Neil from Messick's here with another story out of our shop. This is a 20-odd-year-old Kubota BX Series tractor. When you get an older machine like this, it's pretty normal to start to see a leak from here or there. These machines have a lot of moving parts, a lot of seals, and gaskets. Something happened on this one particular tractor that may have exasperated some of the leaking. Kubota's transmission fluid is super clear, can hardly be seen on the dipstick. On this particular machine, when it came into the shop, we noticed that the dipstick on the machine is filled nearly there, almost the whole way up to the top. The oil in this tractor was overfilled.
Now, there's a lot of different places that oil in your machine can go when it's overfilled, but as it starts to warm up and the fluid starts to expand, it takes up still more space and it's going to find somewhere to go. Something's going to give.
Most of these machines are going to have a transmission breather in the top that can allow some of that air or fluid to expand if it needs to, or you'll see a dipstick pop out on some machines and you get a little bit of pressure there on the inside to pop that up. On a tractor like this that's 20 years old, the path of least resistance for that oil may not be the breather. It may not be the dipstick. In this case, it was an O-ring on the rock shaft back here that moves your three-point hitch up and down.
When you're filling these tractors with oil, particularly with Kubota Super UDT, pulling it right out there, you can hardly see it. This stuff is basically clear on the dipstick. It's really hard to see. Make sure you're watching that oil level as you fill these things up because you can do damage to gearboxes and damage to equipment by overfilling them. Short and sweet, not a lot to say, but keep an eye out for that super UDT oil. It's super clear. Cleaning off that dipstick is necessary really to be able to tell where the level's at. It's easy to overfill that fluid. When it's overfilled, it's going to find a way out. Ideally, you want it to stay in there, right?
If you got a tractor, we can help. If you need parts or service for a machine, you've already got it, or you're shopping for a piece of equipment, give us a call at Messick's. We're available at 800-222-3373 or online at messicks.com.
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