Loss of Hydraulics

RedDawg

Member
1955 Ford 640 with vane style pump. Everything has been working great. I was out bush hogging and noticed the FEL was dropping and looked down. I developed a leak in one fitting to the bottom of one of the cylinders. I started heading back to the shed giving it enough fluid to keep the bucket off the ground and could hear a growl from the hydraulic unit when I did it probably from low fluid. Quickly jumped off and disconnected the bush hog. I had a little bit of 3 point hitch action remaining. Literally had to back the tractor into the shed as I couldn't raise the bucket over the threshold.

Pulled the cylinder and capped off the FEL. I checked fluid level and it didn't even register on the stick. Filled it up and ran the tractor for about 5 minutes. No hydraulics. Even last year after putting a new hydraulic manifold on and draining the system it came back after filling the reservoir. Not this time. I get no action on the 3 point hitch. Is it because it was actually running low for a bit? If so, what are my next steps? I'm a hydraulic system virgin. Be gentle. :) Thanks.
 
I'm no expert on hydraulics but I have taken a class on the
subject and repaired a few tractors over the years.

My first guess would be to look at a loss of prime. If you
can find the place to add hyd. fluid to the pump, I'd try that
first. If there is air in the system, it will not work properly or
even at all.
 
(quoted from post at 12:44:15 05/19/13) I'm no expert on hydraulics but I have taken a class on the
subject and repaired a few tractors over the years.

My first guess would be to look at a loss of prime. If you
can find the place to add hyd. fluid to the pump, I'd try that
first. If there is air in the system, it will not work properly or
even at all.

Yup, I've gone through the first couple of steps of the service manual. I pulled the plug on the lower right front and started the tractor. No fluid. I tried the air pressure in the dip stick hole trick - still no fluid coming out at the pump. I'm about to pull the lift cover but the problem is that mine isn't what the book shows due to the FEL control on top. It says to pull it and then replce the smaller Section A back on top of the pressure tube before starting. Mine is all one cover.....

But, I'm also 70 miles from where I live and can't get back here till next weekend - hence the reason I had to get it in the shed. I'm going to get some pictures and then pull the lift cover - new territory for me.

Maybe it was that Regular Leaded gas :wink:
 
I tried the first few steps in the book including re-priming the pump. Nothing. So then I started going into the lift cover under the seat. The problem is that my cover is different (1 piece) and not 2 pieces as the book has. So I couldn't really follow directions. But I wanted to see if anything was flowing under there. I started up the tractor with it off and oil came gushing out of the hole I'm pointing to.

IMAG0560.jpg


But there is no 'reservoir' to fill up like the book says. So I decide to head to the house and work on it next weekend. But I don't want to leave it this way so I bolt the cover back down. What the heck - let's fire it back up one more time for grins.

EVERYTHING WORKS!!!! Who knows about these things. I'm cleaning up and heading to the house.
 
That's not the lift cover that you removed. The lift cover is the larger piece with the hole in it that you're pointing to in the picture. The lift cover is what the seat bolts to, plus it's what the upper 3 point lift arms attach to.

You said that you have a loader control valve in that location and you removed that. What normally goes where your loader control valve is located is called the option cover.

In any case, glad to hear you got it working.
 

Hey, I was just going by what the book called it but yes, I'm happy it worked too. Must have been a vapor or air lock or something.
 

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