MF 175 hydraulic problems

[tim white]

I have a MF 175 with a front loader, and I am having some problems with it. The loader runs off the internal pump in the trans housing. I have three problems that I assume are related.

1 There is a hydraulic fluid leak where the steel lines pass through the side of the transmission housing by the PTO lever (the bulkhead fittings). I loose about a quart of fluid in three hours of work.

2. The hydraulic fluid looks milky/white, like it has water in it. Perhaps water is getting in through the shift levers, which have badly deteriorated boots.

3 Recently the loader has been getting weaker and slower. It can only lift about half of what it used to, and raises very slowly. I have to give the engine full throttle to get it to come up at all, and if there is too much weight it won't raise at all. The cylinder that tilts the bucket still works fine though.

I have been using hydraulic fluid from the local parts store, which says it is suitable for my application. I would really like to avoid having to pull the top off the housing, which is the only way to get into things with the bulkhead fittings. Should I change fluids? And how ould I get all of the old fluid out of the lines and cylinders? Is there a way to change the filter with out pulling the top off of the housing?

Any help/advice will be appreciated.

Thanks
 

[samn40]

Top lid has to come off, to get at the back of those bulkhead fittings and to change the filter unless the tractor has a plate with 3 bolts under the transmission housing. Before removing the lid remember to remove the little roller from between the forks on the control linkage at the response/dipstick side. We only ever use 15W30 or 40 Super Universal Oil in these tractors. I am assuming your pump is shot as it is too small a pump for heavy loader work, these tractors should be plumbed for combining the two pumps for loader work, but both pipes from the pumps need non-return valves ftted. If you want to get a few more years out of the tractor and everything else is working OK, then you could plumb your main pump up to the spool valves through a diverter valve on the top cover, but it means locking the 3 point and putting the pump into Constant Pumping. Email me if you like....
Sam
 

[tim white]

Thanks for the advice. I have the auxiliary hydraulics option on my tractor, with a "combining valve" that sits on top of the trans housing just under the front edge of the seat.

I have had a real problem figuring out/understanding how to use the hydraulics on this tractor. Mostly I have been using the inner quadrant in position control to raise/lower the three point, with the draft control in the up position. Since I mostly use the tractor for maintaining my 2 1/2 miles of private road, using a blade on the three point, and never doing any plowing, that seemed to work pretty well. Now I think I should be using the draft control to raise/lower the three point, and put the inner quadrant in high pressure position for the loader.

If I could figure out and easy and quick way to lock and unlock the three point in raised position, I would happily use the combining valve to give me more power to the loader. But I tend to use the blade a lot more than I use the loader.