hydrolic oil change Jcb 3c 111 1978

[cadetleader1]

Hello Guys im new on here and currently restoring the above machine. would anyone know how to do a full hydrolic oil change, wheres the the drain plug? how do i empty the old oil out of the rams and tank. step by step instructions would be great. thanks a lot.
Russ

[Jeremy Rowland]

Hi Russ and welcome to the site I'm no JCB expert but there are those on here who should see this post and offer some good advice.

Jeremy

[CHRISEEBOY]

I'm sure its not the correct/best way, but when I took the hydraulic pump off my 3cIII I'm pretty sure the vast majority of oil would have come out had I not plugged both the hoses. As you look at the pump head on from the front of the JCB, the fat hose on the right is the return. If you undo the two jubilee clips and prize off the hose oil will literally gush out. If you are looking to do a complete oil change it might be a good way of getting most of the oil out. I was trying to save mine but ended up losing about 30L!

[MrF]

There's drain bungs on the bottom of the tanks, there'll be some left in there if you drain it out of the pump connections only & even then the main filter canister probably will hold a residual 20l that you can drop. A full change is a LOT of oil, 200 litres. I'd put a new main filter element in while I was dropping the oil and clean out the mesh pickup filter inside the lefthand tank. The most expensive thing by far will be the price of 200L of hydraulic oil unless you drive a hydraulic oil tanker for someone and can skim off the delivery a few times or similar

Have a look in the downloads section, the manuals in there are a great resource :-
app.php/dl_ext/?cat=5

[CHRISEEBOY]

I can't believe how much the oil has gone up by!

I bought 40L of 46 grade on 1st March this year for £56 off ebay. Now the same listing on ebay costs over £100 - that's almost doubled in price in 3 months?! Even my local supplier is charging £49 for 20L, how much does it cost in France MrF?

[Jeremy Rowland]

I can't believe how much the oil has gone up by!

I bought 40L of 46 grade on 1st March this year for £56 off ebay. Now the same listing on ebay costs over £100 - that's almost doubled in price in 3 months?! Even my local supplier is charging £49 for 20L, how much does it cost in France MrF?

Chris I don't know what's going on but I have heard that the cost of oil is skyrocketing. it could all be that many large companies cut production due to Covid expecting that there would be a recession which has fortunately not materialized.

Jeremy

[MrF]

I dont know sorry, I haven't had to buy any 46 for ages, the 3c2 I bought came with two full 25L drums unopened (straight in the back of the car with that before it got pilfered...) and I had a drum of my own about also and apart from swapping some rams, I've not lost loads popping a hose to use it up.
Hopefully it will be back to more sane levels by the time I run my stash down...

[CHRISEEBOY]

Lol, lucky for you.

After putting my 3c to work for its first 3 or 4 hours since I put the pump back on I think any air in the system has been squeezed out. Could anyone tell me what the symptoms are of low hydraulic oil? Its very difficult to see the sight glass in the cab so I could do with another indicator. When I operate the front bucket (up) I can now hear a kind of creeking sound and was wondering if that was indicative of low oil?

[MrF]

I have to change that pipe too and a previous owner of the 3c2 put a fishing float tip in his for the same reasons which I thought wasn't a bad idea, I have some of those pince collars to make a nice job of it, I just have to find some suitable clear tube. Also the buckets all have to be in a certain position to check the oil level, its in the book which ram has to be where & I printed that page out and plastified it and leave it in the machine seat pocket. Its one of those things to remember, like checking the transmission level with the engine running on the brockhouse trans models...
For the creaking sound at the front, not sure, I had lots of creaking sounds from the loader arms, but Ive posted pictures of the mess that was the bushes and pivots there. You've greased the snot out of every pin though already yes?

[CHRISEEBOY]

Ahhh grease...

I started working my way around the grease nipples and then my grease cartridge ran out after about nipple #20. I had every intention of getting a new cartridge but was caught in two minds about buying it in a larger quantity as there are a hell of a lot of places to grease on this thing! It must have slipped my mind and IIRC i didn't grease any of the front as I started at the back.

Well reminded MrF, I'd better stock up.