# MF 261 rear hubs dry? Where to fill?



## gmwwc (May 5, 2015)

The tractor is a 1997-98 model with the perkins diesel engine, built in Poland and has been a good little work horse but hard to get parts for. I am pretty sure the shop manual was written in England (go figure!) I do not have the parts manual yet!

Until this spring the rear lift, mechanical transmission, and all seemed to be working just fine.
Then I found water in the hyd fluid so doing a change. There are quite a few drain plugs on this tractor. I got a good 11 gallons out of it and it is nasty. 11 gallons is supposed to be the reservoir capacity. I found the filter and cleaned it.

Then I found two drain plugs (not mentioned in the owner’s manual) on the hubs. I pulled these and they are dry. This seems ominous because the hubs are gravitationally lower than the other plugs. If these are supposed to be wet they should have had some fluid retained in there (or maybe not??). I can see what looks like gaskets on the hubs There is no obvious wet mark but could have been dry quite a while. Fluid may have leaked out but the volume of fluid drained was about right if not more than expected. This leads me to wonder if the hubs have a separate reservoir and where the fill port might be? Shop manual no help at all! Owner’s manual no help either.

I can not exactly put this tractor in the back of my pick up and take it to a shop. The not so local MF service department said it should all be on the same reservoir. The female I actually talked to was acting as a go between me and the shop man. To say she exhibited no knowledge of anything mechanical would be very kind indeed. I understand their $$ reluctance $$ to help with any advice. I will take this into consideration when buying a new tractor in August though.

So here is the multi problem question.
The lift arms slammed up and will not go down at all.
I will be filling the tractor with fresh hyd oil today and will run it and see if I can get the lift arms to lower. I fear I have gunk trapped in the cylinders. How to drain them if that proves to be accurate?

I am still concerned about the hubs. The shop manual says the hubs have epicyclical gears (I think that is British Speak for planetary gears). They have to be lubed with something? Oil or what? And where? No grease fitting, no port. 

I am so far behind on mowing it will take me 2 years to catch up so any help appreciated.


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## BigT (Sep 15, 2014)

Howdy gmwwc,

Welcome to the tractor forum.

If you cannot find a filler port for the rear hubs, then it must be lubricated through the axle housing?? Regardless, you must find an answer. An operator's manual should cover this detail. 

My Ford tractor has fluid level check plugs to determine when a reservoir is full. Yours may have a dipsticks to check rear end and transmission?? 


When the lift arms are stuck in the "up" position on a Ford tractor, you have to pull a plug on the lift cover to relieve hydraulic pressure. Lift arms stuck in the up position are normally attributed to a stuck unloader valve. When you get the lift arms lowered, work them up & down by hand to try to clear whatever is causing the valve to stick.

Good luck.


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## gmwwc (May 5, 2015)

*More on my lazy MF*

 We drained the old fluid and put new in...11 gallons and the stuf is HIGH! 
There is no port to check the level but there is a stick to check. 
The drain ports on the rear axle do seem to be wet now so I sure as heck hope they are lubed.
We got the rear arms down by mashing them with the bucket on the neighbors tractor.
They came back up as soon as we hit the lift...and stayed.
We mashed them back down and are going to hook up the bush hog.

This will be problematic when we need to change impliments 
If the bush hog is waving round in the air I know we will have another problem
The tractor is shifting OK and the only problem (for now) is the lift arms.
We are ordering a gasket for the big plate that covers the hydraulic pump and new boots for the shift lever.

Anyone know what is going to jump out at me when we pull the big cover? :dazed:


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## shona13 (Aug 12, 2011)

G'day gmwwc.
I will offer you one small piece of advise ,before you rip anything to bits get yourself a manual or when you pull the BIG COVER OFF it will cost you money to replace the control lever ,the roller and possibly a new control valve .
Happy days.
Hutch.


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