OP
22West
New member
Folks,
Thanks for your patience. I work in disaster response and you can imagine we have been very busy this month or so with storms, flooding, etc. I wanted to post an update for anyone else who run into this issue.
The issue did turn out to be the hydraulic pump. There was no obvious damage to the pump, but as someone pointed out earlier in this thread, the plumps have very tight tolerances.
Once the pump was replaced, full pressure was restored to the primary hydraulic circuit and the FEL is now working.
A note for anyone else troubleshooting this issue: the primary hydraulic pump and circuit powers the FEL manifold (under right floorboard) and the rear 3 point hitch. The low pressure issue shows up in the FEL by not being able to work the loader controls except at very low speeds with the tractor operating at full RPM.
The rear 3 point hitch positioning valve can operate at very low pressure (as low as 50psi in my experience). Due to this, it was difficult to use this operation to troubleshoot hydraulic pressure issues. Until I got a hydraulic pressure gauge set and connected it in several different places, I did not realize the issue was low pressure and not a mechanical failure within the FEL valve.
As some have noted, pressure gauges only tell a part of the story and does not troubleshoot flow issues. However they can give you a starting point and help with process of elimination. It’s kind of like using a volt meter to troubleshoot electrical issue.
I hope this helps other folks and I appreciate all the input folks gave me while I was figuring this out.
Thanks for your patience. I work in disaster response and you can imagine we have been very busy this month or so with storms, flooding, etc. I wanted to post an update for anyone else who run into this issue.
The issue did turn out to be the hydraulic pump. There was no obvious damage to the pump, but as someone pointed out earlier in this thread, the plumps have very tight tolerances.
Once the pump was replaced, full pressure was restored to the primary hydraulic circuit and the FEL is now working.
A note for anyone else troubleshooting this issue: the primary hydraulic pump and circuit powers the FEL manifold (under right floorboard) and the rear 3 point hitch. The low pressure issue shows up in the FEL by not being able to work the loader controls except at very low speeds with the tractor operating at full RPM.
The rear 3 point hitch positioning valve can operate at very low pressure (as low as 50psi in my experience). Due to this, it was difficult to use this operation to troubleshoot hydraulic pressure issues. Until I got a hydraulic pressure gauge set and connected it in several different places, I did not realize the issue was low pressure and not a mechanical failure within the FEL valve.
As some have noted, pressure gauges only tell a part of the story and does not troubleshoot flow issues. However they can give you a starting point and help with process of elimination. It’s kind of like using a volt meter to troubleshoot electrical issue.
I hope this helps other folks and I appreciate all the input folks gave me while I was figuring this out.
