HYDRO 100 HYDRO TRANS ISSUES

We have a hydro 100 at the county garage we use for running a drag grader. We have no manuals on this tractor from what I know. I work as a mechanic for the county. The tractor hadn't been serviced in a good while before I started. I started implimenting PM schedules to get all of our neglected equipment serviced. Well in talking to the local tire service guy I learned he had three old 66 and 86 series tractors he mentioned the trans was supposed to have hy-trans in it. The county had been putting regular hyd in it as the cylinders on the drag leak. My boss didn't know anything about the need for hy tran and had no fluid in stock for it.
They had been complaining the high side of the t/a doesn't increase speed much. After I changed the drained all the fluid out and replaced filters it got a lil better. It still has the high side issue of not not getting up to road speed as it should. I know very little of these tractors besides what a friend told me about them. It pulls hard in low side every day all day. What could be the cause of the lack of power ( slows down bad on hills) and road speed? it runs great cranks right up. is the t/a bad or would it be the clutch slipping in high gear ? how bad could the wrong fluid have damaged the trans and t/a ?

Well first off a Hydro 100 DOES NOT have a TA. LOL It has a hydrostatic drive motor in front of a manual transmission with two ranges. Running regular hydraulic oil more than likely damaged the internal plates in the hydrostatic unit. As far as how bad it is??? Well they can be spendy to fix when they are ruined. I have seen $4-5K put in them without much trouble.

whats the lever on the rh side of the driver station then ? sorry if I seem like a newb at this tractor but just havn't been around them much.
It also is weird on the forward reverse lever ..... if you just move it to the right at the bottom of the forward gate it will actually go backwards till you move it up slightly. Till about half way in the range of travel it just sits there til you move it farther forward could this be part of the problem and simply is not getting the flow it needs to get road speed due to the forward reverse lever being out of adjustment? Is there an adjustment we can make to it to get this problem resolved with the lever. I was reading and it said something about the scroll valve being out of adjustment.

(quoted from post at 17:56:00 06/10/16)..........................................?

Click to expand...

Google 'ihc hydro 100 service'

Well the lever on the right is the two speed GEAR shifter. It basically is a Lo-Hi range shift. The lever on the Left is the speed and direction control lever. You having so much lost motion on the control lever can be several things. More than likely two combined. 1) The linkage is worn/lose and you not getting the correct movement on the control valve. 2) The hydro motor/unit is leaking internally so that you have to move the lever far enough for the flow to get larger than the internal leaks.

You need to post these questions down on the Farmal/IH forum. There are fellows there that can help you out more than I can. I have never worked on the hydro unit itself. I have worked on the gear section but I always took the hydrostatic part to a local fellow that was knowledgeable on them.

Now some general knowledge on the HYDRO IH tractors. They where not good for heavy drawbar work. It surprises me that your Hydro 100 has lasted as long as it has with poor maintenance. These tractors where great for slow speed PTO work with variable ground speeds. Many guys loved them for baler tractors. They also where used a lot in vegetable production running the harvesting units. They could be running at full PTO horsepower and moving at very slow speeds.

The trouble is that the hydrostatic unit is not very forgiving of poor care and abuse. It sounds like this one has had both. The cost to repair it correctly very well could be more than it is worth. You can buy pretty good gear drive models of the IH 1086 for around what this Hydro could cost to repair.

As was said,a Hydro does NOT hAve a TA.Nor does it have a clutch.It is just a variable displacement piston pump 'piggy backed'
to a piston type motor. There is NO mechanical conection between the engine and transmission. only hydralic oil.The pedal is
simply a 'dump valve'.The lever on the side isa a HI/LO range gear 'box'. Only use HI while running down the road,or pulling a
wagon. Use Low anytime you are working in the field. (you dont drive your car in hi gear all day in town,do you?)Keep the
engine speed up to pto speed,or wide open if fully loaded.Contrary to popular belief,you can use a hydro for tillage.You just
have to know how to run them.They are not very efficent,but are fully capable.They do shine at PTO work(like baleing
hay).Clean oil of the correct type and spec is CRITICAL for long life.Sounds like your Hydro is just worn out and
'slipping'.They do slow down more/pull harder up hills.That is their nature.The 'parasitic' draw.When going up a hill,simply
pull back on the hydro lever,let it breath They do use more fuel,simply because the engine is at full throttle at all times. Yse the
hydro to vary speed,not the throttle.Yes they can be 'pricey' to oh.But try buying a running tractor for the repair
bill.....Compare to OHing/rebuilding a JD Powershift.I think you will find the hydro will be cheaper.But nobody ever complains
about the JD ....LOL. BTW,I have owned 3 Hydros,and been around them all my life.

I had a similar problem with my 656 hydro. I changed the fluid and installed the 2 new transmission filters one internal one external and I would
assume the 100 is the same?. With a hydro I would not skimp and put cheap oil in use the in hytran in it since oil is so important to the
transmission. I can't say that it cured my problem completely but it sure does act better so I can move on with troubleshooting. The hydro
service books from IH are very useful tools along with the guys from the IH forum.