Draining power steering MF 135

[Matthew Rice]

I accidentally put the wrong type of fluid in the power steering of my 135. What is the best way to drain it to replace it with the correct fluid? I looked but didn't see a plug at the bottom of the reservoir.

 

[Finn Md]

You can try draining p.s. pump with a suction tube, but not a real good method. You can disconnect return line from pump and put in a bucket with old rags wrapped and end and run it to pump oil out. Be careful as it pumps out fast and can make a mess and eye/splash hazard. But, if it was me I would remove pump and open it up (remove several small hex head screws). This way you can also change the internal p.s. pump filter and clean out old gunk, which may be bad or clogging anyways. Make sure the new p.s. filter already has the spring fixed on it. You'll need a new O-ring gasket for pump too when you open it up. Parts are cheap and available at MF Dealer. It's not difficult to do, and you should first remove starter to allow easy access to get pump out. I did all this on my 135 D in about 1-2 hour time.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Matthew:
my error, in my earlier post I did not mean to say "hex head" screws hold reservoir on pump. They're small screws as you can see, and to remove reservoir you need to take off pump since a couple of the screws are not accessible close to engine block. If the p.s. fluid seems clean and not milky, you could get by OK with just pumping out old fluid as I mentioned earlier. Disconnect return hose at pump and place in bucket. Start tractor and turn steering full left and right. While doing this you could also add new Permantran 3 fluid to purge/clean it out more while pumping it out. Probably lots of old metal flakes & particles in pump/reservoir. When I took mine apart a few years ago the internal p.s. filter was trashed and full of gunk. A lot of people don't know there's a filter in there and never replaced them. Too bad MF did not just place a drain plug in reservoir - would be a lot easier procedure. When you're done and add new Permatran 3 fluid to p.s. pump, you will need to air bleed. Run tractor and turn steering wheel left and right, and check fluid level and presence of air/bubbles from fill plug. Good luck