Loader FEL and hyraulic question.

[kbensmiller]

Hello, I have a 2004 B7500 with a LA302 loader. Over the past 2 years, I have had the FEL removed while a front mounted snow blower was attached. When mounting the blower originally, due to some incompatible fittings, I stole the popit connectors off the FEL the get the blower going. Since then, I replaced the connectors of the FEL, but during that time, some hyraulic fluid leaked out of the lines while I manhandled it. In trying to reinstall the FEL, I also was unsure of the correct placement of each of the lines to the control lever, and without a manual, just took a guess as to their placement.

Now the FEL does work, with the raise/lower, and dump/roll movements going through the motions, however, the roll is EXTREMELY slow, and the raise does not extend up as far as it should.

So the 2 questions I have are: 1) Is it possible to hook up the hydraulics incorrectly, and still have them work? (meaning, if moving the control lever makes the FEL move in the directions you want, it's hooked up correctly, right?), and 2) If fluid is lost from the lines, and air is present, is there a procedure for bleeding the air, and getting proper amount of fluid into the lines?

I have checked the hydrulic fluid resevoir levels in the back and they are OK. I have no way myself immediatley to check hydraulic line pressure levels, but could fabricate something to do this with if required. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[CHDinCT]

You can hook them up wrong and still have it work to some degree, but usually it's pretty obvious that something is wrong. Does the movement correspond to the correct movement of the stick, e.g., when you pull back towards you, does the loader raise, and vice versa for going down? Pushing the stick right should dump the bucket. Reason I ask is that Kubota in most cases uses a valve with regenrative mode in the bucket dump location. It is sometimes referred to as fast dump mode. One quess is that you have it hooked up wrong and are not using the regen mode for the dump motion.

As far as air in the lines, it should work it's way out through repeated motion. Also, recheck that you have the quick connects connected fully. Sometimes they don't fully engage and will allow some movement but at slower speed. That's all I can think of right now. Good luck with it.

 

[kbensmiller]

Thanks for the response. To answer your question, yes, the stick control seems to correspond with the loader movement, but, as I said, the movements are not "good", the dump works fine, but the roll takes about 30 seconds to move from one extreme to the other. The lift works ok, but only seems to raise the bucket about 3/4 of the way, not as high as usual. I am going to try and track down a manual to see if I can figure out the correct placement of each of the lines. Anyone who has a similar setup and feels like tracing the lines to the control and sending me a description will surely get some good karma from me :thumbsup: