Loader : Broke my FEL Valve?! (possibly?).

[Coyote machine]

After changing over to my loader bucket it seems evident something in my loader circuit is not working right. If I put the bucket edge perpendicular to my driveway I used to be able to backdrag my bucket to smooth out/scrape my driveway. I tried it today and the bucket does NOT resist being backdragged at all. It just folds to the front, AWAY from the tractor, and I can't scrape or backdrag any material or topsoil, no matter how small the pile is.:thumbdown:
How do I get it back to normal?

TIA,

CM

 

[k0ua]

After changing over to my loader bucket it seems evident something in my loader circuit is not working right. If I put the bucket edge perpendicular to my driveway I used to be able to backdrag my bucket to smooth out/scrape my driveway. I tried it today and the bucket does NOT resist being backdragged at all. It just folds to the front, AWAY from the tractor, and I can't scrape or backdrag any material or topsoil, no matter how small the pile is.:thumbdown:
How do I get it back to normal?

TIA,

CM

CM. is it possible it has something to do the diverter you added? Can you "replumb" it back stock for a minute to see if it is the FEL valve or the diverter? Just talking out my rear, here, but it is all I can think of for now. Oh, how about pointing the bucket down, and unhooking the curl/dump hoses and see if the cylinders hold pressure? They should be in hydrolock by themselves right?

James K0UA

 

[Coyote machine]

CM. is it possible it has something to do the diverter you added? Can you "replumb" it back stock for a minute to see if it is the FEL valve or the diverter? Just talking out my rear, here, but it is all I can think of for now. Oh, how about pointing the bucket down, and unhooking the curl/dump hoses and see if the cylinders hold pressure? They should be in hydrolock by themselves right?

James K0UA

James, I'm not a hydraulics guy for the most part.:confused3: The diverter valve only is 'in circuit' when I activate it to open or close the grapple, etc. by pulling the joystick trigger. Not saying it isn't a possible issue, but I'm leaning toward the FEL valve since recently I seem to have been taxing it with the confusion I've had about the joystick trigger and the regen circuit- see my most recent post about it.

Quote: "..."Oh, how about pointing the bucket down, and unhooking the curl/dump hoses and see if the cylinders hold pressure? They should be in hydrolock by themselves right?"

That's sorta' what I'm thinking too- that the cylinders are NOT behaving properly- somehow something is allowing them to go any which way they're pushed and what is causing that is what the problem is... for some reason they're NOT locking when they should.

I will try what you suggested tomorrow and see what happens.

Thanks for suggestion/reply.:thumbsup:

 

[rmorey]

CM, you recently plumbed a diverter valve in the curl circuit to operate your grapple. Is it possible, that now provides a parallel circuit for flow, therefore allowing "leakage" to occur? I'm not a hydraulic guy either, but as an old military electronics technician, its been my experience that the problem is usually at or near the last place of adjustment/repair. Just throwin this out there. :confused3:

 

[k0ua]

CM, you recently plumbed a diverter valve in the curl circuit to operate your grapple. Is it possible, that now provides a parallel circuit for flow, therefore allowing "leakage" to occur? I'm not a hydraulic guy either, but as an old military electronics technician, its been my experience that the problem is usually at or near the last place of adjustment/repair. Just throwin this out there. :confused3:

Electronics/telephony tech here for the last 40 years, and that is how I think too... What was the last thing I added, and how would this affect current operation. But I am thinking he could eliminate the cylinders pretty easy with just disconnecting a couple of hoses.

 

[rmorey]

Electronics/telephony tech here for the last 40 years, and that is how I think too... What was the last thing I added, and how would this affect current operation. But I am thinking he could eliminate the cylinders pretty easy with just disconnecting a couple of hoses.

I always work back to a known serviceable spot, then the problem is usually self evident at that point. I agreed with your advice to replumb to spec. That verifies the serviceability of everything except the new parts. Heck, what if the new valve has a problem? Its been known to happen!

 

[Coyote machine]

The diverter valve is NOT new. The only thing I changed recently is the momentary switch which activates the valve by pushing it. I replaced the factory FEL lever knob with a joystick handle and it has a trigger switch, which replaces the push button one, for easier control of the lever's motions, especially in winter.
Because of the longer and higher location of the joystick I inadvertently 'found' the FEL valve's regen position, (fast dump). This caused me some ergonomic issues with inadvertently swinging the lever too far while pulling the trigger, Essentially I found myself trying to open the grapple's jaw(s) while trying to dump logs and in doing so I would end up in regen and the grapple moving backward toward me and not opening the jaws.
This may have caused a problem with the FEL valve or the diverter. I will try disconnecting the curl/dump hoses to see what the cylinders do, and report back the results.

Thanks, guys for your efforts- I'm confident we'll figure this out- If I'm lucky it is just an adjustment/tweak of some pressure/flow orifice. Here's hoping.:confused3:

 

[Coyote machine]

UPDATE: I remembered that when I was working on the trees teh other day I noticed the outermost QD under the floorpan on right side of tractor, had disengaged, and I made haste to reconnect it. I did NOT do what I would usually do, clean off the male QD end and female QD orifice 'because I was in the field and needed to keep working.
This am I decided to recheck the situation and disconnected the QD and cleaned the male end and used an inspection mirror and LED light to check the female QD for any signs of contamination. I did not find anything noteworthy and reassembled the fitting and tested the backblade position and it seemed to work OK with a little give at initial application of the backdrag, but not like before, where the blade would just give way and the cylinders would provide no resistance. Unfortunately, later today the same symptoms returned, for no apparent reason that I can discern.

Any thoughts?

TIA,

CM :confused3:

 

[k0ua]

Disconnect again and re-connect. and see what happens.. I don't have a lot of respect for coincidences.. you are hot on the trail of something... I am not sure what.

 

[Coyote machine]

I hear you on that. I will try it again and report results. After doing so I'm also going to change both hydraulic filters, they're due. I want to see what comes out of them too. And depending on the results of both I may also go for a hydro trans fluid change. I'm at nearly 600 hrs with original fluid.