Cub Cadet hydraulic filter

[nicrfe1370]

With some unseasonably nice weather this weekend I had a chance to do quite a bit of servicing on my Cub Cadet 2166 lawn tractor. One of the many things I did was replace the "hydraulic" fluid and filter for the rear axle. The owner's manual recommends only Cub Cadet hydraulic oil for this compartment, and has no other recommended fluid. Being a sucker, I decided to comply, despite the fact it needs 6 quarts and costs $11/qt at my local dealer! I saved enough of the new stuff to have it analyzed; I'd love to know what it is so I could use something cheaper in the future. It smelled and looked an awful lot like a nice synthetic or Semi Synthetic motor oil, probably a 5w30. The bottle says it's Semi Synthetic, and gives no more details about what it is. I sort of wish I had sampled the used oil, it looked and smelled great, and probably had lots of life left in it. I think it has been in the tractor for about 5 years and 250 hours, it looked like it could easily go twice that.

I also bought the Cub Cadet filter (723-2014) for the hydraulics, and upon comparing it to a Motorcraft FL-1A I believe the FL-1A would fit. The gasket diameter is the same, the threads appear to be identical, the canister diameter is the same, but the FL-1A is maybe 1.5 inches longer. I cut the old filter open to see if it was anything special, it was not. It appeared to be well built though; thick-walled canister, sturdy filter and endcaps, strong bypass spring, but no anti-drainback valve, which wouldn't be necessary.

 

[gj]

I think I seen on here sometime back that it's 20w-50 motor oil.Atleast most of the transaxle tractors are that.Search some old posts.Here is a tractor forum that has helped me a lot: http://www.mytractorforum.com/

 

[jstutz]

read this post.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/cub-cadet-2544-hydro-drive-fluid-alternative.104584/

 

[jstutz]

Also wix makes a replacment filter for that and you can get it at any napa auto parts. Wixfilter also has a nice cross reference page for oil filters. there are many regular auto filters that will fit that mower. mine, in super tech brand, is the st3600 for the long filter. From what i understand any 15w40 HDEO or 15w50 will work great. In cold temps a 5w40. I will be putting the 5w40 in mine because i use it all winter long.

 

[JTK]

I dunno how you missed the recent thread on this very topic, but it's a shame. $70 on oil, when you really should have spent $20. I run the Carquest/Napa (Wix) version of the Cub hydro filter on my 2K series machine, but I'm sure there's others that will work. I would however use caution on the hydro filter. I've seen owners use engine oil filters on them and have purging/cavitation issues with the trans. Once they swapped back to a hydraulic filter, all was well.

Joel