# Ford 550 - Changing some filters



## 8990TRAC (Jun 16, 2013)

Hello,

it was nice weather at the start of the week (snow on the hills now!), so I gave my old digger the benefit of new oil, a new oil-filter and a new fuel-filter.

It's actually a much easier job than I thought it'd be so, if anybody else out there is trying to work up the motivation to do it, maybe this'll spur you into action:

Oil Used: Ambra Mastergold HSP SAE15W-40 (6.6 litres)
Oil Filter: CNH 84284907

First job - get the loader arms up, out of the way. A trailer, a couple of fence-posts and a couple of tyres achieve this nicely:








Next, find the drain plug and put a bowl or something under it - I got this fancy oil draining bowl with a spout from Amazon for about a tenner:








The drain plug is on the left side of the sump looking forward and needs a 1" spanner (that's 25.4mm in new money):








Before I drained the oil, I levelled the digger up using it's legs...and yes, I did this right outside my front door while my girlfriend was out 








There's supposed to be 6.6 litres of oil in the sump, so make sure your bowl can cope with that much. The drain plug was pretty stiff, but climbing under the front axle and using my foot on the spanner soon had it loose (this oil coming out is so old, it wasn't considered a fossil fuel when it was put in):








I left the sump to drain while I had lunch, then came back for the filter. A strap-wrench got it moving and then it was pretty easy to remove. Bafflingly, my phone switched into "Gourmet" mode to take this picture...it does look pretty tasty, I suppose:








Filling the sump is done from the other side of the engine after fitting a new filter - the only tricky bit is getting at the filler hole with enough clearance for an oil-can. I decanted the oil from the 25 litre drum I bought it in into a 5 litre can to make it easier to handle, but I still needed a funnel with an extension, too.








The service manual says the engine holds 6.6 litres, including the filter. I didn't fill the filter before putting it on, as it goes on horizontally and I thought the oil would be bound to leak out before I screwed it home. With the filter empty, then, I put in about 6 litres to get to the "FULL" mark on the dipstick (down, under and just forward of the filter). I then turned the engine over without it firing for five seconds or so to circulate the oil into the filter and topped the oil up again.

It turns out there's a difference of opinion as to the best filter to fit; the one specified for my engine is a much shorter one than the one I took off (a Baldwin BT5 is suitable). The longer type is apparently for turbo-equipped engines, but I went for the longer one anyway on the grounds of "bigger filter=more filtering", which may or may not be true. When I got rid of the old oil, I checked it for any interesting debris and found a few bits of broken casting in it(!), so I reckon the engine needs any help it can get 

The engine runs a lot less smokey with the new oil, which must be a good thing.

It turns out there's an 11 picture limit on each posting, so the fuel-filter will have to come in part 2...


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## 8990TRAC (Jun 16, 2013)

...onto the fuel-filter.

I realised afterwards that there's better (cleaner) way of doing this than the way I did it, but there you go.

Fuel-Filter: Alco MD-093

Here's the fuel-filter - it's on the right-side of the engine, looking forward. The filter is where the low-pressure fuel-system towards the rear of the digger meets the high-pressure fuel-system towards the front of the digger (you can see the fuel-injector pump just ahead of and behind the filter in this picture). Before doing anything with the fuel-filter, turn the fuel off with the tap on the bottom of the tank - the filter is gravity-fed from the tank and the tank'll just drain through the filter-housing if you take the filter off without closing the fuel-supply:








The fuel-filter is essentially in three bits - the filter-body, the glass bowl at the bottom and a bolt/threaded shaft that holds it all together. This is the bolt on the top that you need to undo; my vernier gauge says 11.25mm or there-abouts, so it's probably 7/16" allowing for rust and rounded edges:








Right, now - I thought there'd probably be a bit of fuel leak from the filter as I loosened it and I was right, there was. I wrapped tissue around the filter to catch the excess fuel, which worked...why I didn't open the drain-tap under the glass bowl and get rid of the fuel that way, I don't really know:








Here's the filter, stripped down into its main parts - the filter cartridge (yes, that black stuff really was in there! The glass bowl was so filthy, I didn't even realise it was made of glass - I thought it was ceramic or something!), the glass bowl, the threaded tube/tap and the two seals. The seals go one between the filter-cartridge and the filter housing and one between the filter-cartridge and the glass bowl. Although it's not very obvious, one seal's slightly bigger than the other - the big one goes at the top and the small one goes at the bottom:








The new filter-cartridge came with two new seals and two o-rings; one of the o-rings goes here, where the fuel feeds into the filter assembly. The other o-ring is much smaller and I never found where it went...answers on a postcard, please:








With the filter all screwed back together, the next job is to turn the fuel back on and bleed the low-pressure side of the fuel system. Open the tap under the tank and the filter will start filling with fuel. The filter bleed-screw is next to the bolt that holds the filter together - from memory, I think a 15mm spanner fits it (19/32") - just back it off until air starts bubbling out of the gap, as you can just about see here:








Bleeding the fuel-filter relies on the tanks being full enough to force fuel and, hence, air out of the bleed-screw. I'd actually run my tank so empty, the filter stopped bleeding before clear fuel started running from the bleed-screw, which was a bit confusing - I thought the fuel-tap had blocked (again!). Once fuel without air bubbles in it starts running from the bleed-screw, tighten it down and, hopefully, you're good to go.

So there you go - not a difficult couple of jobs and not even that messy, if you do them right  I changed the air-filter(s) a little while ago - the next job is the hydraulic system filter, but that _does_ look difficult and messy, so I'm building myself up to that one...

Hopefully somebody'll find this helpful


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## pogobill (Jan 31, 2012)

Great thread! I'm sure that a few folks that were a bit apprehensive about the challenge of a service, with certainly give it a shot now! 
Make sure you get a pan big enough for the hydraulic oil change! I use one of those long, low plastic under bed storage containers with a lid and wheels on it. I can drain both hydraulic reservoir plugs at the same time, it holds all the oil, and I can wheel it out from under the tractor once the drain plugs go back in the tractor. I can transfer the old oil out of the container back into the oil bottles and pails for recycling, clean the pan up and use it to keep my oil changing gear / funnels, etc. in that container with the lid on to keep everything as clean as possible.


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## 8990TRAC (Jun 16, 2013)

That's a good idea - a sort of oil changing kit with everything in one place, ready to go...beats hunting around the shed for the stupid funnel every time you need it!


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