1965 David Brown 880UE Implematic, transmission hydraulic...

aczlan

New User
I have a 1965 David Brown 880UE Implematic Livedrive that I got with almost 15 gallons of what looked like caramel yogurt in the transmission (a lovely mixture of water and hydraulic fluid).
I drained it, flushed it out (scraped out what I could reach with the top cover off, sprayed it out with diesel, etc), cleaned the pickup screen and put in fresh fluid, but the 3 point hitch will not go up. I pulled the plug on the end of the 3 way valve and no fluid came out. Do I need to do something special to prime the pump? Is there someplace else that I should be checking for flow?

Thanks

Aaron Z
 


I'm not familiar with that model. You may be able to find some information at this site- https://sites.google.com/site/deerebrown/ You can also check with the David Brown Tractor Club forum. If it's like the 990 and later models, there is a valve chest located under the oblong cover between the seat and 3 pt control. The outer valve in there has a screen in it that gets blocked with gunk and the 3 pt won't raise. I'd look through the manuals on the site I linked to and see if that might be the same set up. It's not hard to clean once you get the valve out. Getting it out can be a bear though as there's not a lot of room to work and you absolutely don't want to drop it into the rear end!
 
(quoted from post at 09:22:31 11/12/19)

I'm not familiar with that model. You may be able to find some information at this site- https://sites.google.com/site/deerebrown/ You can also check with the David Brown Tractor Club forum. If it's like the 990 and later models, there is a valve chest located under the oblong cover between the seat and 3 pt control. The outer valve in there has a screen in it that gets blocked with gunk and the 3 pt won't raise. I'd look through the manuals on the site I linked to and see if that might be the same set up. It's not hard to clean once you get the valve out. Getting it out can be a bear though as there's not a lot of room to work and you absolutely don't want to drop it into the rear end!
I looked through there, but I cant seem to find a manual with the same setup for the 3 point hitch control as I have. Here is a picture of the 3 point levers:
mvphoto45196.jpg

The inner lever is attached to the round disc that says Hold and TCU, the outer one is independent (although there is a latch to lock them together).

The 3 way valve:
mvphoto45198.jpg


The 3 way valve with the knobs off:
mvphoto45200.jpg

I wonder if I need to take the 3 way valve apart as the pieced inside that the knobs push on do not seem to move, perhaps its not letting flow through? There is no squeal like I would expect from a pressure relief if the flow is blocked off no matter what I do with the 3 way valve and there is no flow from the port on the end (which appears to be for the outer valve).

Aaron Z
 
Look for a manual for an 850 or 950. the 880ue you have is an early tractor with the later paint scheme.

the hydraulic system you have is known as an "implematic" system, where 95% of the 880s have the "selectamatic" one.
 
Thanks RGMartin and joestewart, I will have to dig into it and see what I can find.

Thanks

Aaron Z
 


In that first picture you posted, that oblong cover behind the 3pt control is where I was talking about if the set up is similar to the 990.
 
(quoted from post at 09:20:38 11/13/19)

In that first picture you posted, that oblong cover behind the 3pt control is where I was talking about if the set up is similar to the 990.
The one with the two large Phillips head screws in it?
I had that off, but didn't see much behind it, will have to look again.

Aaron Z
 


See if there aren't 2 slotted caps in there. If so, they cover the valves I spoke of. But like I said, I'm not familiar with that model, it just seems odd they'd have the same shaped cover in the same spot and not have something similar under there.
 
Not much other than some linkage under there, here is a picture looking in from the back, just straight linkage to the front (to the control levers) and linkage for an automatic height lockup that locks the 3 point up and turns off the pump flow when it reaches a set height. My linkage is bent and missing a pin when compared to the picture in the manual, but I dont think that is my problem:
mvphoto46084.jpg


Instructions in the manual that was linked to suggested that the cap in the PTO housing should have an adjuster nut on it and the washer should be free when the 3 point lever was forward, checked and it was free, but still no dice:
mvphoto46085.jpg


Pulled the cover off of the back of the PTO housing and looked while it was running and there was no fluid coming out of the aluminum tube like there should have been:
mvphoto46086.jpg

(the hole in the previous picture with the nut and washer inside is in the top of this picture for reference)

So, I drained the hydraulic fluid, pulled the PTO housing, then the pump, it wouldn't pump with the valve on, so I pulled the valve, then worked the old fluid out of the pump (there was a fair amount of sludgy fluid in the suction line), cleaned out the two pressure relief (or are they flow control?) valves on the pump (they were slightly sticky), blew the crud out of the suction line (with the strainer off) replaced the swollen and useless oring on the suction strainer (it was too big in diameter, so it got caught on the housing when I tried to push the strainer into place) and put it all back together, pic of the pump and valve on the bench:
mvphoto46087.jpg

Ran out of hydraulic fluid about 2 gallons short of what was needed, so I had to get more. Put that in tonight and it still isn't pumping.
I am tempted to remove the 3 way valve and stick a shop vac on the line there (the valves that the hand wheels push on dont seem to move so it probbaly needs to be cleaned anyway) and then crank it over, but I am not sure exactly how it comes apart and goes back together.
My other thought would be to use the "blow" side of the shop vac to pressurize the transmission to push the fluid into the pump, but I am not sure how that would work and if it would make a mess anywhere else.

Anyone have any suggestions on getting it to prime before I do something rash?

Thanks

Aaron Z
 


Might want to get on the David Brown tractor club forum. Lots more DB fans there than here. https://dbtc.co.uk/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=742377d0aa85f2a2d25039b3bb0b685a
 
I would love to, but I can't create an account over there, that seems to be the best source of DB info online, but when I try to setup an account it says "Creating a new account is currently not possible."

Aaron Z
 


Huh, been a couple years since I was logged on there. Looks like they have a new board system. I can't log in either. :roll:
 
I sent an email to the person listed as being in charge of membership (turns out that is for club membership, not forum membership), they passed me on to the board admins, hopefully they can get it straightened out.

Aaron Z
 


Cool. My account has been closed, I should contact the administrator it says. When you try to contact the admin, it says the administrator contact is disabled! Great, another source of information gone!
 
(quoted from post at 15:40:14 12/03/19)

Cool. My account has been closed, I should contact the administrator it says. When you try to contact the admin, it says the administrator contact is disabled! Great, another source of information gone!
I went to https://dbtc.co.uk/index.php/contact and it looks like the person you want to email is Scott Bennett who is listed as the "WEBMASTER/FORUM ADMINISTRATOR"

Aaron Z
 
I think they did a purge of inactive accounts a while back. My login works, but I rarely post over there anymore.
 
Apparently, the account that I tried to setup back in Oct worked, I just never got a confirmation email that it went through.
Made a thread over there, hopefully someone there has been through something similar and has some better ideas than mine.

Aaron Z
 

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