Cheap Hydro-Gear units

[oldcodger]

Because hydro-Gear decided to save a buck they made the units in my Big Dog C142 mower "sealed for life" with no drain plugs. Mower has about 400 hours on it. Today I removed the units and drained them thru the fill port and refilled them and reinstalled. Drain plugs would have made the job so much easier but I probably would not have been able to break the fill plugs loose with the units installed and they would have to be removed anyway. Manual specs 20W-50 motor oil for lube. I installed Castrol GTX 20w-50. After refilling and installing the mower wanted to creep and I had to adjust the linkage on both units. That was a troublesome operation.
I hate "sealed for life" devices.

 

[jeepman3071]

Big Dog mowers have a 7 year residential warranty (commercial is much less), so I'm guessing they know the hydros will last past the warranty with the original fluid, and that is all they care about. Seems like a home owner grade design to me, which is where the cost cutting comes in. They know most home owners will never service the hydros.

 

[jhs914]

Don't blame Hydro-Gear. They make what the mower manufacturers want at a certain price point so they can sell box store mowers to residential users. They make several higher grade units with drain plugs for better and more expensive mowers.

 

[#18FAN]

When I was in the market and purchasing a Zturn mower it was #1 on the list it had to have serviceable Hydro.

 

[Marcozi]

"Lifetime fluids" is a marketing ploy, and not a maintenance philosophy. Great job on your part, oldcodger!

 

[meep]

I’ve done the same…. Suck the fluid out the fill ports and refill with new. I’ve run mine pretty hard pulling an aerator around and also a laden utility trailer… no issues. Simple enough with a mityvac. Nice work.

 

[bchannell]

Did you purge the system after refilling. The best way is to raise the rear wheels off the ground and run it backward and forward a few time slowly from slow to fast. Then put it on the ground and drive it around doing the same thing, ie back and forth. usually gets all the air out without too much trouble.

 

[Hall]

Suck the fluid out the fill ports and refill with new.

How much were you able to suck out ? I've seen posts elsewhere that because of the internal design it's hard to get all of it out but even if you get a 1/2 quart out and repeated this a few times after running it and mixing, it's better than nothing.

When you say Mityvac, I presume you used a vacuum or air-operated pump and not one of these ?

I do have a Mityvac 8010 but I've never used it to draw fluid out of an open container, only for bleeding brakes.

 

[meep]

I got a full quart out of mine. I had to fish the hose a bit to get it.

Mityvac MV7400 Manual Automotive Fluid Evacuator with Dipstick Tubes, Automatic Overflow Prevention, 1.9 Gallon, Engine and Transmission Fluid Adapters

https://a.co/d/evFlqCc

 

[Hall]

I got a full quart out of mine

Out of each, yeah ? They hold around 1.5 quarts, from what I've read. Getting a quart out is great. Do it a 2nd time and call it "changed" !

I don't have much use for an extractor like that but I might try with my little, handheld Mityvac.

Was it easy enough to bleed the air ?

 

[jeepman3071]

On the sealed units I wouldn't change it or "tamper" with it while under warranty. At least not in a way that is easily discoverable by potential "warranty deniers". If you drill and tap your transmission for fill/drain plugs and it fails for some reason within the warranty period you can bet they will point to those modifications to the transmission case as the reason for failure, even though we all know it likely wouldn't be the cause.

 

[ford46guy]

The peerless auto I have could be tipped and the fluid will come out. Once the belt is off, there are 4 bolts and a linkage.
There are rubber drain plugs on top, you can shoot it with a hose or pressure washer before opening.
Just have to be sure it is filled back correctly. Probably every 200 hours or so would be more than enough I believe. 20W50 (usually Mobil 1) and 80W90 for the gears.

I used to follow that OCI. I had over 1000 of hours on mine. I used to pull with it too, dethach, etc. The failure was loose cap bolts, but it was repairable and went right back in service. Took about 4 hours to repair, clean (has a mile of gasket surface, two chambers) and reseal. Was due for an oil change anyway. If I put the mower back in service I may install drains.

Those things get REAL HOT. They should also be kept very clean to cool down.

 

[Hall]

On the sealed units I wouldn't change it or "tamper" with it while under warranty.

Mine is waaayyyyy out of warranty