Bump up lift capacity of L3400/LA463 Loader

[teg]

... I'll bet it could be shoehorned in there somewhere...

Here's one without the loader, I could put one on the backside of the valve but thought that would be too exposed (see the blue "o" in photo). I have an extra gauge and extra parts to do this... hum... like I don't have enough going on :dance1:
View attachment 405867
{EDIT} I could put a "T" coming out the valve with the gauge pointing up instead of out side...

 

[FTG-05]

Well, I got my pressure gauge assembled and installed yesterday. Put it in all four positions that have the QD. It was the 2 o'clock position that finally gave me the system pressure I was looking for. It was set at about 2350 (vs. the 2775 psi spec pressure).

Good news for me, bad news for the purists: I apparently have over sized shims in my pressure relief valve. I was able to "tighten" the relief valve setting and got it to just a hair under 2700 psi. I then put the gauge on the 10 o'clock position that would show pressure when lifting the FEL. Worked great except: I have a leak somewhere. I can't tell if it's one of the NPT fittings or the upper female QD. I tightened the NPT fittings that appeared to be leaking and it still leaked. Finally took it off. So now I'm back to a one-time use tool - crap!

Oh well, I did bump up the pressure, so now it will be far easier to lift the rear of the tractor when I'm trying to pick up something I prolly shouldn't be trying to pick up. Life is tough, then you die and all that.

 

[teg]

...Worked great except: I have a leak somewhere...

There are hydraulic fittings and there is regular pipe fittings. Do you have a photo of your set up?

 

[FTG-05]

Teg, no I don't, at least not yet. But it looks a lot LD1's setup shown in post #211. I didn't use teflon tape on the NPT fittings, just the blue goop stuff I normally use for air and/or water systems. I'll get a pic today and post it tonight.

Thanks,

 

[LD1]

I too am curious at seeing a pic, and knowing just where the leak was coming from.

 

[J_J]

Well, I got my pressure gauge assembled and installed yesterday. Put it in all four positions that have the QD. It was the 2 o'clock position that finally gave me the system pressure I was looking for. It was set at about 2350 (vs. the 2775 psi spec pressure).

Good news for me, bad news for the purists: I apparently have over sized shims in my pressure relief valve. I was able to "tighten" the relief valve setting and got it to just a hair under 2700 psi. I then put the gauge on the 10 o'clock position that would show pressure when lifting the FEL. Worked great except: I have a leak somewhere. I can't tell if it's one of the NPT fittings or the upper female QD. I tightened the NPT fittings that appeared to be leaking and it still leaked. Finally took it off. So now I'm back to a one-time use tool - crap!

Oh well, I did bump up the pressure, so now it will be far easier to lift the rear of the tractor when I'm trying to pick up something I prolly shouldn't be trying to pick up. Life is tough, then you die and all that.

FTG-05 --------I was able to "tighten" the relief valve setting and got it to just a hair under 2700 psi.

You did what?????????????.

If your valve has shims, you are supposed to provide shims to obtain the factory set pressure and the cap on the relief valve should be torqued down to a specific force.

You do not adjust the pressure using shims by adjusting the cap nut.


NPT fitting are not designed to be used over and over. You crush the threads every time you tighten.

Try Loctite 542 red.

 

[FTG-05]

Here be some pics:

Sorry I don't have a better "install" pic. I reinstalled it today after tightening the NPT threads on the fixture, still leaked.

As you can see, I used the blue goop stuff I normally use for air/water NPT threads. Maybe this stuff doesn't work at 3k psi hydraulic pressures? Do I need to redo all the NPT threads with teflon tape? I still don't know if it's leaking from a NPT thread or the upper female QD. The leak appears just above the "tee".

And as you can see, I only had to use one extra fitting, leading to one extra NPT threaded connection, so there's not a lot of extra unneeded connections to leak.

Thanks,

 

[LD1]

Do NOT use tape on hydraulic systems.

Never used the blue stuff before so I dont know. Have used the white PTFE paste (teflon paste). But do like the purple loctite 545 better for hydraulics.

Need to figure out for sure where it is leaking.

One thing to try if you havent.....

Since you only bought one pair of couplers, I am assuming that you used BOTH new ones on the gauge setup. That would mean that when you hook the FEMALE QD from the hose (old fitting original to tractor) to the gauge MALE QD (new fitting you just purchased). And same from gauge to valve.
Perhaps the QD's you bought are incompatible with the OEM's. Try matching up the coupler sets and see if that helps.

 

[J_J]

J_J, really??? get over it. Right or wrong, that's what kubota is doing... pretty sure it's to save a buck, after all we are talking "economy" tractor.

There is nothing to get over, just do it the right way.

I also doubt that is what Kubota is doing.

I have to admit that I do cheat at somethings. Please forgive me.

 

[Fordman1981]

There is nothing to get over, just do it the right way. I also doubt that is what Kubota is doing. I have to admit that I do cheat at somethings. Please forgive me.

I have to agree with JJ I would install the right shims and torque correctly. These are diesel tractors with a lot of vibration would not want to chance the plug vibrating out and loosing the spring and shims.