How hard is it to find a 540 pump for 800/900/955 cyclo?

[Cooter 11]

I have a 6R-900 with a 1000 pto pump that I thought about planting with a 656 hydro.  I know they made a 540 pump for these planters, but apparently they aren't very common because I can't readily find one.  I've seen pictures and they were a big behemoth looking thing hanging off the back of the tractor - is that really the best IH could come up with?? 🙄🙄

If the planter only requires only 8gpm, how come I couldn't run it off the tractor hydraulics?  My only concern would be running through the remote valve would be one would have priority, so lifting the planter on the head land would either A: not happen or B: have to shut the planter off to rise it.  If I ran the planter off the second remote valve, does the oil returning from the first valve (using for raising the planter) get dumped directly into the belly or get routed through the second valve (hoping to keep the fan spinning enough to hold the seeds in the drum) and then out?  I'm guessing if there was a way to to do this without a PTO pump, someone would have done it already...... 

[MNredfarmer 34]

We used a 540 pump with our 8r 800 when we had it. It was actually a power steering pump used on a truck, I believe. Whenever I got a new filter to put in it, it came with instructions for changing the filter in a truck. I think the behemoth was more for the 12rows.  I don't know if you would have enough hydraulics or not if you plumbed in flow control to slow it down for the fan motor and dumped it directly back into the rear end. Don't know how much heat would be generated either.

[FarmerFixEmUp 639]

This is the 540 pump. I have one on my 800 6 row. 

[ksfarmdude 243]

We had a 900 planter and it had a 540 pto pump we always pulled it with a 1086 we needed to keep our remotes freed up for other functions raising the planter and markers the pump I know has an adjustment screw for fan speed it also had a oil cooler on the planter for return oil seems to be pretty trouble free and always worked well

[TractormanMike.mb 349]

The 800 8 row the farm I worked at had a 540 pump like that for years. Something happened to it and it was replaced with a 1000 pump, the one with the can reservoir on the back. We had nothing but problems with those pumps, even had a spare and usually has to swap mid season. Then we went to the bigger pump with a separate reservoir, it worked better but we still had issues. Finally we switched over to running the planter directly off the tractor hydraulics and that was the best. The flow was always constant no matter what rpm I ran the engine at. I dumped the oil back in through a case drain plug I had found in the rear of the tractor.  This was on a jd 4650 so hydraulic capacity wasn't an issue, some of the older tractors .might not have enough capacity to run the planter and raise and lower at the same time, thus the reason for the pump

[Jeff-C-IL 198]

Your 656 likely won't have enough flow to run & lift the planter, and not overheat the tractor oil.  There was a reason IH used the PTO pumps in that era, not just the tractor hydraulics.  I used a 1000 pump on a 806 for years until I swapped to a JD 7410 and hooked up direct.   Even the 7410 the blower slows way down when lifting the planter.    Only problem I ever had with the 1000 pump was the splines on the PTO sleeve would wear in until it would "wedge" on the tractor shaft.  

[bitty 3,337]

Our 955 came with the 540 pump new. Ours had a separate reservoir . We wanted it to be 1000 a few years ago and looked at the book and on our style all we had to do was take one section of the pump off and use shorter bolts. We converted it to the 1000 and then the neighbor wanted to have a 540 on his . Lol 

[ZachGrant 276]

Ran across this today.

https://sd.craigslist.org/grd/d/menno-case-ih-planter-hydraulic-540-pump/6886993355.html

[801486 0]

Just went through this whole ordeal, my 1000 rpm pump quit so I tried a 540 pump from a white planter (it looks just like the IH 540 pump) could only get to 5 on the gauge on the planter.  I located an IH 540 pump and it wouldn't pump any more than the white pump.  I have heard that 5 on the planter gauge is about all you can get out of a 540 pump.  Then the PTO went out on my 5240 and I ended up running it off the tractor hydraulics.  It works ok, but I don't like how the fan slows way down every time you lift the planter, all the seeds fall off the planter drum and I figure I need to let it down sooner.  Next year if I can't fix or replace the 1000 rpm pump, I'm going to try a PTO pump from Surplus Center or similar.  The drawback with those is you need a separate reservoir.