Steering Problem Ford 515 Tractor

Hi

I recently bought this old 515 from a friend that used it for ten or so years on his small dairy and sheep farm. Before that it was owned from new by a local town road department. It has mostly been sitting for the last two years. I think it is a 1978 and it has about 3000 hours.

I am hoping to find someone with experience with the steering set up on this tractor.

The problem is that the power steering will not kick in unless the steering wheel is jerked hard when starting to turn the wheels.

So if I turn the steering wheel normally there is no power steering but if I give the steering wheel a good hard jerk when I start to make a turn I can feel the power steering activate and if I continue to turn the wheel with out stopping it will stay on while the steering wheel is moving, as soon as I stop turning the steering wheel I have to give a hard jerk to get the power to come on again.

Has anyone come across the problem before? I have the grill and radiator out and am starting to clean out the area around the actuator and linkage.

Thanks

Ford 515
Tractor # C571210
Model # DV214C
Unit # 8D11B
Engine # 8B02B
Trans # 8A10C
Rear Axle # 8A30C
Hydro Pump # 8A28A
Hydro Lift # 7M19B

That "power steering" is really "power assist". It sounds like you know this already, but just in case you don't, the control valve is inside the cylinder and is actuated by external linkage to the otherwise manual steering linkage. It sounds like there's some slop in the linkage that is not allowing the control valve to be actuated unless the linkage is jerked quickly, or else the control valve itself is sticking. Since you have it all apart already, I would look into rebuilding the cylinder, including the control valve while you have it apart even if you determine the current problem to be in the linkage. Likewise, I would replace the lines between the pump and the cylinder as well. You don't want to have to tear the nose of the tractor apart again anytime soon.

Thanks for posting all of the numbers. I'm trying to document as much as I can about these old Ford tractors.

Tractor # C571210 - This is indeed a 1978 serial number

Model # DV214C - My references don't list DV2 at all, but they do list the 515 as being either DU1 (1976 to late 1977) or DU2 (late 1977 through 1978). But my references have been known to be incorrect in the past. If you know the history of the tractor and that it's indeed a 515 then I'll add that to my documentation. The 1 in the third spot means that it has a diesel engine. The 4 in the next spot means that it has 540 rpm independent PTO. The C at the end means that it has the 8 speed transmission with 4 forward and 1 reverse on the main shifter and the shorter shifter switches between the high and low ranges for a total of 8 forward speeds and 2 reverse speeds.

Unit # 8D11B - This means that the tractor was assembled on April 11 1978 during the day shift.

The rest are assembly dates for the various major components on the tractor:

Engine # 8B02B - February 10 1978, afternoon shift

Trans # 8A10C - January 10 1978, afternoon shift

Rear Axle # 8A30C - January 30 1978, afternoon shift

Hydro Pump # 8A28A - January 28 1978, midnight shift

Hydro Lift # 7M19B - December 19 1977, day shift

Hi

Thanks for the reply. I didn"t figure out how to view it till today, I could see that there was a reply on the main topics page but when I opened up the topic I only saw my own original post. Today I tried the "classic" and there was your reply.

The actuator does have a ton of play. It looks like most of it is at the end where it attaches to the frame. I am going to take out the actuator today and hope I will find that the pin is worn, don"t know what to do exactly if the frame mounting holes are rounded out... Any ideas?

Do you have a good source(s) for used parts and or rebuild shops for these machines?

I am pretty sure it is a 515. I uploaded a photo to the gallery and you can see the number on the arm of the loader. I looked back at the my handwriting and I think that it is a DU2 not DV2, so that matches with your information.

Thanks

Any good local hydraulics shop should be able to rebuild that cylinder, including the internal control valve. As to what to do if the mounting holes in the bracket are worn, you could take that to a good welding shop or machine shop and they should be able to build the metal back up and drill it out again for you.