Bucket slowly dropping to ground???

Larry59 · Sep 12, 2008

My friend has a diesel tractor with a front end loader on it. Bucket is about 5 or 6 ft wide. Anyway .. New seals were put in the cylinders of the loader about 6 months ago. Seem to work fine then recently the bucket started slowly going down and down till it laid on the ground. Now this took a couple of hours to drop say 4 ft down to ground.
We looked the cylinders over and all the hose lines and can not find a leak anywhere. It has a dual control levers but see no leak there.
What else could be wrong ???

Anonymous-0 · Sep 12, 2008

It could be an internal leak in one of the cylinders. It is just bypassing the piston & won"t show any leak to the outside. It could also be your control valve leaking a little & the oil is returning back into the system.

Rusty wheel · Sep 12, 2008

Oil could be leaking by the piston or the directional valve may not be returning to center allowing oil to leak back to the tank. You can check this by blocking the bucket up and then taking the lines loose snd capping them off. Then remove the block under the bucket and see if it still drifts down. If it does, then the oil has to be going by the piston. If it doesn't, then the problem is elsewhere, probably the valve. rw

JOE FARMER · Sep 12, 2008

WHAT DO U EXPECT ,,IT TO STAY UP WITH THE TRACTOR OFF,WITH NO PUMP PRESSURE IT WONT ON A OLDER MACHINE''''''''''''' WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM? LEAVING EQUIPMENT IN A RAISED POSITION UN ATTENDED IS A ACCIDENT WAITING 2 HAPPEN HYDRALICS CAN AND DO FAIL AND SHOULD NEVER BE TRUSTED'' THINK ABOUT IT!!!ONCE U HAVE HAD A NEAR MISS U WILL NEVER AGAIN!!!!

Anonymous-0 · Sep 12, 2008

There are several ways to trouble shoot the problem. Nothing high tech, however if you have a say 2 or 3000 PSI pressure gauge it will help. Otherwise a couple of adjustable wrenches and an empty five gallon pail should do the job, Questions. Did you ever get your injection pump to quit leaking? J.

mEl · Sep 12, 2008

A leaking packing should not let the bucket drop clear to the ground, if the control valve ports are shut off the oil will transfer from the piston side to the rod side through the damaged packing but cannot get back to reservoir, creating a situation where the pressure will be equal on both sides of the cylinder in effect making the cylinders simple displacement cylinders. If gages were installed in both sides of the cylinders equal pressure would be present in this situation. I have worked on hydraulics (Case backhoes) and have seen this many times in my 46 yrs, Just a few weeks ago on a 60XT skid steer, it would raise normally then seep down 3-4 inches till the pressure equalized across the cyls then stop, sometimes its just not as simple as it seems. mEl

Walt Davies · Sep 12, 2008

I have worked on heavy equipment for over 40 years now and all I can say is the rules are to lower all hydraulic equipment to the ground when not in use. One they leak, two some kid may hit the valve when another is climbing on it. It just not a safe thing to do. If it comes down quickly then its needs attention but to slowly leak down over night or in a few hours is pretty much normal. If you look at all the newer equipment you will notice that they have steel blocks or something to hold the cylinders in place when working on them. Never work under anything that is held up only by the hydraulic cylinders.

When I shut down my tractors I always drop the bucket to the ground.

A brand new system may stay up longer than an older one but they all will leak off in time.
Walt

JOE FARMER · Sep 12, 2008

right on walt''''needless danger

RAB · Sep 13, 2008

Not unless they are doble acting, which is unlikely, unless it is a digger

Regards, RAB

Anonymous-0 · Sep 13, 2008

My neighbor always said to buy seals from the OEM. I put new OEM seals in my skid steer and it will slowly creep. It only takes a slight nick or something on one of the seals or o-rings to cause a very slow leak. Cranes, excavators and newer backhoe stabilizers have lock valves in the hydraulic circuit to prevent creeping, even if a hose blows. If the bucket can carry a load of dirt and not creep too much is what to be concerned with. If it's an AG loader with just o-rings and back up washers, they will usually creep over time. Dave

Anonymous-0 · Sep 13, 2008

like walt said you are supposed to put hyd. equipment on the ground when not in use. why in the world would one worry about it creeping down after several hours is beyond me anyway

Larry59 · Sep 13, 2008

We are cutting and splitting wood. Use it in air some to bring cut logs out of it to the splittere. Easier then picking up from ground.
But have to watch it cause weight will make it drop faster even.

Larry59 · Sep 13, 2008

One question give to me was did the enjecter pump get fixed from it's leak. That answer is "No" and the tractor belongs to another guy I split wood with. Said he will fix it soon but I don't have control on that matter.
But to all who replied.. again thanks. Sorry I failed to mention the bucket is in use with cut logs on it when this is happening. Other then that the bucket goes down at night are not using.

Bucket slowly dropping to ground???

Larry59

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Anonymous-0

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Rusty wheel

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JOE FARMER

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Anonymous-0

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mEl

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Walt Davies

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JOE FARMER

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RAB

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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Larry59

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Larry59

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