I recently acquired a 1951 TO20 that had been sitting for several years and got it back up into running condition with only minor work and a few small electrical components. Really surprised by how little effort it's taken to get the little tractor back into working condition. Anyway, I backed it up to my 5' Bush Hog finishing mower last week (weighs about 5-600 lbs.), both to move the mower and try out the hydraulics on the little Fergie. I engaged the PTO lever and then moved the control lever rearward, of course expecting the mower to lift off the ground. The lift arms visibly nudged upward and came under tension, but didn't even move the mower. Now I had checked out the hydraulics earlier, doing both a manual pump-up before I purchased it and checking them again once I got the tractor running and everything seems to work as it should. In the elevated position, the 3-point will support my 200 lbs. without leaking down so I thought there was at least a fair chance things were in good order.
We're forecast to have some decent weather this weekend and I'm planning to dedicate at least some time to troubleshooting this issue. As I understand it, this should involve hooking up to an implement and with the tractor running and in a lift configuration, looking for fluid bypass via the inspection covers.
No, I will NOT be sticking any body parts into those inspection covers while the tractor is running!
Some online reading leads me to believe the most obvious culprits will be the cylinder/piston located in the top cover or the control valve (spark plug-looking thing) just below the yoke assembly. I'm thinking it will be pretty obvious if fluid is pouring out around that upper piston but what signs will indicate a faulty control valve? Does it discharge fluid when functioning normally, or not? Also based on the hydraulics functioning normally with no load, what are the other likely areas I should be looking at during initial troubleshooting?
We're forecast to have some decent weather this weekend and I'm planning to dedicate at least some time to troubleshooting this issue. As I understand it, this should involve hooking up to an implement and with the tractor running and in a lift configuration, looking for fluid bypass via the inspection covers.
No, I will NOT be sticking any body parts into those inspection covers while the tractor is running!
Some online reading leads me to believe the most obvious culprits will be the cylinder/piston located in the top cover or the control valve (spark plug-looking thing) just below the yoke assembly. I'm thinking it will be pretty obvious if fluid is pouring out around that upper piston but what signs will indicate a faulty control valve? Does it discharge fluid when functioning normally, or not? Also based on the hydraulics functioning normally with no load, what are the other likely areas I should be looking at during initial troubleshooting?