Installed restricted orifice on my hydraulic toplink today

AKKAMAAN said:

Glad you tested my idea...
There is a purpose with the wire in the hole....it keeps the hole clean, and not clogged....but the wire need to be able to move back and forth 1/8" - 1/4"...cotter pin should be easy to bend while installing...

Would be cool if you could take a few pics and post of the adapter, screw and wire .....:thumbsup:

Click to expand...

I'll try to do that tomorrow when I have it apart again, Akkamaan.

First, please let me apologize to user rjkobberman for hijacking his thread, but I thought this info might help somebody else who's getting ready to try this:

Here are some step-by-step photos of my "build a side link cylinder restrictor" exercise. The wire-in-a-slot thing was AKKAMAAN's idea, and it worked fine. The side link action is now really smooth and I can feather it to move as slow as I want.

Photo Key:
Photo 1 -- I used a 3/8 NPT male to 3/8 NPT female swivel for the restrictor's body, and cut threads on the inside of the barrel for about 75% of it's length with a 3/8-16 tap, starting from the long (male) end. Then I cut a 3/4" piece from a 3/8-16 mild steel bolt, cut a screwdriver slot in one end of it with a hacksaw, and used a Dremel and .050" thick cutoff wheel to make a fluid relief slot the full length of the threads. Because the Dremel was handheld during this cut, it's not a perfect .050" slot, it's probably more like .060" or so.

Photo 2 -- After screwing the plug in jam-tight in the barrel, I installed it at the rod end of the cylinder. Resulting cylinder action was noticeably slower, but still too fast for my liking and still a little hard to feather. So I clearly needed yet more restriction, and AKKAMAAN's bent-wire idea seemed the way to go.

Photo 3 -- I cut a piece of stiff .033" nichrome wire and bent the ends 90 degrees, leaving it a bit long to allow some movement back an forth to help avoid future clogging. This resulted in a little more than 1/16" allowed back and forth movement of the wire piece.

Photo 4 -- Another view of the wire in the slot..

Photo 5 -- Reinstalling the restrictor plug and wire in the connector body.

Photo 6 -- End view of the completed restrictor with wire installed.

Once you have the plug and slots made, changing wire sizes is easy to do if you want to experiment. In my case, I got lucky and the .033" diameter wire worked out exactly right the first try.

I did notice that after maybe 8 or 10 full cycles of the side link as I was fooling around testing it, the restrictor body was slightly warm to the touch. I suspect if I jacked it around a LOT it would heat up pretty good. Tiny fluid path, lots of pressure, lots of heat generated. Obviously, this idea wouldn't work well on a long-stroke (loader) cylinder, or a cylinder that gets jacked back and forth a lot. For a small side link, though, it works great.

This looks like it would be incredibly useful. I will have to figure out if I can do this on my tractor and how much it will cost.

Mtn view, are you using a handle type or electric valve for controls? I wonder if I could use a pushbutton and do it like tilt and trim on my old boat? Jy.

TGF said:

This looks like it would be incredibly useful. I will have to figure out if I can do this on my tractor and how much it will cost.

Click to expand...

Remote hydraulics and top and tilt are like power steering, air conditioning, power windows, and power door locks on a pickup truck. Before I had all that stuff, I got along just fine. But once I bought my first loaded truck and drove it a while, I couldn't understand how I survived without all that stuff! :laughing:

picker77 said:

First, please let me apologize to user rjkobberman for hijacking his thread, but I thought this info might help somebody else who's getting ready to try this:

Here are some step-by-step photos of my "build a side link cylinder restrictor" exercise. The wire-in-a-slot thing was AKKAMAAN's idea, and it worked fine. The side link action is now really smooth and I can feather it to move as slow as I want.

Photo Key:
Photo 1 -- I used a 3/8 NPT male to 3/8 NPT female swivel for the restrictor's body, and cut threads on the inside of the barrel for about 75% of it's length with a 3/8-16 tap, starting from the long (male) end. Then I cut a 3/4" piece from a 3/8-16 mild steel bolt, cut a screwdriver slot in one end of it with a hacksaw, and used a Dremel and .050" thick cutoff wheel to make a fluid relief slot the full length of the threads. Because the Dremel was handheld during this cut, it's not a perfect .050" slot, it's probably more like .060" or so.

Photo 2 -- After screwing the plug in jam-tight in the barrel, I installed it at the rod end of the cylinder. Resulting cylinder action was noticeably slower, but still too fast for my liking and still a little hard to feather. So I clearly needed yet more restriction, and AKKAMAAN's bent-wire idea seemed the way to go.

Photo 3 -- I cut a piece of stiff .033" nichrome wire and bent the ends 90 degrees, leaving it a bit long to allow some movement back an forth to help avoid future clogging. This resulted in a little more than 1/16" allowed back and forth movement of the wire piece.

Photo 4 -- Another view of the wire in the slot..

Photo 5 -- Reinstalling the restrictor plug and wire in the connector body.

Photo 6 -- End view of the completed restrictor with wire installed.

Once you have the plug and slots made, changing wire sizes is easy to do if you want to experiment. In my case, I got lucky and the .033" diameter wire worked out exactly right the first try.

I did notice that after maybe 8 or 10 full cycles of the side link as I was fooling around testing it, the restrictor body was slightly warm to the touch. I suspect if I jacked it around a LOT it would heat up pretty good. Tiny fluid path, lots of pressure, lots of heat generated. Obviously, this idea wouldn't work well on a long-stroke (loader) cylinder, or a cylinder that gets jacked back and forth a lot. For a small side link, though, it works great.

Click to expand...

Awesome post!:thumbsup:

picker77 said:

First, please let me apologize to user rjkobberman for hijacking his thread, but I thought this info might help somebody else who's getting ready to try this:

Here are some step-by-step photos of my "build a side link cylinder restrictor" exercise. The wire-in-a-slot thing was AKKAMAAN's idea, and it worked fine. The side link action is now really smooth and I can feather it to move as slow as I want.

Photo Key:
Photo 1 -- I used a 3/8 NPT male to 3/8 NPT female swivel for the restrictor's body, and cut threads on the inside of the barrel for about 75% of it's length with a 3/8-16 tap, starting from the long (male) end. Then I cut a 3/4" piece from a 3/8-16 mild steel bolt, cut a screwdriver slot in one end of it with a hacksaw, and used a Dremel and .050" thick cutoff wheel to make a fluid relief slot the full length of the threads. Because the Dremel was handheld during this cut, it's not a perfect .050" slot, it's probably more like .060" or so.

Photo 2 -- After screwing the plug in jam-tight in the barrel, I installed it at the rod end of the cylinder. Resulting cylinder action was noticeably slower, but still too fast for my liking and still a little hard to feather. So I clearly needed yet more restriction, and AKKAMAAN's bent-wire idea seemed the way to go.

Photo 3 -- I cut a piece of stiff .033" nichrome wire and bent the ends 90 degrees, leaving it a bit long to allow some movement back an forth to help avoid future clogging. This resulted in a little more than 1/16" allowed back and forth movement of the wire piece.

Photo 4 -- Another view of the wire in the slot..

Photo 5 -- Reinstalling the restrictor plug and wire in the connector body.

Photo 6 -- End view of the completed restrictor with wire installed.

Once you have the plug and slots made, changing wire sizes is easy to do if you want to experiment. In my case, I got lucky and the .033" diameter wire worked out exactly right the first try.

I did notice that after maybe 8 or 10 full cycles of the side link as I was fooling around testing it, the restrictor body was slightly warm to the touch. I suspect if I jacked it around a LOT it would heat up pretty good. Tiny fluid path, lots of pressure, lots of heat generated. Obviously, this idea wouldn't work well on a long-stroke (loader) cylinder, or a cylinder that gets jacked back and forth a lot. For a small side link, though, it works great.

Click to expand...

Great thanks picker77!!
Awesome "machining job"... I like your "photo shop'n" too....:thumbsup:
I can tell you have "engineer" background!
You are the TBN poster of the month in my opinion!!

The heat generated will not be a problem if this is a short cycle, not so frequent operation...

Please Keep us posted with more of that stuff!!
:drink:

So I have a setup much like picker's, heck from the rear it looks like we may even have the same tractor. Anyhow if I wanted to do a TnT system for my new box blade, is their a parts list or suggested parts list. Rams, Hoses, linkage? This is cool stuff. I have a JD3038e with the rear remotes.

TGF said:

So I have a setup much like picker's, heck from the rear it looks like we may even have the same tractor. Anyhow if I wanted to do a TnT system for my new box blade, is their a parts list or suggested parts list. Rams, Hoses, linkage? This is cool stuff. I have a JD3038e with the rear remotes.

Click to expand...

Your 3038E and my 3032E are the exact same tractor except for a different decal on the hood and your injector pump has been tweaked for a few more horses. Here's what I used:

Top link cylinder & 36" hose kit: AG_3-Point ? AGRISTORE USA. I got the Cat 1 11" version ($214) with hose kit ($45). It fit perfectly and and worked perfectly. Great people, very fast free shipping, and their stuff is in stock. CCM also sells essentially the same stuff, but I don't have experience with them.

Side link cylinder: Your OEM side link has 4" of total travel. Wanting a little more tilt than usual, I used this cylinder https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?item=9-7258-6&catname=hydraulic, which is a 1.5" x 6". They also have a 1.5" x 4" which would duplicate the working travel of your original. In any case, you'll have to (a) move the existing right side link to the left side; (b) cut off the clevis from the lower end of the fixed side link that you no longer need; (c) cut off the Cat 1 swivel ball from the rod end of the new cylinder; and (d) weld or have welded the clevis you took off the original fixed link to the end of the cylinder rod where the ball swivel used to be. Then you'll need to have a dealer make up a set of 36"-38" hoses for the new cylinder.

Lastly, you will probably want to do the same restrictor plug thing that I did, to reduce the sensitivity of the side link control. Otherwise, your implement will move around so quickly it will be hard to control and feather it's position.

Whether or not you add a piloted check valve to the side link cylinder is up to you. I don't have one, still not positive I need it. However, my side link does ooze down about an inch an hour at the cylinder rod end with a very heavy box blade hanging on it. Maybe yours won't do that. I'm told this is most likely due to factory tolerances in the control valves themselves, and isn't something that is easily fixable, at least not at the control valve end. If it does that and you can't live with it, a pilot operated check valve on the side link cylinder similar to what will come preinstalled on your top link cylinder will fix it.

Or, if you just don't want the hassle of homebrewing your own side link, CCM sells a side link cylinder with custom clevis already welded on and a double pilot operated check valve installed, and the hose kit to go with it--but I don't know the current price or availability. Check their website or call them.

Good luck, it's a worthwhile project, you'll be glad you did it. BTW, post photos when you're done or these guys will hound you unmercifully till you do. :laughing:

Wow, kind words from no less than two TBN hydraulics experts at once--thanks, KennyD and Akkamaan!!