East of Broken Bow | shank - 2/22/2026 10:17
I have a 966 with milky hydraulic oil. I hate to dump it. Will it separate and if so will water go to the bottom or top?
If it is filled with IH Hy-Tran, the answer is NO!
Hy tran is designed to absorb and dissipate water. Once it turns milky, it has become 'overloaded' with water, and allowing the water to settle to the bottom will do nothing to remove the water the oil has absorbed. We talked about filtering it out with a water-absorbing filter some years ago on a used tractor we had bought, and the shop manager at the time recommended against it, as the water removal filters available at the time that were effective at filtering out the water, also filtered out some of the necessary additives in the oil.
Now, if you have hydraulic fluid that is designed to separate from water, then it will settle to the bottom, and likely can be drained out. However, the problem with that in the winter, is that the separated water will freeze and leave a layer of ice in the transmission. I kid you not when I say I have seen tractors with a thick enough layer of ice in the tranny that they would not move until thawed out.
If the tractor is worth running, it is worth changing the fluid to fresh. Also, I have been told multiple times by IH mechanics and technicians that the number one reason for TA failure is oil related - either contaminated oil, or a restricted filter. About 25 years ago, we started changing the hydraulic filter on our tractors along with every oil change, and have not had a TA failure since, and have a 986 in the family with well over 10,000 hours on the TA and still going strong.
I would even go so far to say that if this is a GOOD tractor, you should change the hydraulic oil, run it a week or two, then change it again.
I googled the hydraulic capacity of an IH 966, and got an AI answer of 16-25 gallons depending on source. If it were 25, you could to 2 changes with a 55 gallon drum of Hy-Tran and know ie it all good.
Edited by HuskerJ 2/22/2026 14:56
|
Will water and hydraulic oil separate if sitting for a while?
