[Shop-talk] Sometimes it's better to be lucky.

[Dave Cavanaugh]

I was mowing my neighbor's pasture with my NH TC30 and brush hog the 
other weekend when my hydraulics went away.  I figured I had a leak 
somewhere and took the tractor home and parked it and checked the 
hydraulic fluid, and yep, it was off the bottom of the dipstick.  I 
didn't see an obvious leak, and had stuff to do the last few weekends so 
today I finally got to it.  I added a couple of gallons of Quicklift 
(which was way too much, but at least I knew I had enough) and cycled 
the loader and 3 point a couple of times.  The hydraulic pump was very 
noisy and the loader and 3 point went up very slowly and jerky.  Great, 
I've probably wiped out the hydraulic pump.

I went on line and found that a new hydraulic pump retails for $550 from 
New Holland, although imagine I could probably find one cheaper with a 
little digging.  I then surfed through a couple of tractor forums and 
found one or two people with the same problem; they said there's a 
rubber coupling on the pump suction line (probably for vibration 
isolation) that can get knocked off and cause the problem.  I climbed 
under the tractor and found the coupling/hose and sure enough the 
coupling was pushed back and kinked and the hydraulic pump wasn't 
getting good suction.  I put the coupling back in place and re-tightened 
the hose clamps, and everything works fine.  Then I drained about a 
gallon or so of Quicklift out of the sump and got the level back where 
it needed to be.

I remember while mowing one section of the field I was turning around at 
the end of a row and got the tractor stuck.  Turns out it was high 
centered on a log round that the neighbor's idiot son had probably 
dragged out into the pasture for who knows what.  That's probably what 
knocked the coupling loose.

  I guess I'll have to finish mowing the pasture this weekend.