goddom
Bronze Member
A few weeks ago I noticed my tractor would have this dead spot when turning right. It wasn't bad at first and I would barely notice but it got progressively worse. It got bad enough that it wouldn't turn right at all, but if I turned left then turned right immediately after the wheels moved. Eventually lost steering all together.
Of course it was when I was in the pasture.... which was too wet and muddy to get in there with the truck to pull it out.
Before the steering went out completely I replaced the orbital valve/motor because that is what everyone said it had to be. I opened up the old one and it didn't seem to be bad as far as I could tell. It did not fix the problem.
The steering system is pretty simple. A high pressure line off the hydraulic pump to the orbital valve to the steering cylinder then dumping back into the case. So it had to be the steering cylinder. There was a remote possibility that a pressure relief valve was failing, but it didn't make sense for that to only happen when turning one direction. So the next step was to replace/fix the cylinder. Turns out the cylinder is no longer available, so bought the seals to rebuild it. After pulling the cylinder apart, we found that the rod was bent and when we tried to reinstall, it was causing the seals to flex when moving in one direction. Getting the cylinder out was a challenge because one of the pins that held it in was completely rusted in place. Ended up cutting it and replacing it with a 3/4" bolt for the time being.
So replaced the rod, reassembled the cylinder and wala! Problem solved. Not sure how the cylinder was bent, but I will try to be more careful with it.
Of course it was when I was in the pasture.... which was too wet and muddy to get in there with the truck to pull it out.
Before the steering went out completely I replaced the orbital valve/motor because that is what everyone said it had to be. I opened up the old one and it didn't seem to be bad as far as I could tell. It did not fix the problem.
The steering system is pretty simple. A high pressure line off the hydraulic pump to the orbital valve to the steering cylinder then dumping back into the case. So it had to be the steering cylinder. There was a remote possibility that a pressure relief valve was failing, but it didn't make sense for that to only happen when turning one direction. So the next step was to replace/fix the cylinder. Turns out the cylinder is no longer available, so bought the seals to rebuild it. After pulling the cylinder apart, we found that the rod was bent and when we tried to reinstall, it was causing the seals to flex when moving in one direction. Getting the cylinder out was a challenge because one of the pins that held it in was completely rusted in place. Ended up cutting it and replacing it with a 3/4" bolt for the time being.
So replaced the rod, reassembled the cylinder and wala! Problem solved. Not sure how the cylinder was bent, but I will try to be more careful with it.
