Tim Berframe
Bronze Member
I have a 6 year old Jinma 354 with Koyker 160 FEL. Outfit has maybe 200 hours on it (cant tell as the hour clock has never turned a second since brand new). I have only used it maybe 4 hours in the last 9 months. Fired it up last week and found two hoses on FEL sun cracked and leaking. Replaced them and filled fluid. The hoses from pump to FEL have American made quick connects. (Changed over when new so as to plumb for backhoe on the FEL return line. PTO pump for backhoe only worked for about an hour when brand new)
The FEL has always worked real smooth. I was bucketing garbage into a dumpster raising the loader to full height. Did about 5 loads shutting off tractor for about 15 mins while loading the bucket by hand). Dumped the bucket and when tried to curl the bucket back up, the hydraulics were real jerky. Backed out and had difficulty lowering the loader. It finally got to bottom and I started driving. The engine bogged down real bad, blew black smoke and something smelled real hot all of a sudden. Picturing a deadheaded pump I shut down. The hydraulic lines were real hot. I then noticed that the 3PTH had dropped to the ground (Have a box blade on there with big ripper teeth in down position). Checked everything over, couldn't find anything noticeable that said "catastophic failure".
Started it and it ran smooth but couldn't lift the 3pth. Ripped the crap out of my gravel driveway and clawed my way to the back where I could work on it if needed. Shut it off and did some other work. Decided to check fluids again. Added a very small amount and tried again. 3pth and fel worked smooth and powerful. Moved some more dirt. On the last push, the FEL bucket curl felt jerky again.
So, reading here I will go home tonight and change / inspect hydraulic filter and possible remove the quick connects.
Is there anything else that this behaviour indicates I should look for. I have done a lot of mechanic work in the past but hydraulics are new to me.
Some posts here say to 'check out' the FEL controls. OK, what am I checking and how do I do it? The bucket curl (side-to-side on joystick) and the bucket float position (locked straight up) do not 'feel' right.
Thanks for any suggestions,
Tim
The FEL has always worked real smooth. I was bucketing garbage into a dumpster raising the loader to full height. Did about 5 loads shutting off tractor for about 15 mins while loading the bucket by hand). Dumped the bucket and when tried to curl the bucket back up, the hydraulics were real jerky. Backed out and had difficulty lowering the loader. It finally got to bottom and I started driving. The engine bogged down real bad, blew black smoke and something smelled real hot all of a sudden. Picturing a deadheaded pump I shut down. The hydraulic lines were real hot. I then noticed that the 3PTH had dropped to the ground (Have a box blade on there with big ripper teeth in down position). Checked everything over, couldn't find anything noticeable that said "catastophic failure".
Started it and it ran smooth but couldn't lift the 3pth. Ripped the crap out of my gravel driveway and clawed my way to the back where I could work on it if needed. Shut it off and did some other work. Decided to check fluids again. Added a very small amount and tried again. 3pth and fel worked smooth and powerful. Moved some more dirt. On the last push, the FEL bucket curl felt jerky again.
So, reading here I will go home tonight and change / inspect hydraulic filter and possible remove the quick connects.
Is there anything else that this behaviour indicates I should look for. I have done a lot of mechanic work in the past but hydraulics are new to me.
Some posts here say to 'check out' the FEL controls. OK, what am I checking and how do I do it? The bucket curl (side-to-side on joystick) and the bucket float position (locked straight up) do not 'feel' right.
Thanks for any suggestions,
Tim
