Position of hydraulic lift arms

Tom in TN

Well-known Member
I bought an old-style, 4 cylinder, Ford 4000 diesel tractor. Somewhere around a 1963 model. The serial number is obliterated from battery acid dripping onto the block where the serial number is embossed.

The hydraulics work fine - both a one arm front end loader and the three point lift arms. However, the three point arms go down to within about an inch of the ground and come up to about 25 inches from the ground. The range of motion is okay, but the height of the lift is not high enough to accommodate my Ford 501 sickle bar mower, and there is no good reason for the arms to go down so low.

The lift arm shaft that the lift arms mount on is splined. Can I remove the lift arms, turn them a bit, and put them back onto the shaft so that they are higher than they currently are?

Anyone ever tried that?

Thanks,

Tom in TN
 
The lift arms are keyed with a wider spline at one point so they
can only be put on in one position.
Have you tried switching it from draft control mode to position control mode?
Little lever under your right thigh when seated.
 
It is possible that the links from the upper arms to the lower arms are not the correct ones. If they are adjustable have you tried shortening them?
 
Probably out of adjustment. I put a new cam pin in mine and now they wont go low enough and if you pull lever too high you can hear the pressure relief valve hissing, not good for the pump. You can adjust thru the pto shift lever hole. There are some pros on here that know all the tricks.
 
I had a mechanical genius swap the arms (left on right, right on left) on a tractor and turn the arm ends upside down so they would lift higher.
 
On a Ford 4000 prior? I didn't know that would make one lift higher.
I have heard of turning the complete rockshaft over to help with ware.
If my memory serves, that was a different symptom though.
 
Sean,

The arm on the right side is adjustable but the one on the left is not. I wonder if it is possible put an adjustable one on the left side in place of the fixed length one. That might be an easy fix if I can't find anything else to do.

Thanks,

Tom in TN
 
vI have one that I couldnt read with the blue paint on it, couldnt make out anything. I needle scaled the area and primed with red oxide primer. All the numbers showed up including the diamonds. It was also easier to read at different times of the day in the barn. I hear you can find numbers with magna-flux also.
 
Yes, you can put adjustable ones on both sides.

3158.jpg
 
"Sure enough, they are still that way."

Thanks for the idea. I'll go take a look at mine tomorrow to
see how that would help. In my case, I want them to go lower.
 
Swapping the arms only makes them go higher. The arms on mine quit going all the way down after I changed the cam pin. If you do adjust thru the pto hole make sure you dont get it into that hissing from the pressure relief. Its easy to forget about and you cant hear it as good at operating speed.
 
While were on this, does anyone know why the lift will not hold position while operating. It will be set to a position and I'll look back and the hay rake is dragging the ground. It does it quite a bit, enough for me to want to park it. It holds all the way up fine, its the mid-lower positions that give trouble.
 
(quoted from post at 08:10:34 09/07/17) While were on this, does anyone know why the lift will not hold position while operating. It will be set to a position and I'll look back and the hay rake is dragging the ground. It does it quite a bit, enough for me to want to park it. It holds all the way up fine, its the mid-lower positions that give trouble.
That sounds like draft control mode instead of position control mode.
In draft mode the lift is not supposed to stay where you put it.
 
Everything being normal you should not be able to adjust into a hissing. Thus the washer I spoke off earlier to take up for wear at the hinge in the draft linkage in front of the big spring
 
For a temporary fix you can replace the lift arms with shorter sections of chain. You won't get any further travel of the lift but by connecting at different links you can adjust your start and end heights. I had to do this with a post hole digger. My arms weren't original to the tractor and made the auger sit too low when fully raised. I replaced the arms with some chain and adjusted the number of links until the auger was just off the ground with the 3 point in the full up position.

Keith
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top