hitch problems for new owner(what else is new)

[joehinvt]

ok first off new to tractors and this website.i would like to thank everyone beforehand for any and all replies! i just aquired an 85 ford 4610. had to hook up the back hoe to transport the tractor( i drove it the three miles home) 3pt lift raised the hoe and i hit the position draft levers down after i shut it off and it dropped a little. the next morning after starting.. and everyday since raising and lowering the draf or position levers does nothing!!! moved handles to no avail!! it looks like the lift arms are up in about the halfway position. am i missing a valve or did dropping the levers after shut off jam something?? thanks again for the help!!!

 

[joehinvt]

ok,today i went out and fired it off to do some work and immediatly i hit the position lever and up and down it went,several times even. but after driving to the work area bam nothing happened!! think maybe low on fluid??? just had to add this to for the troubleshooters! thanx again...joe

 

[joehinvt]

oh! and this tractor sat for five years before i came along and put a new battery in and cleaned out,changed all the filters and touched her off!!! forgot to add that!!...joe

 

[RickB]

If you have a 3pt mounted backhoe that allows the hitch to travel up and down, you have one serious safety hazard there. Unless I am not understanding something. Every 3pt backhoe I have seen has a fixed toplink mount that holds the frame and swingpost at a fixed height. Sounds like a recipe for a crushed operator.

 

[joehinvt]

the top link is fixed but the lower arms still move up and down. when in use the downriggers hold every thing steady......will try to upload some pics. is this set up wrong???

 

[RickB]

will try to upload some pics. is this set up wrong???

I can't say without better understanding the hook-up.

 

[joehinvt]

heres the pics i mentioned. as you can see the top link goes through the hole. it can pivot but cant move. the trailing arms are attached to a u shaped arm thats under the seat. what i thought was a typical three point hitch. I AM NEW TO THIS SO PLEASE GO EASY ON ME!!! LOL

 

[rambler]

1. Leave the position/draft lever in Position mode. Always. Draft is very specialized for using a molboard plow - it can really give you bad results for other things.

2. The fixed top link on a backhoe should carry the load. You should not put the 3pt selector lever all the way up. I understand there is a bit of slop in all the linkages so you can make the backhoe go up or down a tad bit; but that isn't what you are supposed to do really. The fixed top link should hold the hoe.

3. If you raised the 3pt selector lever all the way up, you may have heard a high whirrr, and noticed the engine grunt just a little bit? That is oil going through the bypass (pressure relief) valve because you are overloading the hydraulics. It is designed to do this intermittently without harm, but if you left it doing this for long periods, that really heats the oil & works your oil pump very hard & could weaken the bypass valve.

You shouldn't really overload the hyd system like this. You can rock the hoe up or down a little by moving the selector control a little bit - sure. But don't put it all the way up. You can just leave it all the way down, and let the hoe hang on that fixed upper link - that's how it's meant.

4. Water, dirt (causes the bypass or other valves to stick open), low oil level causing the pump to lose prime, and other issues can cause the hyd pump to no longer move the 3pt hitch - any of which common to a tractor that has set for a while. Since the hoe has it's own pump, I will guess you do not know if any other hyd circuts are working, and so it is hard to tell for sure what is going on.

Not sure what happened or what you did exactly, but hope this gives you some place to start or explain fruther.

--->Paul

 

[wjsizemore77]

heres the pics i mentioned. as you can see the top link goes through the hole. it can pivot but cant move. the trailing arms are attached to a u shaped arm thats under the seat. what i thought was a typical three point hitch. I AM NEW TO THIS SO PLEASE GO EASY ON ME!!! LOL

With all the weight of the hoe hanging on the toplink, would it be possible that it is pulling on the draft sensor and thus the hydrauics are trying to raise the heavily loaded "implement"? There should be a place to install a hitch pin to lock out the draft sensing ability of the top link. Just a thought.

 

[RickB]

With all the weight of the hoe hanging on the toplink, would it be possible that it is pulling on the draft sensor and thus the hydrauics are trying to raise the heavily loaded "implement"? There should be a place to install a hitch pin to lock out the draft sensing ability of the top link. Just a thought.

That's a very good thought. The first photo shows a pin in the uopper hole of the bottom of the toplink mounting bracket. It is unclear what is in the bottom hole; either nothing or a hollow pin. For safe backhoe use, there should be a pin in both of these holes, effectively locking out draft control. Draft control can still function if the draft spring is in extension, even if the selector is in position mode.

Rambler has given excellent advise as well. Couldn't have said it better.