3pt quit 1959 MF 65

We had some big windstorms in our area and lots of trees went down. I was cutting them free and dragging them in to a pile. I hooked on to one and thought it had broken off and was free. I hooked up and gave it a pull and it started to move but I believe branches dug in and I came to a halt. I lifted the 3pt a small amount and gave it another shot and it started to move. I realized I was popping a wheelie and pushed the clutch in to get back to ground. I shut down got the chain saw out and cut the tree into sections. I hooked the chain back up to drag the first section away and when I tried to lift the piece to stop it from digging in no lift.
Due to the fact we are in the process of building a new home on another piece of property I?ve had no time to get into repair mode. When this first happen I went through basic manual check list;
- pto still runs so no broken shaft
- went through double checking the quad
Basically it?s time to start pulling covers off and see what my dumb butt did to this old girl. My thinking is I popped the valve and I?m wondering if I should pick- up a new valve before I jump in?
Any thoughts on what may have happen would be appreciated.

If you're really lucky, it's a blown o-ring on the standpipe running up from the pump to the plate on the top right of the transmission.

Control valve has probably jammed , try first , with tractor shut down and quadrant lever in lift position , lift the rear lift bar up and down rapidly , trying not to blow out a disc in your back . The rush of fluid can sometimes release the valve .
Failing this , take the side cover off and with the engine[b:159aa7aa6c] OFF[/b:159aa7aa6c] shove your arm in there and feel about for the valve [ see the manual for location ] find it and try to move it back and forth to release it . If it moves then you have likely fixed the problem .
This is usually due to a little grit in the oil so when you have a spare moment [ 4 am on New Year's Day :lol: ] an oil change might help .

Since it?s been 35 years since I run the 65 we had back on the farm I may have no idea what I am talking about. I thought if the tractor was equipped with remote hydraulic outlets that one of those remote levers had to be locked back towards the seat for the 3 point to operate. Really shooting in the dark here. Did that possibly get kicked out of position in the heat of battle with the tree?

Hello,
How are you attaching the trees to the tractor? Is it by a chain from the underside hitch and going over a bar of some sort mounted at the end of the lift arms? If your point of lift/pull is above the rear axle centre line there is a real possibility that you could pull the tractor over backwards onto your self. Be very careful.

Sudden loss of lift could be due to the fact that you have put an excessive load on the lift arms and possibly the lift cylinder has split. If so the chances are that it will have blown the O ring between the cylinder and hydraulic cover resulting in no pressure to lift the linkage.

On the front of the hydraulic cover are 4 (think they are 13/16" on the 65) nuts with studs going into the cylinder. Don't try and tighten them. If you have broken the cylinder one or two of them will be loose enough to turn a little.

Let us know what you find.

DavidP, South Wales

Thank you for the thoughts on this problem.
We are still trying to finish our new house build and move in. The 1 1/2 hour drive one way is getting boring but will be worth it once we?re out in the middle of nowhere.
I had some free time and spent some time to go through some of the trouble shooting thoughts suggested.
- Tractor not running quad in up position lifted arm multi-times when fired up no lift.
- Check bolts, nothing loose.
- When tractor is running raising and lowering the quad noted left arm, clutch side, moves minor amount, nothing on right side.
- With tractor running, quad in up position, I can lift arms full up and they will hold. If I slowly lower the quad, arms will lower slowly but half way down free fall.
My thoughts are as stated o-rings on stand pipe or I?m wondering about the pressure relief valve. Do these valves pop and reset or once they pop their done and need to be replaced?
I wish I had the time to just start tearing into it, but due to the move we?re involved in I have to use my time for that. I can load the tractor and haul it as is, and the rear blade can be dragged onto the trailer with a come along. Living in the great white north has me with a problem child, a JD 6 foot snowblower. As I said I can load the tractor but no lift, no way to load the snowblower attached. If push comes to shove I can find someone with a loader/skid steer and get it moved as the last item.
Hoping maybe against hope that I can trouble shoot it down to a few things and make the repairs and off I go. As we all know parts can be a few days out or weeks.
Again thanks for the posts and hope to hear any further thoughts.