Hydraulic oil refill

[RLM]

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, but I’m stumped here.
My Hyundai 740-7 wheel loader, the hydraulic cooler rotted out, had mobile mechanic come out & change it. Of course he didn’t bring oil with him. No visible oil was left in sight glass on side of machine. We pulled the fill access on top of the machine & put approximately 9 gallons in, to a point it won’t take more. Is there a thermostat where it has to reach a certain temp to open up to the cooler & sight glass is in that plumbing or something along those lines. There is still no oil in the sight glass. I’ve never had this happen before, my bobcat I’ve filled, oil shows up in window. So I’m kinda stumped. We left it to sit over night with the hope the oil would work it’s way in there. I don’t want to over fill it & have it leaking all over, property owner is already giving me **** even though we have been emoting oil drain pan & putting down absorbent.

 

[willie59]

I must admit I know nothing about the machine in question, but what baffles me, you actually "paid" a field tech to come out and change out your hydraulic oil cooler, which would mean (at least to me as a former field mechanic) that the last thing one would do on completion of the job would be get hydraulic oil at proper level. After all, minus any leaking from breaking connections to replace cooler, there's also the fact I've fitted a new (empty) cooler which will draw down level at least a bit on start up. Again, last thing in the repair is check oil level and replenish as required. As a former field wrench I find this offensive. I'd be on the phone raising all sorts of hell for the wrench bender not doing this since there's most certainly that piece of paper known as an invoice for his repair. Just damn.

 

[John C.]

I'm with Willie on this but there might some mitigating circumstances in favor of the wrench bender. I've been that guy in the field and brought oil and had the customer tell me that mine was too expensive and that they would take care of filling it and checking the machine. I would write out the work order and make them sign it before I left. I've had a couple of service managers get hold of me about an irate customer and they have to bite their tongues once they actually read the service report.

As to your fill issue, have you run the machine after putting the nine gallons in? That oil isn't going to fill that cooler until you start the engine. As I recall the fill is like an old Cat loader where the fill pipe goes down beyond the top of the tank. Air on top of the oil won't let the fluid come down the pipe.

 

[willie59]

Totally agree John C, been there myself. In this case he stated the wrench didn't bring any oil, that just baffles me knowing the repair being dispatched on. And yes, those Cat machines that the pipe goes down beyond the top of tank, which affects the level in the sight glass, that's one that's always puzzled me as well, but I must admit I'm not a Cat man so I'm certain there's something I'm missing there.

 

[RLM]

I did start the machine up, as did the mechanic to check for leaks. I don’t know why he didn’t fill it, I didn’t instruct him not to. However all the other stuff he did was awesom, the doors to get to the cooler haven’t opened that well in years, etc. (last cool that was done was at the dealer & they just pried doors open & pushed shut half assed) so I’m not going to say anything. Just want to make sure I’m not missing something. In his defense too it’s at a school & they were in session with a full parking lot so it’s not like he could drive it around the parking lot.
So assuming it’s like a cat style tank how does one get the air out of the tank ?

 

[John C.]

Run the boom and bucket to the full extent of their travel a couple of times and then set the bucket on the ground. Open the tank cap slowly because there will be air pressure built up. Let the cap sit loose on the fill pipe for about ten minutes and then slowly add oil till at the proper level.

 

[RLM]

Today we were able to get the last of the 20 gallons I bought in. There was a pressure relief on top opposite the fill, once I realized there was a cap on it & pulled cap off just had to depress & it worked. Still needs more oil as none is on sight glass yet but at least it’s going in. The specs says it holds 46 gallons but I assume that is entire system not tank.