Grading Box under joystick

[horticattleman]

I have a 425 and the box under the joystick is leaking oil BAD Should I just change the whole thing or can it be rebuilt and wherte do I get it? Thanks guys

 

[toy]

Make sure that you don't just have a loose hose first, I don't know how old your machine is but that is what I would try first. Be careful and wear eye protection but it may be just as simple as a loose hose or a loose fitting going into the valve. I have never had to do any repairs on mine in that area but some times the fittings have o rings where they screw into the valve chest or block, one of them may have a bad place in it. There are also fittings that are 45 or 90 degrees and they have a nut on them so that you can be able to adjust the direction that the hose leaves the block for routing purposes. It might be that you just need to tighten a hose or a fitting. If it was me I would pull the spark plug wires so the engine wouldn't start and I would position myself so I could see the block and I would have someone crank the starter on and back off and watch for seepage coming from the block. If there was something in particular that you were doing that made the leak worse I would have that portion of the joy stick used just thought I would mention that just in case that fit the situation. Before you do any thing though try to clean up where the oil has already leaked that is an important step, and I would like to add that any thing you do in life can be dangerous including working on hydraulics so be careful and work at your own risk.

 

[horticattleman]

Thanks toy I will start there

 

[ponytug]

I find that cleaning the leaking item first helps locate the actual leak. The valve bank (your box) is not that hard to dissassemble, but I always remember Terry's admonition to treat it like open heart surgery, clean, clean, clean.

Good luck! Until you rule it out, I would suspect a loose hose, or a cracked fitting. One of my hoses had the fitting crack inside the nut, and that leaked rather badly.

All the best,

Peter

 

[J_J]

horticattleman,

Maybe you have fixed by now, but if not, do what the other guys told you. It could be a leaking spool, cracked fitting, pin hole in hose, maybe things just need tighten up a bit. If the valve is leaking, you can try and tear it down and replace whatever that can be replaced, or take it to a hydraulic shop and let them test it first and rebuild, but first get an estimate. If a spool is leaking that does not use o-rings, there is not much you can do, because the spools are matched up fairly close to the bores. If the spool has o-rings, then replacement just might fix things like new. Hoses can be replaced fairly easy, and new fittings can be installed. If you are mechanically inclined, then you can so most of the work yourself. If you have to replace total valve, check out PT's price, and then look elsewhere if to much.

 

[Rivco]

The last time I got a price from keith at Power-Trac for the Sauer Danfoss Model 1637 3-spool valve ...the cost was over $500.00 !! . I ended up buying it through a local supplier for just over $300.00. That model spool valve does have O-rings and they are easy to work on...but like others have already said ....before you work on it ( open it up )...clean, clean, clean

 

[Carpenter]

I had a bad leak from the bottom valve body on my 425 and it turned out to be a loose allen screw on the bottom of the valve. I have no idea of it's purpose but tightening it stopped the leak.

 

[toy]

Thanks toy I will start there

you are welcome, if you wind up having to take more than one hose off to get to the problem it is always a good idea to label the hoses where they go and kind of describe it's location because sometimes memory will fail you trust on that I know. When you label them put the label in a sandwich bag or something like that and wire it to the hose that way oil won't get on your label and dirt and make it impossible to read and then you have to do a guessing game. There are other ways of doing this but this is just one suggestion. I have seen hoses labeled with masking tape and either the tape would come off or you wouldn't be able to read it when you went to reassemble the job. Good luck on your repair, hope your cost of repair is at a minimum but the feeling of satisfaction of making your own repair is over the roof.

 

[horticattleman]

I am wondering if me losing hydraulic pressure on the front arms is because of this. If I have more than 50 lbs on the arms, like a bucket, it falls rather fast, like from maximum hieght to the floor in a couple of minutes. WAY more than when I first got it.

I have not had a chance to work on it yet but hopefully will have a spare moment soon.

Thanks guys.

 

[toy]

I am wondering if me losing hydraulic pressure on the front arms is because of this. If I have more than 50 lbs on the arms, like a bucket, it falls rather fast, like from maximum hieght to the floor in a couple of minutes. WAY more than when I first got it.

I have not had a chance to work on it yet but hopefully will have a spare moment soon.

Thanks guys.

I am thinking that what you are talking about it a falling in 2 minutes you are referring to raising up the loader arms with the bucket on it and then cutting the motor off and it takes 2 minutes for it to fall to the ground or leak off to the ground, I believe all pts leak off but I haven't timed the rate that it takes it to fall all the way down on mine but it might not be a bad idea to do that and record it in your pt book or start a pt log book and write it down for future reference. You said that you had a oil leak on that block if it is falling faster than it used to that might be a clue to finding the problem. Find the hoses on the bottom of the loader loader arms and trace them back to the block since if you had a leak there then it would explain the fast dropping of the loader arms and naturally be the source of all the leaking oil. There is another reason for the arms to drop faster though that would have nothing to do with the oil leak that is coming from the block and that would be that the valve bank was itself bypassing more than it did when you first got the machine, it could be like one of the other posters mentioned a o'ring leaking in the valve block. If the block mounting bolts don't seem tightened down enough when you are working on it don't think that they necessarily need torqued down because to do so might stress the block and distort it enough to cause you to have trouble with the valve spools moving as they should and that could compound your problems. That is something though that you would have to use your own judgment on since you are the one that is there looking at it. Always remember to work safely as you work at your own risk. I hope your repairs are an easy fix and don't cost you much.