Better hydraulic control for a Famall h or M?

rankrank1

Well-known Member
I have both a Farmall h and a Farmall M that I have added 3 point hitches to. I really like both tractors (for what they are) and the 3 pt makes em much more useful. That said, I am not a huge fan of the factory rod actuator for the belly pump control though.

Just curious if anyone has come up something better to retro fit for the hydraulic controls? Interested in anything aftermarket or home-brew fabrication too! (Pics would be great of course). I have thought of making a spring loaded lever box that I simply pull the lever one way for down and push it for up. Being spring loaded it would automatically return to the hold current position when I remove my hand.
 

Install a single spool, 2 way control valve. Connect the pressure hose from the belly pump to the inlet of the new valve, and the return to the fill port. Pull the belly pump control rod back and leave it there. Control it all with the 2 way valve.
 
Rusty's idea is least modifying of the original tractor. A lever with a spring loaded return from the "lower" position would work for the original internal valve, but for the original design model of the system, down was all the way down, and up was all the way up. so the rod worked well. 10,000 hours will have it being very normal in your hand. Were I to do it, I would use a shortened lever on the valve end, probably 5 inches to the rod hole. and a lever on the light bar that was also 5 or 6 inches downward in an L shape with the handle facing rearward. a spring would pull the rod rearward to the hold position only, there is already tension toward hold from lift (that is till the rod is pulled rearward enough to lock in the lift detent, then it will self return after dead heading or lifting beyond set pressure. Jim
 
Had not considered adding another valve, but that is a good idea although not sure I wanna spend the coin to do it. At this point looking for low cost and low tech solutions.
 
Have no issues with modifying either tractor from original. Neither tractor is ever going to be worth much from a collector perspective so I am simply looking for a low cost/low tech solution to make it more user friendly and better for me. (In other words farmer...neering at its finest)

The original control rod is a total pain to use with a grader blade for feathering and spreading out dirt with a rear blade. Constant adjustment is the norm and the original rod is a pain for doing that.

I have welders, a scrap pile, and a box full of misc springs so not afraid to put a little sweat equity into the project.
 
The single/double(or even tripple) spool valve is best. Mount to the light bar,or like me,mount to the right rear of the deck
behind your right heel.You may want to extend the handles a bit for easier opperation.However,You will want to return oil to the
lower drain instead of the 'filler'.Just replace the plug with an elbow.Just secure open the control rod to give a continuose loop oil flowing. At this time,I have 4 (soon to be 5)H/M tractors set up that way.
 
Putting a caster wheel (or a fixed, straight ahead) wheel behind the blade with an adjustment for depth of cut will be so much better than any modification to the hydraulics, that it will become irrelevant. The wheel, because it follows the blade, prevents the tractor from continually lifting and lowering the blade as the front wheels encounter ridges, or bumps. The three point top link is changed to a chain which allows it to float unless lifted for transport. The lower links adjust the depth of cut evenly and with 90% less adjustment. Road graders have their blade under their elongated belly for that reason. An under belly setup for the blade would do the same thing, but getting it on and off is way harder. Jim
 
Trouble with using the regular liftall control is the heavier a load placed on the hitch the more pressure it takes to push the rod to lower the load. Open center valve installed would be my suggestion. If you have a pin or pins on hitch to let it float a valve with float comes in handy. You can leave the pins in and if hitting a hard spot with the blade you can put a little down pressure on the blade without having to put pins in.
 
If you look around you may find a used valve pretty cheap. Another option is to plumb a tee into the pressure line and run it through a ball valve to the Lift-All drain port. You can quickly vary the pressure on the lift cylinder by bypassing fluid back to the tank. You should be able to modulate the lift force by feathering the ball valve, basically a big leak back to the tank.
 
That's the way my M is set up (with a live pump). I have the loader plumbed and two remotes. The loader actually uses one of those remotes but has ball valves on it to isolate it in case I need two remotes. Handy.
 

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