Hydraulic oil / diesel fuel mix "oops"

[Jerbearbroth]

Hi, I recently had a problem of 4 gallons of diesel fuel getting mixed into the hydraulic tank on my 644E John Deere loader. I think the hydraulic tank holds around 30 gallons of oil. What are peoples thoughts on this? Should I drain the tank and put in fresh hydraulic oil, or would it be a small enough amount of diesel to allow safe operation?

Thanks for your comments!

 

[icestationzebra]

1/13th isn't a "small amount" in my book. It will be much cheaper and quicker to replace the oil than it is to replace a pump. The good news is the NBR and HNBR are compatible with diesel so you shouldn't need to change any O-rings. Hopefully you haven't ran it yet. ISZ

 

[Nige]

I hope you haven't run it yet either, or your job will be more difficult. If it hasn't been run, drain the tank and refill with hydraulic oil.
If it has been run, drain the whole system, cylinders, lines, & all, and fill with fresh hydraulic oil. In these circumstances also consider another oil change (tank only) after maybe 50 hours of operation.

 

[Jerbearbroth]

Thanks for the input. Sadly, the machine has been run for about 2 hours before I was made aware of the problem. I had it in mind that I will need to flush the system, but there was always the hope that someone would say awww, don't worry about it. I guess you're right ISZ, a few gallons of oil and some time is much cheaper than a pump.

Thanks again.