Hydraulics

It handles the 6' real well. Went most of the time in 4th. Had to go in third a little bit. Once I got the six footer, I'd rather go slower than go back to the 5 foot.

Tractor starts excellent without any starting fluid. It just needed some use and I'm giving it plenty of use. Oil consumption is low and smoke is practically non existent even when cold starting. Plenty of good news.

Thanks again.
Denny

It's normal for the fluid to get warm as it runs the the pump and plumbing. The frictional losses in the pump and plumbing result in heat generation that warms the fluid and is then transferred to the case and then to the atmosphere.
It's likely you have some internal leakage that gets worse as the temperature of the fluid increases and the viscosity drops and the clearances open so the leaks get greater. the more leakge, the more heat. If you have side access plates that allow you look into the hydraulic compartment, warm the tractor up by working the hitch and then open the compartment and look for excessive leakage in the area of the lift cylinder.

Without knowing the model I can't provide much more help than that.

Since it is a 25, there are no side plates. To see any of the hydraulics, you must remove the transmission cover. All of the hydraulics are mounted inside the cover. When you remove it, you disconnect the pump drive so it is impossible to check anything with the cover removed.

When I got this tractor, the hydraulics did not work at all. I removed the cover (a total of 5 times because it had a transmission issue as well) I discovered that one of the spools did not move as the quadrant was moved. I got that spool free and now they work good when cold and fair on a light shredder even after a couple of hours. But on my 6 foot, it won't lift it after an hour. When I shredded last time with the 6 foot, I hooked up stay chains to the upper three point so the shredder could only drop to the desired height. Therefore, I shredded with the quadrant all the way down for 5 hours - I was not asking the pump to do anything. Or maybe I was. Since the pump and controls control the height, if the height was higher than the control arm asked for, the pump may have tried to pull the arms down to the height that the quadrant called for. In that case, the pump may have worked harder than if I had been using it normally.

I'd just like to know what might be wrong so I can address the right thing first. It's a lot easier to fix the pump but since heat is being generated, it seems more likely the pump is ok and it is the cylinder. If there was normal heat, I'd be inclined to think the pump isn't working.

Most of all, I need a test point so I can watch the pressure.

I think you are right about no work when the handle is down. I'll work with it a bit again tomorrow when I go to me place. I learn a bit more every time I am there and use it. It is really a pretty nice tractor in spite of some of the difficulties I am having and have had.