Furguson TO30 Hydraulic Issue

First off I'm completely new to tractor repair. I just want to get a direction on where to go with my TO30.

I noticed that the Hydraulics will operate but only when I have my foot off the brake and the tractor is moving. As soon as I brake the hydraulics drop to the ground. Also while driving I will look back and sometimes see my mower lifted off the ground even with the lever set low or completely eating dirt, once I adjust the handle a bit it goes back to where it's supposed to be. I've found a few "creative repair" issues with this tractor and am hoping this wasn't another and is somewhat easy to troubleshoot and fix.

As far as the hydraulics, that is normal. You can get them to run if you put the transmission in neutral. I'm not sure what you are talking about on the mower, but I'm sure others will chime in and get you sorted out.

Welcome to the forum!

Brake is not a factor. Your foot must be off the clutch for the hydraulics to work. Your tractor does not have 'position control.' Therefore the lift is either up or down and cannot be reliably controlled in between, at least not very long. There are options to add position control. At least two companies make add-on devices, and you can make your own from plans published by FENA. Search the archives for some good advice.

I'm sorry. You are right it is the clutch. Not sure what I was thinking on that. So my concern is that if I were to hook up a tiller if I can't use the lift on the hydraulic until I'm off the clutch then I would be dragging the tiller until it lifts up. I do have a position lever beside my seat. Shouldn't pulling that up raise the hydraulic and leave it up until I push the leaver down even if I'm on the clutch? If not then i can deal with it I just found it odd how it was working.

Pop it out of gear and then raise foot off clutch and you can raise as you wish.

As said, the clutch must be engaged for the hyd pump to run.

And there is no position control, it's either up or down.

However, once it is up, you should be able to push the clutch and it will stay up, not immediately go back down. If it does go down, even though the lever is in the up position, the cylinder seals may be leaking. It is not designed to hold the up position with the clutch depressed, or the engine off indefinitely, but it should not fall back down. Creep, yes, fall, no.

An easy test, remove the right round side cover. Have a flashlight ready, start and raise the lift with a load on it, shut off the engine. Quickly look inside and up toward the bottom of the top cover. If there is oil streaming down from the cylinder, the seals and possibly the cylinder bore are damaged. Slight drip is normal, streaming is not.

If the lift action should be smooth and fairly quick with the engine up to speed. If it is jerky there is a problem with the pump.

Have you checked or changed the gearcase oil? Those are known for collecting water. If the oil is milky, it has water in it. But do your hyd repairs before changing the oil. Even with some water it will still work, changing the oil won't fix it.

The proper oil is 90 weight GL1 mineral oil, or 15w40 engine oil.

As you become more familiar with your implements, you will learn various ways to position them using chains to limit the down position. A word of caution, when using a mower, you need to use an over running clutch on the PTO. What happens, since the PTO is connected directly to the drive, the spinning mower will continue to push the tractor even with the clutch depressed, making a quick stop impossible!

Thank you I will check that. It is definitely an issue with it dropping to fast for me to shift it into gear before it's on the ground. I'm replacing rod bearings right now but once that's finished I will check the leak and post back.

FWIW, the DIY position control was easy to build and works quite well on my TEA20. Bought the rectangular tubing from Amazon, then cut the flat pieces out of the leftover tubing. Everything else came from the junk bin.