Hydraulic Fluid going to Crankcase L285

[Jamie Peghiny]

Hello, my name is Jamie and I'm a new guy here.
I bought my first tractor in 2014, a 1977 Kubota L-285 with a front end loader.
Last summer I saw oil dripping from the engine while it was running and noticed the crankcase was overflowing and hydraulic fluid was missing from the reservoir.
So I added hydraulic fluid and changed the motor oil.
Now, 3 months later, it's happened again.
I've determined that the oil is flowing out of the dipstick hole, and there's also oil coming out of the top left corner of the block behind the generator where the block mates to the gear case. Some white smoke is coming from he breather pipe but not a lot.
At first I thought I had a blown head gasket but what I've read here on the forum is that these symptoms point to a failed hydraulic pump.
The coolant was a little low so I added some glycol. There's no evidence of oil in the cooling system.
Before I plop down my bucks on a new pump, I just wanted to check in with you folks to see if there's anything I may have overlooked.
Also, if the hydraulic reservoir was overfilled, would that cause this type of failure?
Thanks a lot
Jamie

 

[rbargeron]

An overfilled hydraulic reservoir (the transmission) would not have a way to leak into the crankcase - except through failed seals in the hydraulic pump. The attached page from a factory parts list shows the manual steering version of the pump. The power steering version is similar with provision for the attached PS pump. Maybe the pump housing and hard parts are fine and it just needs a few soft parts? Good luck Dick B

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Yea I would put a seal in the pump before I just throw money at replacing the pump.

 

[CRETE4U]

Same thing happened to my L3010. I replaced the seal, didn't help. I replaced the pump.