Farmall H hydraulics

Hi, I have a 47 farmall H with a loader and the loader squirts hydraulic fluid out of what appear to be a square headed fitting with a hole drilled it in. The fitting is right where the stainless steel arm goes into the cylinder. It does it on both of the arms when I raise the bucket. Especially at the upper range.It does it every time until it seems to run out of fluid, the it really seems to labor lifting the bucket that high. There is no name on the loader. Can anyone tell me what is wrong and how to fix it?

Thanks

I would assume those are vent plugs for the upper end of the cylinder and the seals are leaking in the cylinders.

That may be. I would call them vent plugs. So I guess I need to have the cylinders rebuilt? Is it expensive? Can I do it myself?

Dave has it correctly identified. Rebuild the lift cylinders, or it will continue to do it. OOORRR, you could plumb hoses into those ports, and have the leakage return to the reservoir. This will not fix it, but it will keep it from binding at the top of the travel, and allow continued use as is. Do not trust it for life risking action (like getting under the bucket, or standing in it to put up lights!!) The rebuilding will cost less than the hoses and fittings. Make sure the plugs with holes are pointed downward when reinstalling them so water does not have a chance to enter. also do not let the tractor sit with the loader up, it just leaks down past the piston packing/seals and makes it worse. Jim

Thank you so much, I'll get to work on replacing or repairing. Good tips it would have taken ke the hard way to figure out.

Thanks

I had the same problem with mine a few years ago. My CIH dealer ordered the parts for me and it took maybe an hour each to disassemble the cylinders, clean them out and reassemble them with new parts. It made the loader work like new.

Thanks, I'll find one here and give them a call.

(quoted from post at 18:07:07 11/02/12) Hi, I have a 47 farmall H with a loader and the loader squirts hydraulic fluid out of what appear to be a square headed fitting with a hole drilled it in. The fitting is right where the stainless steel arm goes into the cylinder. It does it on both of the arms when I raise the bucket. Especially at the upper range.It does it every time until it seems to run out of fluid, the it really seems to labor lifting the bucket that high. There is no name on the loader. Can anyone tell me what is wrong and how to fix it?

Thanks

Click to expand...

If the loader is a McCormick #30 or #31, the cylinders are designed so as to have a reservoir at the front end of the cylinders. The reservoirs are there to supply needed hydraulic oil to the belly pump, because the belly pump does NOT have the capacity needed to supply ENOUGH fluid to fully raise the loader.

As the loader is raised, the fluid in the cylinder reservoir is pushed back into the belly pump reservoir, thus providing sufficient fluid to fully extend the cylinders.

Remove those air vent plugs and replace them with hydraulic hoses.

The other end of those hoses, both of them, then need to be connected with a TEE pipe fitting, and that TEE fitting can then be fitted to the belly pump fill pipe, using a pipe union fitting. The union fitting is needed to provide a way to fill the belly pump when necessary.

There is NOTHING wrong with your cylinders. They are doing EXACTLY what they were designed to do.

I finally found an ID number on them. It says on the under side of the arm an IHC logo stamped in the arm with the numbers 450 657 R2 I googled this number 7 ways from Sunday with IHC int etc with no hits that meant anything so I can't positively ID it.

I believe Rusty is correct in that the upper cylinder volume will supply extra fluid to assure full travel. I believe he is incorrect in indicating that the cylinders are working as designed. They are leaking, or oil would not get to the top of the cylinder as you describe.
I also believe the best place to route the hoses back to the reservoir is in the drain plug at the bottom of the reservoir. A short pipe nipple, and a cross fitting at that spot will allow draining the system, as well as attaching two hoses for the return.
As I noted, the problem for using the loader would be made to go away, but the piston seals in the cylinder are still leaking. Jim

(quoted from post at 10:54:36 11/03/12) I believe Rusty is correct in that the upper cylinder volume will supply extra fluid to assure full travel. I believe he is incorrect in indicating that the cylinders are working as designed. They are leaking, or oil would not get to the top of the cylinder as you describe.
I also believe the best place to route the hoses back to the reservoir is in the drain plug at the bottom of the reservoir. A short pipe nipple, and a cross fitting at that spot will allow draining the system, as well as attaching two hoses for the return.
As I noted, the problem for using the loader would be made to go away, but the piston seals in the cylinder are still leaking. Jim

Click to expand...

The method I described for routing the hoses back to the reservoir was taken directly from the McCormick #31 owners manual. However, the part number given by the original poster is too new for a #31 loader, so it might just be that the loader he has is actually set-up for 2-way hydraulics, which his H does not have, and then installing those vent plugs in place of hoses IS correct, and yes, the cylinders need to be rebuilt.

Thanks, I'm looking into it tomorrow.

Raymond

It may be normal for the cylinders to squirt some oil out the first few times IFFF they had just been re-plumbed.

After a few cycles, all the old "reservoir" oil should be pushed out. If the cylinders keep pushing oil, they are leaking around the pistons.

Be aware that some cylinders cannot be rebuilt.