new FEL dumps by itself

[hottubbrad]

I just bought a new LA 682-1 Front End Loader for my L4300. The problem is that the bucket slowly dumps by itself. ( 5 minutes to fully dump with a load on)

I undid the quick connect hoses at the valve and it still dumps. Does this mean that the cylinder seals are bad on the loader? Remember it is 3 months old and has done this from new.

It is aggravating, especially when you have a heavy load in the bucket.

The dealer has said it is the valve or the cylinders. Its under warranty, but they are 8 hours away from me.

Has anyone seen a new cylinder with bad seals???

[goneandbrokeit]

Not new, but this happened to me after about 100 hours. Like you the dealer is far away. By selectively removing hoses ( under direction from dealer) we were able to identify the cause as the cylinders. I was then able to remove the cylinders and ship them to the dealer where they were fixed under warranty.
A bit of a pain, but better then taking the ride myself. Hope this helps.

[Heywood Jannockitov]

Originally Posted by hottubbrad

Has anyone seen a new cylinder with bad seals???

One of the cylinders could have a manufacturing defect, damaged seal when built, or a scored, pitted cylinder wall. It's under warranty so I wouldn't waste too much of my own time trying to troubleshoot. Take both bucket cylinders off and send them back to the dealer for disassembly/inspection, if you don't want to make the trip yourself.

[Soundguy]

I agree.. if under warranty.. i wouldn't do much more than make a phone call.

however.. if you did undo a hose from a qd ( effectively plugging that port).. and it still leaked down.. then I'd have to think it was a cyl bypassing..

soundguy

[dfkrug]

Originally Posted by hottubbrad

I undid the quick connect hoses at the valve and it still dumps. Does this mean that the cylinder seals are bad on the loader?

Good you did that test, so you know the problem is in a cylinder. The
piston in one of your cyls has a bad seal, IMO. It was prob damaged in
assembly. I have seen that before. It is possible that the inside of
the cyl is scored, but that is unlikely cuz the cyl leaks on its full stroke.
Your next test can isolate which cyl it is: cap off and unpin one of them
and see if the bkt still self-dumps. You want to keep the QDs disconnected
and you want to plan carefully how to weight the bkt since it will be
supported by only one cyl at a time. You will need to cap the hoses, too,
as the two bkt cyls are plumbed in parallel. Get a good collection of the
metric caps and plugs you will need.

When you isolate the problem cyl, you can take it apart if you want, or
take it back to the dealer.

[Wayne County Hose]

The piston seals are faulty on one cylinder, possibly both. I would send them both for warranty. It is not uncommon for new cylinders to have faulty seals. Good manufacturers and good rebuilders test them before they go out.
I don't think your dealer knows too much. It is very rare to have a valve cause this problem. It does happen, but it's a cylinder issue 100 times to a valve problem once.