Water in hydorstatic drive

[Beaverman]

Long story short,our snowmachine club's Bombardier 400+ snocat broke through the ice and was half submerged in the water. We pulled it out and changed all the fluids and filters, but after running the snocat about 10 hrs, the ATF Dextron II in the hydrostic drive turned cloudy, not the bright red it should be. We assume there was still water in the system. We have changed the oil and filters out again and hope the problem is solved.
My question is, can we some how get the water out of the oil we drained out? Sitting in a clear container no water has seperated out in 4 days, it still looks cloudy. Hopefully there is a way to save it. It only has about 30 hrs on it and if we have to change it again that will kill our grooming budget.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[tropic]

Heat it up.

 

[mariyadisuja]

Originally Posted By: Beaverman
Long story short,our snowmachine club's Bombardier 400+ snocat broke through the ice and was half submerged in the water. We pulled it out and changed all the fluids and filters, but after running the snocat about 10 hrs, the ATF Dextron II in the hydrostic drive turned cloudy, not the bright red it should be. We assume there was still water in the system. We have changed the oil and filters out again and hope the problem is solved.
My question is, can we some how get the water out of the oil we drained out? Sitting in a clear container no water has seperated out in 4 days, it still looks cloudy. Hopefully there is a way to save it. It only has about 30 hrs on it and if we have to change it again that will kill our grooming budget.
Thanks for any help you can give me.


Sorry,
I don't have enough knowledge about this matter.
i just suggest you should take help of any experience person or good site as like given below.
Best of Luck
________________
Industrial Touch up

 

[tom slick]

Originally Posted By: tropic
Heat it up.


I agree, if you heat it up above 212*F it will boil the water out.

If it were me I'd just get rid of it. If the fluid is damaged in any way and causes damage, that damage will cost more than the replacement fluid.

 

[Steve S]

drain the oil and do a flush I would bet the trans cost big dollars.

 

[JTK]

Even normal operating temps will vaporize/evaporate the water out over time. I assume this trans can't get hot this time of year in Alaska? Make sure the breather is free/clear do some fluid swaps and run it. A hydro will whine like a mofo if it ain't digging it's fluid.

Joel

 

[Beaverman]

I thought I'd give everyone who answered an update to what has happened.
We rounded up one of those propane turkey cookers and a large stock pot. We slowly heated, about 3 gal. at a time, the ATF oil to 220 deg.F. You could see the small water bubbles rise to the surface and the steam coming off the top. In about 30 min. the oil had turned from a pink cloudy color to the bright clear red it should be.
I want to note also a couple of other things. First off you are dealing with hot oil, so do it outdoors and wear protective clothing! We heated it slowly so not to make the water flash off in a big eruption. The reason we held it at 220 deg. was that the machine has a high temp. warning at that temp plus at 212 the water will boil.
Now off to do another oil change......

 

[bruce381]

"Sitting in a clear container no water has seperated out in 4 days"

Additves will hold water it will not seperate forget fixing the oil it is cheap run it a few minutes and CHANGE the oil again.
bruce

 

[Beaverman]

One last update to everyone. After changing and slow cooking the oil 4 times we have finally dried out our hydrostatic drive system. The next step will be to change the filters again and replace the fluid with new. The snocat is driving strong as ever but I'm sure the water didn't do the pumps and moters any good. Hopfully we dodged a bullet this time and saved ourselves a $1000 bucks by cooking out the water the way we did.
Thanks for everyones ideas and insights. Great forum!