FEL Freezing Controls

[AKKubota]

My FEL (LA723 on an L3830) on a has always had problems with this. I thought the heated cab would help, but it has not - though the "thaw time" seems to be less. The loader will lift and curl, but not recover from these two positions. I saw some posts about drilling a "weep" hole - is there anything offical from Kubota on this?

The problems resolves after about 30 minutes of serious warm up and movement.

 

[HEC]

During real cold weather my zetor tractor fel would do the same thing.After a warm up of 30min. or so the hydraulic fluid would also warm up and would work fine as long as I kept cirulating the hyd. fluid by using the loader.If I used the snow blower on the rear for any extended period of time without using the fel. it would work real slow again until I used it for awhile again.I would find out if you have syn. hyd. fluid or not and if you don't I would seriously consider changing to a syn. hyd. fluid ,this should show an improvement .If you already have syn. than you are going to have to have those extended warm up periods to get both your eng. and fluids up to an operating temp. that is good for both eng. and fel. If water is somehow getting into your joy stick controls , which shouldn't happen with a cab,unless it is condinsation than the above will be of little value to you,but the zetor I use to have had the exact same problems you are describing.I don't know about the weep hole .
Good Luck,

 

[beenthere]

So you are thinking there is water in the control that freezes?

And the weep hole would 'drain' the water so it couldn't freeze? Is there a chance the 'weep' hole will let hyd. oil drain out or blow out?
I'm curious where the weep hole would be drilled.

 

[5030]

First off, your joystick in a cab model is cable connected to the valve block so other than a frozen (rusted) cable it is highly unlikely that the culprit id the joystick itself.

Now, the valve body itself where the cable from the joystick attaches could get moisture inside and freeze. I never had that problem on my 5030 even though I washed it quite often and my new M9, well, I can't speak for that yet, but, I run a roll-off scrap trailer as my day job and I had problems with the controls sticking in cold weather. I drilled a "weep" hole in the actuator body right where the actuator cable screws into the cast boss on the side of the valve body with the hole facing downward. When I disassembled the actuators prior to drilling the holes, both actuators were filled with waterlogged grease which was freezing in the winter. I cleaned out the actuator bodies with a couple spray cans of brake cleaner and then coated the actuator rods and cable attachment points with synthetic grease, drilled a 1/16" hole in the bodies and reassembled the bodies with the hole pointing downward. To this day I can't understand why, that on a $60,000.00 trailer some engineer didn't think of putting drain holes in to let the moisture out.

My symptoms on the trailer were the same as yours....below freezing, sluggish controls. Actually, if I raised the hoist and actuated the winch at the same time, the controls would freeze in whichever position I had them in and I'd have to actually pull them to a neutral position. Very dangerous when dealing with a 60 ton winch and a 50 foot hoist frame.

You have an advantage in that you can actually warm up your hydraulic fluid to a point where it will cause the frozen water to become liquid and allow control movement. With a roll-off, you never get the fluid warm and the valve body is right out in the elements on the side of the trailer.

 

[AKKubota]

Thanks for the ideas.

I have synthetic fluid in the system so I don't think that's the problem.

My cab is an after market Curtis and I have the "standard" controls for the FEL.

The idea of the weep hole came from some posts I read some time ago, but I could find them in arecent search. I also sent an email to Kubota. I think there is some ice forming in the area of the controls. The 3pt and all the other functions of the FEL work fine.

Int eh winter I use the tractor for snow removal only, so once the FEL starts functioning it gets pretty steady use.

 

[5030]

I just did some serious digging with the M9 and I looked at the control block for the loader real closely. My control block inclines downward and the actuator cables feed in from the back.....I forsee some weep holes in the actuator casting before it gets too cold.

If you have the joystick arm mounted (you say you have an aftermarket cab), it would be like my L3710 was and similar to the M9, inclined downward. On my 5030, the block was vertical with the actuation from the bottom. Sounds like the vent/weep holes are in order along with a good cleaning and some synthetic grease.

 

[AKKubota]

Your advice about the weep holes and synthetic grease is what Kubota recommended when they got back with me. What they recommended was the following:

1. Remove the plate below the control unit
2. Spray it out with some type of cleaner (brake cleaner)
3. Relube everything inside and around the edges with synthetic grease.
4. Drill a 1/8 weep home in the lower edge of the cover plate.
5. Close it up

 

[Engine66]

I have a L3830 and had the same problem a few days ago in Vermont. FEL goes up and bucket curls up, but stuck in that position until I ran it a half hour around my property and then all was well. Did your recommendations from Kubota work?

 

[Pks]

A note to all of us regarding the frozen controls: don't force the lever; if you do, the cap which covers spring and/or detent mechanism will break. It's worth $50. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif This is the same cap into which Daryl puts the weep hole.