IH 1440 hydraulic trouble / steering wobble

I took a look at a 1440 yesterday, has the E/H.

a couple things that seemed off with the hydraulics/steering:

1. after running and driving around a few minutes, the steering valve seems to pulse/shudder audibly and you can feel it a bit in the wheel. more noticeable at lower engine speed.
2. owner says the rear wheels/axle wobble considerably in 3rd (i did not confirm this). he also lost nearly all of the lugs on one of the rear wheels a few years ago, seems related.
3. feeder without a head on it is stubborn to go down, and with high RPM it tends to drift up. to get it to lower, i had to lift it all or most of the way up, and then it would delay going down for a few seconds but would go down. if i stopped midway, and tried to continue lowering, it would not lower without being raised most of the way up again.
4. owner says the unload auger pivot extends OK, but is weak on the return to home position. he thinks is a greasing problem, but i think it could be related to the other hydraulic symptoms.


D436 question: engine starts super easy, with very little smoke after running 3-5 seconds. not sure when the oil was last changed, but, while hot, engine oil seemed on the thin side, was black, and smelled a little like fuel. had some smoke/vapor out the dipstick/filler tube, but it also hasn't been run hot under load for a couple of seasons. there was no coolant-oil sludge under the head of the dipstick. how does the injection pump typically leak fuel into these engines? and, what is the coolant filter for? i've never noticed that on IH engines before, but i haven't been around them much.

As far as the feeder going down slow I have a 1660 and it does the same thing. The steering is hard unless you moving and when you turn the steering wheel the feeder will go up and if it all the way up the unloading auger will start out .I had CIH come in and look at it and was told that a lot of them have the same problems. Sometimes I wish that I still had my old Massey it was so much simpler machine.

This post was edited by mudcreek183 on 09/12/2022 at 10:03 am.

yeah, the steering symptoms were noticed while the combine was moving forward and reverse. should be a flow divider / priority valve dictating where hydraulic pressure is
supplied when multiple circuits are active. i did not notice any mechanical linkage slop in the axle, so i'm thinking hydraulic pressure through the steering circuit, even
while not turning the wheel, is not constant as it should be.