'73 656D help with Shaver and tractor hydraulics

I just purchased a Shaver HD-10 post driver for the back of my 656. I have two remotes on the 656. One is running my front loader and the other is open. I"m going to use the open remote for the driver.

There is a pressure line (smaller diameter hose and a bigger line (1" diameter hose) on the driver. The pressure line has a coupler on it (which may just plug into my remote), and the larger hose with just a male end with threads. I asked the guy who owned the driver before me and he said that he just put the return hose back into the hydraulic tank. I think it"s supposed to be hooked to the return side of the remote fitting.

So, a few questions if I may...

1. Can I just screw on the fitting for my tractor on the return hose and simply hook it up to the remote?

2. The remote has two inputs, and for the lack of my experience, I"m calling them an upper and a lower coupling in the same remote. I"m assuming that the upper coupling is the pressure side (because on my loader remote, the single pressure line is looked into the upper coupler) and the lower is the return. Is this correct on the 656?

3. The driver has not been used for about 5 years, but it was stored inside and it still in really good condition. After I hook the driver up to the tractor and exercise it (before pounding posts), I will have to check my hydraulic fluid in the tractor, right? The tractor"s hydraulic fluid will fill the pounder hydraulics, right? Also, is there any trick to bleeding the lines if it is needed?

4. And finally, your opinion on using the Shaver HD-10 driver on the 656... this tractor is capable of running this driver, right?

As you all probably know, using the pounder can be extremely dangerous. I just want to make sure mechanically, the tractor can handle this pounder and I connect it correctly. Any usage tips are also much appreciated!

As always, thanks in advance.

Respectfully,
Bill

Here's a link to the operators manual of the hd-10 for ya in pdf

http://www.kencove.com/fence/Assets/documentation/PDSHD10_manual.pdf

we always ran our return lines from the shaver post pounder right into the transmission/hydraulic fill hole. I don"t think you will get good results if you do it the way you suggest. on your 656 the top and bottom remotes are both pressure and return, depending on which way you push the remote control lever. You should have plenty tractor to handle that driver.

i have a HD8 shaver driver. i have used it on a 656, until the pounder jarred something inside the hydraulic housing, and the 3pt went way up and stayed there. hope that doesn't happen to you. my 656 came off a veg farm in its previous life, so the 3pt may have been used (almost) to death.
to answer your questions:
1) DO NOT try to send the return oil through a remote outlet. it can't take the sudden volume. use the trans fill hole on the platform. just be aware that it probably won't be waterproof in a rainstorm. you don't want to contaminate the hyd oil with water. btdt.
2) on a 56 series, the bottom outlet gets pressure when you pull the hyd lever back, so i would call it the pressure side. if you hold the lever down, you would get pressure on the top outlet. (from your description of your loader hookup, i'm guessing this is how yours is hooked up?) but trying to lock the lever down without going into float is a little more difficult to me, than locking the lever back.
3) i would think the pounder still has oil in it from the previous user. still wouldn't hurt to check the level.
4) the 656 should handle the pounder well. make sure all the cat 1 pins are bushed to cat 2 where necessary. any slop in the mountng will take away some of the force of the pounder. i've never used a 10 but i've heard they were a lot more effective than an 8. make sure to use the little fork thing to hold the post in place when you pound. it might save a splinter or worse.
good luck. sure beats pounding them with a 14# mall.

The remotes on your tractor are 2-way. Pull the lever and one is pressure the other is return. Push the lever in the other direction, and it reverses flow.

Like mentioned, hook your pressure line up to the coupler like normal, and run the return line to the hydraulic fill/dipstick on the platform. Just pull the dipstick and stick the return hose end in it's place. Should be good to go. Just a word of caution, those pounders will bounce the tractor around pretty good in hard or stoney soil. Used one for about 20 posts, and returned it. Too much stress on the rear parts of the tractor for my liking.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience! I"m going to hook it up this weekend and see how many leaks it has, if any. The pounder itself looks pretty clean, good paint, stickers still on it (including dealer sticker) but it"s an older model. Probably only 400-500 posts through it its entire life. I got it at an estate sale for $500. It"s a manual adjust one, but like you said, it"s better than hitting "em with a 14# mall.

Apparently Shaver makes return hose adaptors for all types of tractors. They are checking for the 656, so I will let everyone know.

The back of my 656 has what looks like a freeze plug between the two remotes. Looks like I could unscrew that plug and it may dump into the rear hydraulic tank.

Am I on to a more permanent solution or am I trying to over-engineer this and stick with the dipstick hole on the operator"s platform?

Thanks, this is a tremendous help!

Thanks for your insight. I think Shaver makes an adaptor kit that will ad legs to the bottom of the pounder, which will help take some of the stress off of the 3pt hitch. I may look into that if it shakes my tractor too bad.