Loader joystick cable break

[ericm979]

valve end:

joystick end:

 

[ericm979]

I'm not 100% sure that both ends of ours are Nimco but the joystick on my 3725 sure looks the same.

 

[Cougsfan]

What you have in the area we are discussing are three parts. 1) The inner cable, which is likely a woven wire cable with the ball end welded to the end of it. 2) The sheath, which is a spiral wound piece of metal probably with a plastic inner liner and a rubber exterior coating and 3) A sleeve that is threaded on one end and crimped against the sheath on the other. This goes on the end of the sheath and holds the sheath in place while the inner cable moves inside the sheath. It also provides means for adjustment. It looks like your sheath has came apart at the sleeve and the spiral winding has started to undo.
It is a two way cable, it is used to pull one way to curl the bucket up, and push the other way to curl the bucket down (I may have those functions reversed.) Using the cable in pull, the sheath pushes against the sleeve and it takes nothing to hold it in place. When you push the inner cable, if the sheath doesn't stay attached to the sleeve, the sheath will move with the cable and you get no inner cable movement at the other end where the control valve is.
What you need to do is reconnect the sleeve to the sheath. As I mentioned , from my jury rigged temporary solution I know that the forces required to hold sheath tight against the sleeve aren't that great.
As I think about it, I think Pedro is right too much heat might melt the plastic liner inside the sheath and mess it up. Also, over crimping the sleeve may bind up the inner cable and prevent it from moving freely.
I still think my last suggestion of sliding a 3 or 4 inch long piece of poly tubing over both the sleeve and the sheath by splitting the tubing long ways and clamping the poly tube in place over both the sheath and sleeve with miniature hose clamps may be an easy and permanent fix. It is easy to do and sure worth a try. If it doesn't work you can feel free to curse me

 

[mechtheist]

What you have in the area we are discussing are three parts. 1) The inner cable, which is likely a woven wire cable with the ball end welded to the end of it. 2) The sheath, which is a spiral wound piece of metal probably with a plastic inner liner and a rubber exterior coating and 3) A sleeve that is threaded on one end and crimped against the sheath on the other. This goes on the end of the sheath and holds the sheath in place while the inner cable moves inside the sheath. It also provides means for adjustment. It looks like your sheath has came apart at the sleeve and the spiral winding has started to undo.
It is a two way cable, it is used to pull one way to curl the bucket up, and push the other way to curl the bucket down (I may have those functions reversed.) Using the cable in pull, the sheath pushes against the sleeve and it takes nothing to hold it in place. When you push the inner cable, if the sheath doesn't stay attached to the sleeve, the sheath will move with the cable and you get no inner cable movement at the other end where the control valve is.
What you need to do is reconnect the sleeve to the sheath. As I mentioned , from my jury rigged temporary solution I know that the forces required to hold sheath tight against the sleeve aren't that great.
As I think about it, I think Pedro is right too much heat might melt the plastic liner inside the sheath and mess it up. Also, over crimping the sleeve may bind up the inner cable and prevent it from moving freely.
I still think my last suggestion of sliding a 3 or 4 inch long piece of poly tubing over both the sleeve and the sheath by splitting the tubing long ways and clamping the poly tube in place over both the sheath and sleeve with miniature hose clamps may be an easy and permanent fix. It is easy to do and sure worth a try. If it doesn't work you can feel free to curse me

Thank you, that all sounds like good info. I think I have the problems you mentioned but it also looks like the cable is broken off the ball end piece. That's what I thought was the problem and was thinking of welding, the sleeve and sheath problems I didn't realize and understand until now, so again, thanks, that's a lot of help. I think you must have the push-pull directions correct because I can curl the bucket in but not out. What does it mean that if you look closely at the photo with my legs showing, the lower cable assembly is the one that's still working, there's a slight gap at the sleeve doesn't quite fully reach the sheath and you can see the cable is visible, it doesn't look like it's the spiral metal sheath, do you think it's partially broken? If so, would it be a good idea to apply the same fix to it to hopefully head off another failure down the line?

What should I expect if I start the tractor with the joystick off its mount and partially disassembled? I'm thinking it's in it's 'relaxed' or neutral? condition so there shouldn't be inputs making it move but I'm paranoid and don't really know.

 

[mechtheist]

valve end:

joystick end:

I saw those but the joystick didn't have the allen bolts as shown. I rewatched it after seeing your previous post and it made me think I must have missed something and I did, there's a lot of circular recesses on that damn thing and I probably didn't have my glasses on but there is bolt down inside one of them, it was late yesterday evening and I haven't gone back to work on it yet but that will probably do the trick. Thanks.

 

[CobyRupert]

On a related note, did the joystick start sticking when the nights started to get below freezing?
If so, look at the loader control valve and the spring caps on the side of the valve opposite from where the cables attach. If heating the spring caps on the valve body makes it unstick, or if unscrewing them on a warm day makes water drain out, it wasn’t the joystick or cable that was sticking.
…that was my cause of stuck joystick problems anyways. (Many FEL valves are made in Brazil. Humid jungle air in those caps freezes up here. That’s my theory, and I’m sticking with it!)

 

[Cougsfan]

After another trip out to the shop to look at the parts, I have found out more. The sheath is made up of more items than I mentioned. There is the outer rubber casing. Beneath that is the spiral wound metal. Beneath that are a bunch of longitudinal wires laying in a circular pattern that you are assuming are the inner cable. That is actually part of the sheath. The inner cable is actually a solid metal (not woven wire) similar to what I have seen on some emergency brake cables.
So I doubt your ball end is broken off and it is still just your outer sheath that needs to be reconnected.
I have taken some pictures and will send them later today but I am late for an appointment right now.
It is no problem whatsoever to startup your tractor with with the joystick apart. If you FEL is off the ground you can move it too.

 

[mechtheist]

On a related note, did the joystick start sticking when the nights started to get below freezing?
If so, look at the loader control valve and the spring caps on the side of the valve opposite from where the cables attach. If heating the spring caps on the valve body makes it unstick, or if unscrewing them on a warm day makes water drain out, it wasn’t the joystick or cable that was sticking.
…that was my cause of stuck joystick problems anyways. (Many FEL valves are made in Brazil. Humid jungle air in those caps freezes up here. That’s my theory, and I’m sticking with it!)

I live in central Texas, sub-freezing weather isn't that much of a problem, uh..., except last year, that was an insanity I hope not to EVER have to deal with again! 5-6 deg two nights in a row is just wrong! We're usually more like Brazil. The first time was just just 3 months ago or so.

 

[mechtheist]

After another trip out to the shop to look at the parts, I have found out more. The sheath is made up of more items than I mentioned. There is the outer rubber casing. Beneath that is the spiral wound metal. Beneath that are a bunch of longitudinal wires laying in a circular pattern that you are assuming are the inner cable. That is actually part of the sheath. The inner cable is actually a solid metal (not woven wire) similar to what I have seen on some emergency brake cables.
So I doubt your ball end is broken off and it is still just your outer sheath that needs to be reconnected.
I have taken some pictures and will send them later today but I am late for an appointment right now.
It is no problem whatsoever to startup your tractor with with the joystick apart. If you FEL is off the ground you can move it too.

Great, thanks for that. I would never have thought that 'cable' was actually part of the sheathing. I would appreciate seeing pictures but no rush, I'm really slow and have other things I'm also busy doing slowly.

 

[Tony H]

Thanks for the replies. I have this thing that's for crimping huge electric wires, could you do an adequate job with that?

I haven't taken it apart yet so I'm not even sure what the cable end looks like. Is the threaded part attached with some kind of sleeve to be crimped or is it one piece and is it a standard that can be purchased?

You gotta get the cable out and on a hard surface to use that crimper. If the cable needs to come out of either replace or try. Drilling some holes in the crimp area, put wire back in, crimp a bit then weld the drilled holes to the cabling.