water in rear end

[Charrie 19]

Hi all.

I recently acquired a 1985 Wheel Horse 416-8 with the Kohler engine on it. PO said it had been parked under a cover for a few years. It shows some weather mild weather damage but can be cleaned up.

Haven't tired to start it yet. PO said he parked it at the end of the season and it wouldn’t start next spring. He did a little work and then acquired a new mower.

We drained the rear end and a lot of clear water came out at first, at least a qt. After the water came some black looking oil. After draining I put in 2 qts of store brand motor oil that was in shed and turned the wheels by hand. Also before the shiftier was a bit hard to change gears but now it seems to work great.

 

What should I do from here?

I read a post to flush with kerosene and another where someone disassembled the rear end and cleaned everything. The latter is probably the best way to go but I wanted to get some opinions.

I did replace a rear axle seal on my 520h and this 416-8 has a leaking seal.

 

Working on building a new storage building but at the moment I really don’t have a good place to disassemble the rear axle. When I was younger my dad taught me how to rebuild small engines but I have always been intimidated by transmissions.

 

Thanks 

Charrie 

[8ntruck 9,192]

Probably would not be a bad idea to use that store brand motor oil (30 wt?) as a flush.  Diesel fuel will work here, too.  After the flush, drain it again and refill with 80wt gear oil - store brand here is adequate.  As part of the flush procedure, you need to run the tractor around for a few minutes, including tight right hand and left hand turns and run it in all gears to thourally circulate the flushing fluid and try to get the crud in the transmission stirred up and suspended in the oil so it gets drained out.

 

When draining the transmission, it helps to raise the front of the tractor as high as safely possible for you.  There is a hump in the floor of the transmission, and raising the front of the tractor allows the oil ahead of the hump to get to the drain plug.

Edited 9 hours ago by 8ntruck

[JoeM 10,131]

Sure wish there was a sure fire answer for this question.

Flushing and refilling is a bit of a gamble. The inside of those cases is not painted. If left unattended for any length of time, rust forms and is pretty hard to get out without disassembly. Flushing pretty much will remove the watered down oil but in the past I have found the rust that forms on the inside of the case on top remains.

Of course the best is to disassemble inspect and clean. @stevasaurus has good vids for this on the tube. Does require some general mechanical ability. 

This case was flushed and then disassembled, note the rust on the top of the case.

One indicator is the dip stick, if it is real rusty that is telling you something. 

 

 

A magnetic drain plug can help but has limitations.

 

 

 

[ri702bill 12,716]

1 hour ago, JoeM said:

One indicator is the dip stick, if it is real rusty that is telling you something. 

Excellent point.

A couple of things......

Flushing with diesel, instead of engine oil, is better because of its lower viscosity. This will make leaking seals - and those on their way out - very apparent. If you have one failed seal, you probably have more.

Plan on changing the shifter boot for a good fitting new one. The shifter acts like a wick if it gets wet. (That is most likely how the water got in).

[ebinmaine 80,125]

6 hours ago, Charrie said:

When I was younger my dad taught me how to rebuild small engines but I have always been intimidated by transmissions.

 

If you can rebuild even the most simple of small engines - then these particular transmissions are a piece of cake and a walk in the park. 

[oldlineman 1,781]

I did my 414-8 several years ago, with close supervision from very knowledgeable and great members here. My problem was the broken diff bolt that sometimes happens, if I can do it you can do it, especially with help found here. Bob   

[peter lena 9,996]

@Charrie   water in rear end is a simple PREVENTABLE FIX , fresh  shifter boot , underside lightly GREASED ? GREASED ?  lets it SLIDE over the trans irregularities , held in exact  holding  point with a  wide tye wrap just above boot on shift rod , also  regularly check my trans oil after  cutting , when I top off tank , have a regular  check over after every use , pete