red alder ranch
New member
I just bought a firewood business and with it came a MF 253 tractor with a MF 236 loader on it.
It starts and runs great, but the hydraulics for the loader and lift arms are intermittent and very slow when they do work. He used to use this tractor to move logs around before he got a small excavator and then let it sit, but the loader did work back then.
I have a Yanmar 32hp that I've been using for about ten years, but a big farm tractor like this is new to me. Took some head scratching over the owner's manual to figure out all the levers, and I'm still not sure I have them all sorted.
The tractor has never had the three point lift or PTO used, it was basically used at a soil and bark yard for loading, and then the firewood guy has had it for nine years but has almost never used it. It spent most of the past 5 years in his barn. He had to have the injectors worked on about a year ago because it sat so long. Mechanic came out and sorted that out.
The fluid is exactly full and super clean.
There is a valve mounted to the left of the seat that was put on to control flow to the loader. Lines are connected to the quick disconnect in the rear. The guy thought that this valve was sticking, since a friend of his got things working again about a year ago by tapping it with a hammer... hi tech... lol
I was able to lift the bucket when I picked it up this morning, but it was slow. I walked it home for about 40 minutes and when I got home the lift arms had come up, which we couldn't get it to do in his barn. But when I let them down, they stayed down and would only intermittently come up a little bit. Same with the bucket.
The valve next to the seat has one lever. There is a "middle" position and then one position pulled up and two positions pushed down. The first position down seems to allow flow to the loader.
When it is trying to slowly lift, I can hear hydraulic noise at that valve but it stops when the loader stops working again.
I don't see any pics of a valve like this in the MF service manual. Not sure how I would go about testing or repairing or replacing it.
Name plate says Type 5485 and SN is R24492. No idea what year.
Where is the filter for the hydraulics? I found a picture of how to clean it out in the operating manual, but no idea where it is located.
What should I be looking for in solving this? It seems like it's probably something simple and maybe sticky somewhere, but I'm not sure what to try next.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
It starts and runs great, but the hydraulics for the loader and lift arms are intermittent and very slow when they do work. He used to use this tractor to move logs around before he got a small excavator and then let it sit, but the loader did work back then.
I have a Yanmar 32hp that I've been using for about ten years, but a big farm tractor like this is new to me. Took some head scratching over the owner's manual to figure out all the levers, and I'm still not sure I have them all sorted.
The tractor has never had the three point lift or PTO used, it was basically used at a soil and bark yard for loading, and then the firewood guy has had it for nine years but has almost never used it. It spent most of the past 5 years in his barn. He had to have the injectors worked on about a year ago because it sat so long. Mechanic came out and sorted that out.
The fluid is exactly full and super clean.
There is a valve mounted to the left of the seat that was put on to control flow to the loader. Lines are connected to the quick disconnect in the rear. The guy thought that this valve was sticking, since a friend of his got things working again about a year ago by tapping it with a hammer... hi tech... lol
I was able to lift the bucket when I picked it up this morning, but it was slow. I walked it home for about 40 minutes and when I got home the lift arms had come up, which we couldn't get it to do in his barn. But when I let them down, they stayed down and would only intermittently come up a little bit. Same with the bucket.
The valve next to the seat has one lever. There is a "middle" position and then one position pulled up and two positions pushed down. The first position down seems to allow flow to the loader.
When it is trying to slowly lift, I can hear hydraulic noise at that valve but it stops when the loader stops working again.
I don't see any pics of a valve like this in the MF service manual. Not sure how I would go about testing or repairing or replacing it.
Name plate says Type 5485 and SN is R24492. No idea what year.
Where is the filter for the hydraulics? I found a picture of how to clean it out in the operating manual, but no idea where it is located.
What should I be looking for in solving this? It seems like it's probably something simple and maybe sticky somewhere, but I'm not sure what to try next.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
