Ford 860 hydraulic issue

alford860

New User
My 1955 Ford 860 3 point lift arms will not raise. The arms can be moved up and down by hand freely with tractor running or off. Used it 3 weeks ago and worked fine. Temp was much colder at 30 degrees when issue arose. Fluid is full and was changed a year ago. Had a sagging issue last year and replaced the cylinder piston and gaskets, also had the hydraulic cylinder honed. Worked fine for 10 hours before this issue occurred. Ever since I've owned the tractor I noticed that I get no movement from the 3 point arms until the lever is raised 1/2 way but it does raise to the proper height. Ran the tractor with the plug removed from the top of the hydraulic pump and got no fluid discharge. Also poured a little fluid in the plug hole but that made no difference. Any ideas? I'm a first time tractor owner and well versed on tractors. Thanks.
 
The unloader valve maybe sticking and if it is some times letting it sit and run to warm things up will make it work for a while.
 
(quoted from post at 20:30:12 11/14/19) Thanks for the info another poster said the same thing. I'll give it a try.
ep, no need to concern yourself with unloader valve if pump not pumping.
 
This may help or maybe not. It has been very cold here in my area the last few days. Got a call from a friend with a problem on his 601 tractor. Same problem as you are having on your 860. Loaded up my truck with tools yesterday morning and went to check it out. Got there and we started the tractor and sure enough no action at all on the lift. We talked it over and I decided to let him drive the tractor around a while to warm the oil up. After about 10 minutes the lift started working very slowly. I asked him what kind of lubricant he had in the system and he replied that he used 90 wt.gear oil. I then suggested that we drain it out and flush the sump out and refill with hydraulic oil. He agreed and left to go and get the hydraulic oil at the farm store. While he was gone I got a drain pan and started draining the heavy oil out. When I removed the drain plug nothing came out! I then took a screw driver and stuck it up through the drain hole. That tractor had at least 2 inches of dirt and crud in the bottom of the sump. After getting the hole open I finally got all the oil out. I then removed the plug on the tranny housing and made sure all the oil was out there. It had some sludge in its sump also. I had just finished all this when my friend returned with the correct oil. I asked if had any diesel fuel and he did have some in a tank on his pickup. We then took some of the fuel and flushed out the sump on the tranny and the rearend of the tractor. You would have had to have seen the mess to believe it. We then after draining all that out put a few gallons back in and started the tractor. The lift immediately began working. We cycled it a few times to clean out the system and then drained the sump again. We then added the correct amount of new hydraulic oil. I bled the system and it is now working fine. The combination of wrong lubricant and dirt in the sump was the root of his problem. The systems simply will not work correctly in really cold conditions with incorrect lubricants installed. Add dirt and moisture to that and you really have trouble. Maybe this info will help.
 

I warmed up my tractor yesterday and the 3 point began working after 15 minutes or so. Tried again today with the temperature warmer at about 40 degrees and the 3 point worked right away. Thanks for the advice.
 
Good, Now get that contaminated oil out and flush and refill with the correct viscosity hydraulic fluid. Your lift will work correctly in cold weather then.
 

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