While in Bangor on other business, I ran by the Toy Store and bought filters and a bucket of Kubota's UDT2 Transmission/Hydraulic oil. Supposed to be specially formulated for their hydrostatic transmission. Change from a pair of Benjamins wasn't worth stopping at McDonald's with. Didn't really need the oil right now, but wanted to have it on hand for the next full service.
The plan was to do a filter change. Usually I can yank the transmission filter off and spin the new one on and only lose a quart or so of oil.
Last time I serviced the tractor, I decided to save a couple of bucks and use NAPA equivalent hydraulic and transmission filters. After doing so, I noticed increased noise and pokey hydraulics especially when cold. My theory was that the NAPA filters were "almost right" and causing some restriction, so I decided to go back to $Genuine$ $Kubota$ $Filters$.
I also wanted to be sure I hadn't swapped positions on the Hydraulic and Trans filters, so I checked the book, both the operator's manual and the $Workshop$ $Manual$. The filter pointed out as the transmission filter and the actual filter that Kubota was telling me was the filter that went there didn't look right. "Well, Dumbass, you swapped the filters!"
Except that I hadn't. BOTH books have it bass-ackwards. AND the "transmission" filter will NOT fit on that base. Which, of course, I didn't discover until I'd dumped 3 gallons of UDT on the floor of the garage while trying to get the the wrong filter started on that mount. Sigh.
So I wound up doing a complete trans oil change early but all is well, both filters are on and the tractor does sound a bit quieter. We'll have to see if it's any better in cold weather. Which, being Spring in Maine, shouldn't take long...
The plan was to do a filter change. Usually I can yank the transmission filter off and spin the new one on and only lose a quart or so of oil.
Last time I serviced the tractor, I decided to save a couple of bucks and use NAPA equivalent hydraulic and transmission filters. After doing so, I noticed increased noise and pokey hydraulics especially when cold. My theory was that the NAPA filters were "almost right" and causing some restriction, so I decided to go back to $Genuine$ $Kubota$ $Filters$.
I also wanted to be sure I hadn't swapped positions on the Hydraulic and Trans filters, so I checked the book, both the operator's manual and the $Workshop$ $Manual$. The filter pointed out as the transmission filter and the actual filter that Kubota was telling me was the filter that went there didn't look right. "Well, Dumbass, you swapped the filters!"
Except that I hadn't. BOTH books have it bass-ackwards. AND the "transmission" filter will NOT fit on that base. Which, of course, I didn't discover until I'd dumped 3 gallons of UDT on the floor of the garage while trying to get the the wrong filter started on that mount. Sigh.
So I wound up doing a complete trans oil change early but all is well, both filters are on and the tractor does sound a bit quieter. We'll have to see if it's any better in cold weather. Which, being Spring in Maine, shouldn't take long...
