Power director oil

Sitting in the seat, the Power Director/PTO gear compartment dipstick is to the left side of the instrument panel. Proper oil level is right down on the very bottom of the dipstick. And you say that oil level goes down and the hydraulic compartment (dipstick under the gas tank on the right side) goes up ???     Never seen that before. If anything the hydraulic compartment oil level is higher than the Power Director compartment.

D-14 not the same.

Power director and hydraulics is the same compartment. No separate dipstick for power director. If your transmission oil is very low and the hydraulic oil is very high, the seals between the transmission and torque tube are no good and need to be replaced.

Had this been my own tractor, there's no way I would have split it for this. If the oil is truly going from the Power Director area forward to the hydraulic sump area, that is a first for me. I've been fixing these for nearly 50 years, so maybe we now have seals wearing out 50 years later ??  Anyway, the dipstick vent to the Power Director clutch must be plugged, allowing pressure to build when the tractor is being used for extended periods of time. I don't know how it is used, but I am assuming this. Oil is carried up by the PTO gears and the oil is then augered thru the transfer tube to the inside of the Power Director clutch assembly. The oil seals (2) on the clutch shaft are in this area where the transfer tube is attached. I suppose if the vent to the Power Director compartment was plugged, the oil could slowly be pushed thru those clutch shaft seals when the compartment was warmed up and the tractor being used for hrs at a time. I have seen oil go the other way, but not this way. To replace those two seals is a very MAJOR project. The whole torque tube has to be separated from the engine and the rear end and stripped down to a bare empty housing. If it was mine, I would have dropped the hydraulic sump down and reached up in there with a pry bar and popped the frost plug loose to the intermediate gear bearing idler shaft and just let the oil run back and forth thru that bearing like a series 3 D-17 did. Carry the oil level high enough that the hydraulic dipstick is happy and not OVERFULL one bit.

A D-17 series 3 has the same hydraulic pump and sump. The Power Director clutch is centered on the clutch shaft center line. I would advise carrying the oil level (after sitting overnight on the level) to the proper height on the hydraulic dipstick (and no more) and don't worry about the Power Director oil level. Maybe start with the oil level just at the "add" mark on the hyd stick.  You didn't say how this tractor is being used ??   Lots of steep hills ??  extended periods of running time ??

Edited by DrAllis - 06 Oct 2024 at 6:27pm

I would not. This recommendation is a last ditch effort to keep a tractor running without MAJOR labor repairs in a pretty easy way. I still can't figure out how this tractor has oil from a lower level get into a higher compartment, but whatever.

Its main use is during the summer to brush hog about 25 acres. It’s pretty much all hill. Some places are fairly steep. It does a lot of smaller jobs too but the brush hogging is the one where it gets extended run time at high RPM’s.

Edited by sdailey - 07 Oct 2024 at 12:55pm