Sunstar hydro leak

[Tarheel]

 When I purchased my Sunstar last year I noticed the fluid showed a good 2 or more inches in the hose at the rear. As some of you may recall, This tractor had been parked a good while and I went a number of rounds trying to get the mowing deck right. Not many hours of use since I got it. One day I parked it on cement while working on the deck and noticed a 9 or 10 inch puddle of hydro fluid under it later. Just about centered under the Sunstrand. 

 From that point till now, I haven't seen another drop but the fluid no longer shows in the tube. Any ideas ? Thanks

[SmilinSam]

According to my book theres only supposed to be around 1/2 to 1" of fluid showing in the clear line on the back.

My Sunstar leaks too. It seems to be leaking around the rubber return hose on the bottom of the tranny. One opf this springs projects is to replace that hose and see if thats actually whats leaking. This tractor has sat a long time without use also.

[Tarheel]

 Thanks Sam (as always) I'll take a look at that hose.  I had missed mentioning that the fluid is no longer showing in the tube. This happened about the same time as the leak going away. But it could be that the deck is now catching any leaks.

 This Sunstar is in better shape than most of my machines and I'd like to keep it that way. The garage is about half done now and I'm going through years of what is mostly junk trying to rid myself of what can't be saved. There are 5 20ish gallon roll around air compressors taking up a good bit of space. I pulled the motor down in one and found the start winding cut out switch frozen. I freed it up but it still doesn't want to work. I have a couple of the no oil type and both of those are working now. Those will be given away.

 Anyway, My hope is that a few of the tractors can find a home inside once all the above it taken care of. The Sunstar will be top of the list. I also have a 7119 with a magnum engine that looks pretty good. I'd like to get it in there as well. It has a 48 inch deck and I had done some mowing here at home with it but all at once it started mowing poorly. Even I could see it. The front of the deck had dropped for some reason and I haven't even looked at it yet. Oh well. Hopefully soon.

 Thanks again for our input Sam.