Ford 801 bucket spool valve issues

Hello everyone! First post here. I've found myself in a bit of a pickle and this site seems to have the most helpful crew. My wife's grandfather passed away unexpectedly about a month ago and I've been tasked with using the Ford 801 Powermaster (I'm not sure on the year, still catching up) to bush hog the pastures at the farm. Last weekend the spool valve for the loader blew a fitting and I have no idea what it was.

For a little background, I used to work in a repair shop and I know my way around most equipment but I am no tractor expert by a country mile.

I'm not sure what the brand is for the loader assembly. I'm still digging through his file cabinet of manuals hoping to find something. What I can tell you is the bucket bracket on the right side where the controls are has the fluid reservoir, the breather sits at the top and the spool valve mounts on a steel plate that has a bottom return line into the bucket bracket. The two-spool valve is bottom fed and bottom return, with the feed from a hose (the return goes through the mounting bracket). After using an easy-out to remove the fitting and capping the port, I drove the tractor to the shop for closer inspection. I ended up removing it because I noticed metal inside and thought I should flush it out. It appears the fitting used some sort of mushroom shaped poppet valve (maybe a load check) and when the threads blew out, part of it got stuck leaving me a clue. The remnants look to be a load check plug but I'm not 100% sure. The only information on the spool valve is "F8" stamped into the body and "2737" cast into another spot. I don't think it's a pressure relief valve. I'm pretty sure that part is okay (the piece with the cap/spring/ball bearing).

I know it still works okay (minus whatever metals shards might be flowing through the system now). When I had this port capped I could still raise and lower the boom/bucket.

I'm at a loss. I did order some parts from a Cross valve just to see if they'd fit. They are parts 1, 7 and 19 from this page:

http://www.crossmfg.com/images/parts/BA-Two-Spool-Valve-Parts-large.jpg

I've linked to some pictures for reference. They are quite large and if I embedded them, they'd take up all the space on the post! I can resize and include them here if needed.

I'm hoping someone has seem this valve before and might be able to help me out! It seems any modern replacement would require plumbing new lines for the return as new valves port from the side and not the bottom.

Thanks in advance,

Josh

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Sounds like it's probably a Ford loader, as most of those had the fluid reservoir in the loader frame. Look on the loader frame itself for a metal tag that has some numbers stamped in it. It should have a "Model" number something along the lines of I9-xxx where the xxx is a 3 digit number. Post that number back here and we can probably help you figure out what model loader it is, and that should allow us to get you to a parts diagram for the control valve.
 
Quick follow-up....I haven't been out to the barn yet but I did talk to the mechanic from years ago that installed the loader. He told me it was a Freeman but he didn't know the model or what valve it takes. I'll still go out and double-check the loader tonight.
 
The loader is a Freeman 806. I'm not 100% but I believe the valve is a Gresen valve, maybe a 2737? I can't find any reference to the 2737 (which is stamped into the valve) on the Internet but I do see some that are similar. Seems they were bought out by Parker.

On page 12 (pdf page, not SB page) of this manual for a Gresen 2715 valve

http://www.parker.com/parkerimages/...ce Literature/Bul HY14-2715-M1 SP SPK SSK.pdf

I found a schematic that looks almost identical to this valve. It shows the port as being for a load check valve. On page 19 the pressure relief valve looks the same as my valve and the load check valve on page 22 looks to be what I need.

Does that seem like a valid assumption? We know what they say....
 
Rather than guessing, you might try taking it to a local hydraulics shop. They should be able to source parts just by measuring what's there.
 

I believe I have the same valve as you and facing the same issues. I'm not sure what loader I have as there are no longer any tags on the frame, but the 2737 is stamped on my valve. I realize your post is 6 years old but I thought I'd take a chance that you still use the forum.
 

You will do well to start your own post for a couple reasons. First if anyone looking at this thread using Classic view only sees your post, none of the original post as it is too old for that view, so your post makes no sense. Don't be surprised if you get comments about such from those seeing it in Classic. Second the original poster's profile only shows as him making these 4 posts, in this thread, nothing since, so he didn't even report back with how he solved the problem. A common thing, people join, ask for help get some responses, and disappear. We never know if the issue was resolved.

My thoughts are you will be best served to buy a new loader valve and upgrade, rather than try to find parts for that old valve. If you find parts, they may cost you more than a new valve. Surplus Center is one place to check for a valve. YT parts may have a valve if you call them. A loader valve should have a "float" position on the boom (loader arms) circuit. The brand of the loader nor valve are issues if you are replacing it. You just need an open center valve (15 gpm range for size) with a main relief (adjustable up to about 2500 psi will be enough) for yours. If you know what fittings are on your hoses you may find a valve with the proper port threads, if not one can get adapters to go into the valve body to match the hose threads.
 

Thank you for your reply. Most kind. I am in the process of sourcing a new replacement valve, but I was taking a last stab at maybe trying to identify and source parts for the one I have. Replacement is not quite as straight forward as it might be. It's very doable but will require more work than I hoped. I hoped that I could identify my loader and thus the valve it's using and that this information might be useful in sourcing replacement parts before having to replace the valve.
The problem is this old tractor has an aftermarket loader and when I purchased the former owner new nothing about it. There are no tags or stamped information in the frame. I tried to identify it by using the "help identify" feature of this forum. I did get several different folks telling me what make and model loader they thought I had but all the pictures I sourced didn't look like my loader. So that's that as they say. So my little issue that I'm looking at, is that this loader used the loader frame as the hydraulic fluid reservoir. Not unusual. There is a mounting plate the valve mounts to that is attached to the frame. The mounting plate has an inlet and outlet hole in it that lines up with the inlet and outlet on the bottom of the valve. There is a pipe that is welded to the bottom of the plate and connects over to the frame for the fluid to return to the reservoir. The connection between the valve and the mounting plate is sealed by o-ring. I was hoping to find a replacement valve with the same style outlet, but that's proving difficult for me. I've consulted with a hydraulic repair guy I know and he says we would just install a fitting on the bottom of the valve and connect over to the reservoir by drilling, tapping and installing a connection to the reservoir post. Obviously, you would get metal filling in the reservoir. So naturally you would need to drain and flush the reservoir frame. Well there is no drain plug for doing so, crazy as this sounds. So now drill and tap and install a drain plug. All very doable, but I was hoping to take the path of least resistance, which in this case there doesn't seem to be one. Now I am identifying all the ports on the existing valve and making a schematic diagram. I am looking at different manufacturers (Prince for one) schematics to try and find one that will lend itself to the application with minimum alterations to the loader frame. I don't want a maze of hoses that looks like an octupus or terrible afterthought. Would prefer simple and clean. I agree with you that considering the age of the tractor (1960's), difficulty in obtaining parts (particularly since we can't identify my valve), that replacing the valve would be the most obvious and logical choice even with the extra work required. Thank you for taking the time to assist me. I really appreciate it.
 
You may need to relocate a new valve a bit, but it will not mount the same anyway. Make a plate with coupling welded to it, for the opening where your current valve is mounted, to attach the return hose to from the new valve. Then it is bolt on, no need to drill into the reservoir.

Davis loaders used that type of valve. I believe it was made special for them and is years out of production. A bit of abbreviated history for you, may not be exact but gives you an idea of the history if your loader is a Davis. Davis Manufacturing bought Mid-Western Industries loader/backhoe business in 1950 and developed/improved on the loaders and backhoes. In 1958 Davis/Mid-Western were acquired by Massey Ferguson. Mr. Davis reappeared improving on trenchers which later was acquired by Tenneco/Case. There are some Davis loader manuals in the N tractor club (google it, link to it is not allowed here) library in the loader section you can look at. The valve is similar if not the same as yours.

Pictures would help and you might get an ID of your loader. Generally new users need more than 5 posts on record to post pictures or links. You can go down to the TEST Forum and make several posts trying to attach pictures of your loader and valve, to get your post count up. Or got to the SITE COMMENTS forum and ask YT Support to make an adjustment so you can post pictures sooner.

This post was edited by Jim.ME on 04/04/2022 at 04:46 pm.
 

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