marrt
Platinum Member
I recently blew a hose on my 1845. Unfortunately, it blew at the exact wrong moment, as luck would have it. I was sitting crossways in a road blocking traffic. So I had to quickly move the tractor out of the way. And, unfortunately, I wasn't home and didn't have time to research the tow valve location. I just hooked on to the tractor and pulled it out of the road because I was desperate.
I live about five hours from Power Trac and decided to take the tractor to them to go over some other stuff anyway. As you may recall from a few prior posts, I was already having a problem with the tractor wanting to surge or lunge forward or backward when tramming. I posted a video about this a while back.
When inspecting the tractor, PT found the pump pistons were damaged due to air infiltration. They thought the root cause was a loose hydraulic filter at some point. I can remember in the past when first moving forward or reverse, I could hear some air moving through the system. In addition, they rebuild some cylinders and the accumulator plus some additional work. Overall, the price was very reasonable and I'm quite satisfied with how the tractor performs now.
Some takeaways:
+ The hydraulic filter should be extremely tight. This is not like an oil filter or where you get it good and snug and stop. PT recommended using a GearWrench filter wrench to get the filter are very tight to ensure no air infiltration.
+ Personally, I think the pumps on these tractors should be considered a wear item and just the cost of doing business. As we've discussed many times in the past, the suction side filtration approach is not optimal. However, since we cannot ensure the reservoir will stay clean due to the many dirt infiltration points, there's little choice but to rely on suction side filtration.
+ If you hear any strange gurgling in the system, you should stop and investigate immediately. Air in a hydraulic system is bad mojo.
I live about five hours from Power Trac and decided to take the tractor to them to go over some other stuff anyway. As you may recall from a few prior posts, I was already having a problem with the tractor wanting to surge or lunge forward or backward when tramming. I posted a video about this a while back.
When inspecting the tractor, PT found the pump pistons were damaged due to air infiltration. They thought the root cause was a loose hydraulic filter at some point. I can remember in the past when first moving forward or reverse, I could hear some air moving through the system. In addition, they rebuild some cylinders and the accumulator plus some additional work. Overall, the price was very reasonable and I'm quite satisfied with how the tractor performs now.
Some takeaways:
+ The hydraulic filter should be extremely tight. This is not like an oil filter or where you get it good and snug and stop. PT recommended using a GearWrench filter wrench to get the filter are very tight to ensure no air infiltration.
+ Personally, I think the pumps on these tractors should be considered a wear item and just the cost of doing business. As we've discussed many times in the past, the suction side filtration approach is not optimal. However, since we cannot ensure the reservoir will stay clean due to the many dirt infiltration points, there's little choice but to rely on suction side filtration.
+ If you hear any strange gurgling in the system, you should stop and investigate immediately. Air in a hydraulic system is bad mojo.
