fabtek manlift

Pops 1532 answered a manlift question, I also have a fabtek t40 with hyd problems. How did you install control valves to bypass the elect
Valves.

Tim, The machine is 45 miles away so I'm going by memory....(we did the conversion in the 1980's).
We discarded the troublesome solenoid valves completely. We also eliminated the joystick controller and the forward/reverse control on down by the motor. I think Fabtek called it an LLI.

We mounted Prince hydraulic valves on the platform guard rail.
The valve assembly consists of an end plate with the pressure port,
a valve for forward/reverse travel,
a valve to control the booms (we used two valves and operate the booms separately but I DO NOT RECOMMEND that anyone set up their lift so the booms operate individually as that could potentially cause a situation where the machine would tip backwards!),
a valve to control the steering,
and an end plate with a return port.

You'll need a hydraulic pressure line from the pump to the inlet port on the valve stack, and a return line from the outlet port to the hyd tank. The F/R travel valve will need two lines. The steering will need two lines. The valve that controls the booms will need just one line.

The F/R & steering take one kind of valve and the lift control takes another type of valve.
We called Northern Hydraulic and told them what we had planned. They told us what we needed. I suspect Surplus Center would do the same.

Since we eliminated the control box we had to wire up an ignition and starter switch on the platform.

Be sure to keep the flow limiter valves with the knurled knobs on the cylinders in case you blow a hydraulic line!

The biggest expense was the hydraulic hoses. We just used hydraulic hoses. If I had it to do over I'd use steel lines on the booms and limit the hoses to the pivot areas. That would save money and weight.

Prior to the conversion we had a lot of trouble with the solenoid controlled valves. The conversion has worked flawlessly.

Thanks pops 1552, on my manlift, the original hyd pump was
replaced with a parker piston pump. I have no hyd pressure at
the main manifold gauge. The previous owner said it just stoped
working. I tore the pump down thinking it was worn or broken,
however every thing looks good as new. Put it back on and the
boom went right up about 4 feet then stoped with the same
problem. Do you have any suggestions where to look. Only the
boom, extention and swing are afected every thing else works
fine. Thanks for your reply, tim

My GUESS is the gauge doesn't work and you do have pressure to the valves and your problem is electrical. I say that because the boom did lift the 4' and some of the other functions work.
I can't stress enough how trouble prone those solenoid operated valves were on our lift.

Fabtek was bought by Hyster. Maybe you can find a shop manual with a troubleshooting section for your lift.

Pops 1532, I had odered a complete repair manual and it came
in today. Found out that the a and b lines to the pump were
reversed. Changed them and everything works grest. I guess
that when I replaced the pump the boom raised until the
pressure built up in the a line and shut the pump off. Thanks for
your input, these sites and people like you make trouble
shooting a lot easier, tim.

Glad it was an easy fix.

Pops 1532, I had odered a complete repair manual and it came
in today. Found out that the a and b lines to the pump were
reversed. Changed them and everything works grest. I guess
that when I replaced the pump the boom raised until the
pressure built up in the a line and shut the pump off. Thanks for
your input, these sites and people like you make trouble
shooting a lot easier, tim.