Re: After replacing hydraulic pump seal & o-rings hitch not raising correctly - JD 85
No I did not prime it. The tech manual mentions nothing on priming. Lesson learned.
That could have been it. From your photos, something sure caused a lot of wear. I'd say the most common cause of wear in a pump that is properly primed is assembling it with the wrong shims or parts in the wrong places, after that is heat from dragging or mis-assembled seals, and somewhere way down the list must be dirty fluid - but I've not actually seen the last one - dirty fluid - often enough to recognise it.
Priming a pump is one of those things that is so necessary - especially when a pump sits above the fluid surface - that we old mechanics are probably all guilty of not discussing it enough. I'm going to try to rectify that in retrospect by beating the subject into the ground right now. Anyone else please chime in too.
First of all, a pump ought to prime itself - but don't ever make the assumption that it has because doing so will cost you a pump someday.
The problem is simple: The pum needs to have fluid in itself form the start, because fluid in the pump provides the seal necessary for it to prime itself. It's a dog chasing it's tail.
My suspicion is that even when a pump is perfect and installed right that there is a lot of wear due to running dry or nearly dry as it is priming itself. And that isn't just for new installations. It's got to apply to some extent any time that a tractor sits for a month or more without being started. I'd betcha that's where a pump wear happens...i.e. from startup after just sitting.
Yes, a really good tight pump should create enough suction to prime itself - although I see it as a gambling game as to whether any pump will prime itself before some wear happens. It helps if the fluid reservoir is clear full, the fluid not too cold & thick, and the fluid reservoir vent is clean. Clean filters may play a role in priming, too. Expecially in cold weather.
A replacement pump has all the same requirements. Any fluid pump that sits above the surface of the fluid reservoir has to be primed before running. And then we all just have to hope that our pump has tight enough clearances to maintain it's prime after sitting for a month.
My favorite way to prime after a rebuild is first look at the inlet and outlet hoses and try to arrange them so that when the inlet is connected between pump and reservoir there isn't any any radica bend making al high point where a big air bubble could form. Then I connect the outlet hose to the pump and hold it up in the air so that it doesn't have a high point for trapping bubbles, and pour fluid into the far end of the outlet hose until it runs all over the place. After that happens, I put my oily thumb over the now oily outlet hose end and connect it to where it is going - often that is to a hydraulic valve body for the loader - and in doing so try to lose as little fluid as possible.
And then I just hope that I've sucessfully primed it because if there is any way to know for sure. Or if there is, I haven't found it after 50 years of mechanics. But after doing what I said, I do know that know that at least I've gotten some oil into the pump enough to protect the fine polished surface it for a few seconds.
Then I start the motor and IMMEDIATELY start working levers like a demented bagpipe player to expel air from the system and make sure I have smooth pressure. IMPORTANT: If I don't see constant good pressure IN ABOUT 15 SECONDS I know I'm now in the time frame where the pump is taking some damage. I'm panicking now, because if I don't see flow in another few seconds I definitely shut it down and repeat the entire priming process. Sometimes it takes several priming cycles. I don't know why.
BTW, all of our Yanmars - and all compacts except some of the high end JDs - have an OPEN HYDRAULIC circuit. That means they DO NOT have an accumulator to maintain pressure. It also means that the hydraulic return line to the reservoir is very low or no pressure. Often that return line is nothing more than a hose with hose clamps - it might even be a length of garden hose. You can use a clear hose for that return line and that lets you see if things are flowing. And for the pressure line out of the pump, put a "Tee" in the line and add a pressure gauge. I like to use a 4 or 5 thousand PSI liquid-filled gauge mounted where I can see it when operating the loader or 3 point. Price for the gauge is about fifteen bucks. Pressure thoughout the pressure side of the system is roughly the same - although it drops momentarily when a cylinder is working. Expect normal pump pressure to be somewhere between 1800 and 2800 psi for our Yanmars.
Old farm tractors from 50 years ago had pumps with larger tolerances and often ran as low as 900 to 1200 psi. for hydraulic pressure. That is still enough to do real work.
Pumps run warm and sometimes almost hot. That's a problem with hydraulic systems. They work by shearing oil and pumping it against resistance so heat is generated. However, a pump that runs too hot to comfortably put your hand on hot is wrong - and probably already damaging itself. Although on big farm machinery I've seen them run hot like that for an entire harvesting season. But NOT on a compact. Maybe the farm machinery gets away with being so hot because they have huge hydraulic reservoirs to cool the fluid just enough. 20 gallon hydraulic fluid reservoirs aren't uncommon at all.
As for seal drag, a brand new pump has a slight drag due to the seals. It isn't much drag when you turn the shaft with your fingers, but you can feel that slight drag of new seals. A used but still good pump can have almost no drag at all when you spin the shaft with your fingers. Even an old style funky PTO-driven gear pump that has low pressure and high volume has very little drag - and it is about as crude as a pressure pump gets. A compact tractor's internal hydraulic pump is much higher pressure and closer tolerances than a PTO-driven pump.
There....I've beat the subject just about enough for me. Now it's someone else's turn. Sorry about your pump.
rScotty