tires are 6.50 x 16" farm service tires that I got from Les Schwab. The 16" rims have a 6 bolt pattern to mount on the hub. Hope this helps.

Jerry