Frozen loader control

[Anderson]

Winter came here in Minnesota this weekend, and as soon as our temp dropped below freezing, my loader controls froze up. I remember a thread regarding water freezing somewhere in the assembly, but I can't find the thread now that I need it.

Can anyone point me to the right spot for the entire thread, or does someone remember the offending water logged part?

[Thomas]

Nate,
Did you spray your control with WD40 or another brand yet?

Do you have any means of warm air to blow on the controls?

Nor I could locate that thread,but would be intrested in reading it once found.

Thomas..NH [img]/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Anderson]

I'm going to start taking things apart tonight starting at the joystick, and work my to the control valves. I guess I'll just take it apart, look for ice, check for free movement, spray with wd40, and re-assemble.

I heat my garage, unfortunately my cab is about 8" taller than the door. I guess I'll have to use a hair dryer to warm frozen parts - but my wife won't mind, cause she'll never know.

[DaleW]

Try placing a 100 watt bulb under the control valve and then put some household insulation around it. Worked real well on my Meyers snowplow even in the dead of winter
DaleW

[Kubota-monkey]

I posted a topic on water freezing within the controls last winter and Im not sure if that is the thread you are refering to. Is it the loader joystick frozen? If this is so just pour some hot water on it to melt the ice and maybe get at it with some Wd-40??? Or possible try to run some jumper cables off the battery (make sure it is groudned) and stick the ungorounded wire to the joystick to create heat. This is what my dealer did and it seemed to work well. Well good luck and send some of that cold weather my way [img]/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif[/img]

The Ben from MA [img]/w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[JerryG]

Anderson,
I am no Kubota expert but, last winter several had the same problem. Mark C. can tell you how to fix it. It was ice in the long housing that attaches to the the back end of the control valve. They found a way to vent it and also keep the water out. Maybe Bird could also tell what they did, but I can't. Just be careful, because there is a spring and a small ball that can get lost.
JerryG

[Bird]

I, too, tried to find the thread where this was discussed in detail, but couldn't find it. But I believe you want to start at the front of the valve instead of the rear (or joystick) end, and remove the cap there to get the ice out. As Jerry said, just be careful not to lose the spring or detent ball. Since my tractor is indoors, and in Texas, I've never had the problem, but I think I'd start, as mentioned above, by just pouring hot water on it.

Bird

[TomG]

Maybe buy a heat gun. Then, there's no worry about grease prints on the hair dryer, and the gun will generate more heat too. However, I would go easy on the heat. A lot of heat isn't going to do rubber seals any good. I just used my gun to help remove some connectors from an old plastic well feed line. Probably couldn't have got them out otherwise. I hadn't used the gun since thawing locks etc. last winter and forgot how useful they are. When I use hot water on locks, it works. However, it also adds more water that soon freezes again.

[PaulB]

FINALLY A TOPIC ON WHICH I AM THE UNDISPUTED NUMBER ONE EXPERT!!! [img]/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif[/img]. It was my controls that froze, and the post is called "Hydraulics S-L-O-W in the cold" It is 22 pages long, at the time the longest running post in tractorbynet history!! If in doubt, e-mail me and we can discuss how to get the job done without losing (or freezing) your balls[img]/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif[/img]
I see the problem. I searched for the entire phrase, under Kubota owning, all posts, and did not find the original thread. Apparently I am not accessing the archives. Your answer is there, we just need to figure out how to get there. Muhammed will need to help us out here.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by PaulB on 11/22/00 06:53 AM.</FONT></P>

[chuckp]

Try the old archives and this is the first message:

Hydraulics S-L-O-W in the cold
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By PaulB on Sunday, December 26, 1999 - 05:33 pm:

When it is really cold outside, like below 20,the bucket on my B1700 HST will not move in the rollback nor dump mode until at least 15 minutes of idle time or easy low rpm work has been performed. I assume this is due to thick hydraulic fluid (Kubota Super UDT). Normal, or should I call my dealer?
Thanks,
PaulB