Loader My loadeer seems to be a little weak

[Looking4new]

Late to the party as usual....but what and how are the cylinders drifting?

Are they extending or retracting?

You are saying that if you leave the loader suspended....that it both drops the loader AND dumps the bucket.
1. The lift cylinders will now allow this to happen. Thats in the valve. As those cylinders are COMPRESSING....which CANNOT and WILL NOT happen unless fluid EXITS the cylinder
2. The curl cylinders are EXTENDING. This can happen either due to a valve OR the piston seals.

In your last scenerio....lifting the front of the tractor and not holding it in the air
1. The lift cylinders are now EXTENDING....which again...and EXTENDING cylinder can either be the cylinder seals OR the valves
2. The curl cylinders are now trying to COMPRESS. Which cannot happen due to seals. That indicates a valve.

So I am having a hard time following just what is going on.

It seems as if none of the cylinders will hold in ANY direction....either extension or retraction. Which points to a VALVE and not the cylinders.

Without more understanding or troubleshooting, I am afraid you are just going to waste your money rebuilding or replacing cylinders.

The lift cylinders stutter and stumble when lifting and so do the curl cylinders. Often I have to return the control valve to the neutral position and then try again to get it to lift or curl.
I will get the hydraulic shop 5 miles down the road to sort it out in Spring. Right now (winter and snow) it still works, more or less.

 

[Looking4new]

The shop that I sent the tractor to (not the one 5 miles away) told me that there was an O-ring on the suction side of the pump that needed to be replaced. That is why it was sucking air. I got them to do a bunch of other work, too. Adjust valves, change oil and filter, replace all filters except fuel and air. The tractor comes home on Monday. I have a towing company local to me that floats where I need it to be. Because I live near a controlled access highway I cannot drive it to the place. That controlled access highway is the only way to get to the shop. The good thing is that I dodged a $1900.oo bullet ( the price of a new pump).

Many thanks for the replies.

 

[SmallChange]

Flow = Speed
Pressure = Power

Actually,

Flow/Piston Area = Speed
Pressure*Piston Area = Force
Speed*Force = Power

 

[5030]

Reading along, something that has never concerned me at all. Both mine leak down and loaders drop and always have and I ignore it becuuse it only happens over a prolonged period of time and all it takes to correct it is a nudge to correct plus when parked the loader buckets are on the ground, where they belong in the first place as well as anything on the 3PH. Been that way since new, 20 years ago and not of concern to me. It's a tractor, not a silk purse.

 

[Looking4new]

When I park it, the loader and 3 PH are almost always on the ground. What alerted me that something was amiss was the jerky raise and then the floppy bucket on the curl.
Hopefully it is all fixed.