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Glenn: I agree with the second part of your statment, his expectations are unreasonable. Not sure I agree with the part about any machine that earns it's keep will leak. My experience has been if hours were clocked at a fast rate from new, the machine would go a long time before it developed leaks. I'm dealing right now with a very old Woods mower, bearing are tight and smooth, yet the top seals are gone. It looks to me as though rust and corosion on shafts, at the point were seals make contact, have caused the leak. One can readily see this mower has never done much work. I had a new Farmall 560D, clocked up 11,000 hours in 17 years. My 656D was much the same except 10,000 hours in 12 years and 1066 and 10,000 hours in 8 years. The only leaks I ever witnessed in all those hours of service were hydraulic quick couplers. I currently have a Super A, probably 2,500 hours lifetime and a 140 with less than 1,000 hours. Both the SA and 140 have leaked for years. Here are my thoughts; time is a major factor, machine gets used enough to remove paint from around seals, then too many parked hours cause rusting where those seals do their thing. That is one source of leaks, much greater than many believe. Hours of work by a machine since new definitely is a factor, when it comes to transmission and rear end leaks. Some of those old Farmalls are well worn by now, it takes more than seals for a fix. By far the biggest source of hydraulic leaks aside from quick couplers, have been caused by inept operators, having the attitude, "Oh I'm not using the hydraulics today, it doesn't matter if it's low in oil." That my friend is the biggest source of hydraulic leaks. When it comes to the engine, the biggest source of leaks have been over filling the crank case. That has popped more crank seals than all the work tractors have ever done. My experience, 20 working tractors lifetime and about 15 employees. If I could figure out how to make the average employee understand, "keep the hydraulic reservoir on the full mark and the crank case somewhere between add and full" I'd consider myself a genius. Even some technicians are very poor, I take my Buick to a service center for oil changes. Once several years ago it came home crank case 3 quarts over full. I drove it right back, made him drain the excess and I never went back to that establishment for anything. I guess he was looking down the road to crank seal replacements. In summary my experience, human error has been the biggest cause of machine leaks.
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