How to change the oil in your Cub Cadet or Husky yard tractor

I’m gonna do an oil change on my Husky lawn tractor. It’s got a 22 horse V Briggs engine in it and I’ll walk you through a simple oil change procedure. My tractor has been well used and abused. I used it for some bush hogging and things like that. I must mention some of the basics first and then we’ll get into some of the specific procedures.

Locate the dip dipstick and also the filler. Then right up under the cover is the oil filter. So you’ve got to have a new oil filter. When you buy your tractor, you get two manuals, you get the operator’s manual and the parts manual. The operator’s manuals got a maintenance section in it. It gives you all your intervals for service, things like that. Where to lubricate, where to put grease, how to change a blade, and it gets into oil changes. They recommend 5-30 full synthetic Rotella or Mobile #1 oil if you operate in temperatures below freezing and straight 30 weight motor oil if you operate in temperatures above freezing. Just to make certain, you might want to do a Hey Siri or Hey Alexa search for the correct oil viscosity for a 22HP Husky lawn tractor. They recommend an oil change after 50 hours of operation or at least once a year. If it’s not used at least 50 hours, they also recommend replacing the filter every season or every other oil change if it’s used less than 100 hours in one year. I change my filter every time I change oil, but that’s my personal choice. Also, with your tractor comes a tube 10 inch long, clear plastic that’s used to help drain the oil in a way that doesn’t make such a mess. One of the things that I intend to do with mine is to put in some permanent plumbing to make the oil change a little easier. You’re going to need an oil filter. I pick this up at my local Napa Auto Parts or you can order them online. Let’s say you’ve got a Briggs and Stratton engine in this tractor. So you need a Briggs and Stratton filter. Didn’t have to be a genuine parts filter, you can get an off brand, if you like.

So we’ll start with the oil change now. First thing you’ve got to do on both sides is get rid of the lower dash cover. You’re gonna take the pan out, there’s a plastic rivet and then there’s two slots that slide down in there. Now to get to the oil drain plug and not make a big mess, I recommend turning your wheels all the way to the left. That gives you a little bit more room to get in there with a drain pan. Now what I do is I take my take drain pan and I just slide it up underneath the tractor. I put my tube on the drain plug and run it down into the pan. This drain tube that comes with the tractor is what you use. A couple of things you want to do. First of all, go ahead and wipe off around your oil filter and your dipstick. You don’t want to get crud down in there because it’s going to go into the engine. Be careful to wipe it away from that opening so that nothing goes down inside that tube. You’ve got to unlock a yellow valve from the drain, and you’ve got to turn it about an eighth of a turn to unlock it, that’ll allow you to pull it out. Once you pull it out, oil is going to start draining so you want to point it down into the pan. It’ll take it a few minutes, I’m going to say three or four minutes probably to finish draining and get drained down to just a really slight trickle, and then cut the valve off. So once it’s done draining, push the valve back in and turn it clockwise an eighth of a turn to lock it. Carefully take the tube off because remember, it’s got oil in there. Now you’re done with that side.

All right, then we’ll go to do the filter. The filter is a little messier. Now do the same thing, turn the wheels all the way to the opposite side, to the right side so you can get your drain pan up underneath and then do the same thing. I just don’t like dirt around places where oil is going, so I kind of wipe off the filter. You might have to use a filter wrench; it depends on how tight you put it on before. I actually don’t have to use one on this filter, but if you do need a filter wrench for removing the old filter, the best tool to use is an oil filter wrench or a plier. There are numerous types of oil filter pliers but the one we like best is made by a company called Tech Team https://techteamproducts.com/ sold under the Tech brand https://www.amazon.com/12-Inch-Automotive-Adjustable-Maximum-Opening/dp/B079STRT97/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1550081223&sr=8-20&keywords=oil+filter+pliers Their item #702 is angled at 20 degrees so you can reach in the tight spots to remove the oil filter so you can do the job painlessly and easily. It is an excellent tool. Make sure it fits this size filter as it will give you some leverage to turn that filter off so you can take it off by hand and spin the filter off. I recommend getting it off kind of quick because it just runs oil over the frame. Get it off as quick as you can and turn it right side up and get it into the drain pan. I just keep an old rag handy and try to wipe all this oil as best I can. I’m not sure why they didn’t make this a little more conducive to oil changes then they did, but the filter itself makes a pretty big mess. I just try to keep that oil dammed up as I go. I don’t like to leave a lot of oil on the frame because it will attract dirt and dirt will hold moisture and moisture will cause rust, so I try to not leave a bunch of oil on anything or grease anything like that, because it tends to hold the dirt and the dirt will make rust.

I just kind of keep a rag stuffed right in there just to catch whatever oil does drain out while I’m getting a new filter ready. Take your new filter out of the package, make sure your seal is clear and clean, no problems on it, take your finger and just dip it in this old oil, get a little bit on your finger and then run it around that seal. Just enough to get that seal damp. You just want to get it damp so that it seals up the rubber seal then you go thread it on, it turns on clockwise, just the opposite of how it came off. What you’re gonna do is you’re gonna spin this on until that seal makes contact and then you’re gonna turn it another quarter to a half a turn. That’s as tight as it needs to be. Some places or some folks will crank them way down and you don’t need it to be that tight because if you do, it’s just gonna be hard to get it off when you go to change oil the next time.

Now, how do we check our oil, once we put oil in there? Well, you can see the dip stick, you’ve got two marks, there’s two holes and there’s a hash mark in between. The bottom hole means that your low the top hole means that you’re full and it says full right next to it. That’s how you’re gonna check in when you’re done here, and you’ve cranked it and made sure that the filter is full you should be on the full mark. You don’t want to overfill it because it’ll hurt the seals. You don’t want under filled because the engine needs as much oil as it needs. So you’re shooting to be in between those two holes.

I’m done putting oil in there. I put two quarts in, take the funnel out, take my dipstick, wipe it off, make sure it’s clean and, stick it in in there again. Make sure the inside of that cap is clean because you don’t want dirt and crud falling in there. Make sure you go all the way to like push the dipstick all the way in to where it locks, take it back out and then check your dipstick. Crank it up get the oil pressure up so it fills up the filter. Let it drain back down, then check it again. The other thing to do while it’s running is I’ll check for leaks also check for a leak around the filter. You want to make sure that you check for leaks while the engine’s running, because that’s when the oil pressure is built up. So wait a minute, let the oil drain down back into the bottom of the block and then check the oil and make sure that it’s at the right level. So take your dipstick and be careful when you pull it out because it’s gonna drip then press the cap back on, make sure it’s tight.

The only other thing you gotta do is dispose of your oil. Keep one empty old jug and when you change oil pour the oil in there and then when you have a full jug or two take it to the parts house.