PT1445 Stuck again

PT1445Farmer · Jul 13, 2009

Not 2 operating hours after "fixing" the broken cylinder and hose issue, my PT1445 croaked again. The forward/reverse pedals do nothing now. The lift works, but nothing else. Before it finally died, I had lifted a heavy item with my forks and there was suddenly oil shooting out of the top of the reservoir, or so it seemed. I quickly dropped the item and it stopped, no leaking anywhere. So I went about my business.
Mowed for about an hour, then at the very end, it just would not go.
Any ideas on what to check?

Per last time my PT died on me, I am not at my farm, and will be traveling next week so there will be delays - suspense building as I call it - before I can provide answers and results.

Once again, thanks in advance for all help and advice!

woodlandfarms · Jul 14, 2009

I have no idea how you could have oil coming out of the tank. Are you sure it was out of the tank lid? We are referring to the tank under the seat, right?

I think on my PT the treddle circuit is on the same as the lift tilt and steering. Your steering is still working, right?

It sounds to me like you had to leave before you had a chance to lift the lid and take a look at what might have failed. I assume that you did not get a chance to check oil levels or such?

One thought that comes to mind is that you have a ruptured or loose hose. That your oil level dropped, exposing air to the tram circuit, so it would no longer operate, but keeping oil avail for the lift tilt dump (Assuming they are at a different level, don't know your tank).

But, saddly I think you are going to have to go return, and we are going to have to talk you through this. Maybe an Iphone would be a good purchase, one you can surf the web on and ask us questions...

Make sure you take out a pressure guage with various fittings, that will be the first thing you are going to get asked about after you check if you have oil....

ponytug · Jul 14, 2009

If your lift, tilt/curl, and steering work, then the auxiliary pump circuit is functioning. If some subset doesn't work, then you have an issue in that area, as they are all driven off the same pump.

I worry that the reason you had oil spurting out of the tank was air being sucked in somewhere from a loose hydraulic filter or hose.

If they are all working, then you might double check the brake circuit. You might want to check that as you turn the parking brake on and off, the spring moves on the pressure regulator (aka charging circuit, the black box on the left rear, near the oil dipstick, but on the tub.)

Good luck!

All the best,

Peter

Bob999 · Jul 14, 2009

I wonder if the "suddenly oil shooting out of the top of the reservoir, or so it seemed" could be a pressure relief valve opening as a result of the heavy lift.

If the above speculation has merit that would suggest to me that the problem with the tram system, which occurred an hour later, is unrelated.

In trouble shooting the tram circuit the first thing I would check is adequate hydraulic fluid supply and then ensure that movement of the pedal actually activates the swash plate in the variable displacement pump. On my machine with the mechanical control that actuation is visible--but I don't know how one would verify that with the hydraulic control on newer machines. Perhaps an owner with the hydraulic system can provide a suggestion.

ponytug · Jul 14, 2009

Dear Bob999,

There is no externally visible indicator; you would need pressure gauges on the output of the pump. I think it is one of those good news/bad news items.

I think we need some more data from PT1445Farmer to narrow the possibilities down, don't you?

All the best,

Peter

Bob999 said:
I wonder if the "suddenly oil shooting out of the top of the reservoir, or so it seemed" could be a pressure relief valve opening as a result of the heavy lift.

If the above speculation has merit that would suggest to me that the problem with the tram system, which occurred an hour later, is unrelated.

In trouble shooting the tram circuit the first thing I would check is adequate hydraulic fluid supply and then ensure that movement of the pedal actually activates the swash plate in the variable displacement pump. On my machine with the mechanical control that actuation is visible--but I don't know how one would verify that with the hydraulic control on newer machines. Perhaps an owner with the hydraulic system can provide a suggestion.

Bob999 · Jul 14, 2009

ponytug said:
Dear Bob999,

I think we need some more data from PT1445Farmer to narrow the possibilities down, don't you?

Yes, I agree.

PT1445Farmer · Jul 15, 2009

To all the posts above - great suggestions!
I checked out the formerly stuck PT and it worked. I don't think I am out of the woods though. As usual, it was pegged at the 240 degree overheating mark, losing power as happened when I first used it for mowing.

When I get back to it on next Friday - have to check out a farm in Palm Springs growing biodiesel first - then I will go through the list of things to check all of you provided.

Will definitely update as this progresses. Either way, I need to throw everything I can to cool this beast down. I cannot run it for more than 30 minutes without it boiling.

woodlandfarms · Jul 15, 2009

Before you go to the sticks, you need to buy two things. You need to get a pressure guage (Hydraulic) and the assorted Pipes and fittings. JJ is brilliant at suggesting for your needs. Also, you need to get a Infrared thermometer or something similar.

Your tractor has two oil systems, one for the engine, and one for the Hydraulics. The engine heat is monitored on your dash. Saddly there is not system to monitor your Hydraulics, so you are going to get a thermometer to measure it.

You say you keep overheating the engine (the guage pegs) but you have updated the cooling by adding screens, and you clean the ENGINE COOLER by blowing it from the top, and by opening the side cover and blowing it out from the bottom?

If this is the case I wonder if there is something else going south... How dry and dusty are your conditions?

Also, you say now your tractor is tramming correctly again?

Oh, and Palm Springs California?

SpringHollow · Jul 15, 2009

When cleaning the engine oil radiator, i get an amazing amount of stuff coming off when i use soap&water through the engine cleaner wand that i do not remove with just air.

Ken

J_J · Jul 15, 2009

PT1445Farmer,

240 degrees is way to high to keep using the machine with the temp as it is. One of the main things to cause heating like that in a hydraulic system is a relief valve over working. In order to cause that, something is not working as it should. Since you don't know the static temps of the machine, you can observe the temps at different places on the machine when first started and log them down after a few min of warm up, using a temp gun. I would recommend that you put it up on blocks, fill the hyd tank to correct level. Check the small things first, like steering, lift. How many pumps do you have on your machine? I have one for steering and lift, one for PTO. and the tram pump. If you were not using the PTO, you could eliminate that, You just rebuilt a part of the steering circuit. Could be a problem if you did not put things back together correctly. You said you were lifting something heavy, perhaps the relief valve was activating, You did say that it stopped lifting, or slow to lift. Have you thought about the brakes dragging, that would put a load on the tram pump. My tram pump has two relief valves in it, and if they were bypassing fluid, things would heat up rather quickly. What you have to know about relief valves is that they are spring loaded to relieve the pressure greater than the set pressure for normal operation. If you continue to overload, say the lift circuit pump, by working the forks past the limits, the relief valve will relieve until the pressure is back where it should be. The relief valve only has a small opening to let excess fluid out, and this generates heat. Just extending the forks to the limit and holding it tee will do the same thing. If you have an temp gun, check around the relief valves. A clogged up QD might be suspect. Maybe a crimped hose. An in-fared camera could show you many things. Put some gages in the system and check things out.