BX25 FEL bucket creep

Robs2544 · Jan 16, 2018

Hi all,

Another issue with my BX25 lately. The bucket will not stay up unless I keep pressure on the controls to keep it up. I have NO leaks anywhere, connected and reconnected all fittings. Everything else operates as designed. If I let the bucket go to full dump position it seems as if it does not want to raise, takes a good bit of time, like it's almost stuck.

I've talk to some locals, they think it could be a multitude of things:
Bad cylinder seals
cracked fitting
bad control valve

I'm leaning towards the cylinder, but it's not leaking. Can a cylinder be bad but not leaking?

Thanks in advance!

Billrog · Jan 16, 2018

Hold the bucket control lever to the left for 20 sec. or so ( so it's by passing relief) then feel the end of each cylinder at the top if 1 is warmer than the other it will be the one with a bad seal on the ram.

civilian · Jan 16, 2018

Is the lever for the 3pt in the up position? On my BX2230, if at idle, and 3 pt lever is still up, it does not have enough hydraulics to raise the fel. Release 3 pt lever, fel works as it should. Jon

kennyd · Jan 17, 2018

My vote is bad cylinder seals, yes they can leak (or actually bypass) internally with no external leakage.

robertm · Jan 17, 2018

This forum amazes me. Like I always say, "if someone on TBN doesn't know the answer, you didn't really didn't have a question in the first place".

JWR · Jan 17, 2018

Billrog said:
Hold the bucket control lever to the left for 20 sec. or so ( so it's by passing relief) then feel the end of each cylinder at the top if 1 is warmer than the other it will be the one with a bad seal on the ram.

Hey ! That is a great tip. Never heard that one before but it makes all kinds of sense. By the way, like Kenny, I'm betting the OP has a bad seal in one of the cylinders.

Billrog · Jan 17, 2018

I had that happen on my machine and used the method mentioned the temp was not much dif. but it was noticeably warmer and when I took it apart the seal was obviously damage when being install from new.

CHDinCT · Jan 17, 2018

Or reverse your hoses so left/right is raise/ lower the boom and forward/reverse operates the bucket. If the issue stays in the bucket curl circuit, its a cylinder issue; if the issue moves to the boom circuit, its in the valve.

JWR · Jan 17, 2018

CHDinCT said:
Or reverse your hoses so left/right is raise/ lower the boom and forward/reverse operates the bucket. If the issue stays in the bucket curl circuit, its a cylinder issue; if the issue moves to the boom circuit, its in the valve.

Holy cow! Another great tip ! One of those you sit here and say "Why didn't I think of that???"

BX23S-1 · Jan 18, 2018

JWR said:
Holy cow! Another great tip ! One of those you sit here and say "Why didn't I think of that???"

I`ve done that, it works great to figure out where the problem really is. But being i`m old now, i didnt think of it until i saw someone else write it in here...lol. This IS an awesome forum... alotta really smart guys in here. Though i`ve not broke down yet, thank you to all of you, that spend your time in here helping others out in here. Without some of you guys GREAT knowledge, we would likely be down alot longer, or without a fix. So i just want to say, thank you, for what you ALL do...!

CHDinCT · Jan 18, 2018

Not so smart; picked it up here from some other veteran . Paying it forward, lol.

BX23S-1 · Jan 18, 2018

Still awesome of you to help no matter where the idea originated from.

Robs2544 · Mar 5, 2018

Well, I finally got around to fixing the cylinder. What I did to test it was I swapped the bucket cylinder lines with the boom lines (the boom operated fine) and the bucket still dropped. That eliminated the control valve from being the problem.

The cap was a nightmare to get off, ended up using a 2.5' pipe wrench and slid my jack handle (4' long) onto that to get the cap off. Yes, it was that tight, about 6-7' of leverage!

The piston, as you can see in the photos, busted. My friend inspected it and he concluded that the casting for this piece was not the greatest. He's in the titanium business, for aerospace so I trust his opinion. I will take some blame as well, I am rough on the machine at times! I was extremely shocked when I discovered that piece was broke but oh-well.

Now I have to flush my hydraulics as some of that metal made it out of the cylinder. And order more parts... I may also need to have the tube re-honed.

I'll do my best to keep this updated!