Hello I'm new here and have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out what is wrong with my hoe. Long story short I had lent it to a neighbour for part of the summer. While they had it, the dipper seal blew. They fixed it themselves. Now my dipper slowly sinks down even when running and the hydraulics feel a bit week. Today the bottom cap on bank of valves for the backhoe controls disappeared ( when lifting the stabilizer) it was the cap under the left stabilizer. The hoe is a 2 stick with foot pedal extend also now it is hard to start when its been running for a while. It is a series1 year 2000 with 1200 hrs. I'm not sure if the issues are related. Does anyone have a parts diagram? is the cap something I can replace? Not to keen on replacing the whole valve control assembly if not needed (they aren't cheap) Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated
Welcome to HEF; The cap can be replaced just make sure the remaining part of old cap is removed if it broke. The dipper cylinder problem is probably a cut piston seal when they installed back into tube. I would check the fuel filters first off for starting issue.
Hi coy, I did change both fuel filters. I crawled under it just now and it looks like the remainder of the cap is broken off in the threads. Looks like I will have to pull the whole valve assembly to get it out? I will pull the cylinder again once I get this cap fixed. Any idea what would cause the cap to blow? Excessive pump pressure?
The cap is not a high pressure area. I have had some of these break over the years and had success getting them out without removing the valve. It depends on the tooling you have to work with and some imagination.
Welcome to HEF, Droopy ! Use this link below for access to the online parts manual. Technically I don't think there is a 580SL series #1. It is referred to as a 580SL. Did you use the machine serial number to determine that you have a 580SL ? https://www.mycnhistore.com/us/en/casece/na/light-equipment/loader-backhoes/sl/cn/NA_E_S_49_032_SL
It's likely the dipper is creeping because they damaged the piston seals during installation. It maybe hard to start because the stabilizer spool is not centred due to the broken cap & hydraulically loading up the engine. Most (99.99%) of the time those caps break is they get hit by a stick/branch while clearing small bushes or trees....
Awesome! Thanks all! I have a cap hopefully coming today and will see what kind of nightmare that will be. Hopefully that solves the starting issue too. Yes the dealer ran the serial number and it’s not a series 2. Yes I guess just a 580 sl? Thanks for the link! That helps a lot! Once we found the broken cap we shut it down and rented a machine to finish the basement. Hopefully we get it up and running soon
Just so you understand, you should be able to run it without the cap on the spool valve. Nothing should come out while its running. If the cap got broken because something hit it, possibly the end of the spool valve is bent. That could cause to not center, and therefore causeing a hydraulic load(possibly causing hard starting).
If it's leaking oil without the cap there, then fix that before the cap. The cap just keeps dirt off that end, but it will catch oil if it leaks and that oil MIGHT be enough to break the cap if there's no evidence of something else breaking it. Is the cap cast aluminum? or what? A tiny chisel, sharpened screwdriver, pick would be what I'd use to try to turn out the old cap remnants. Long needle nose pliers or snap ring pliers maybe?
Hi doghead, good to know I can run it. I was leery to run it without the cap for fear of getting dirt in the spool and or hitting it with something. I don’t think it got hit as where we are digging is pretty clean (no branches and such)I noticed it when I was shaking dirt off the stabilizer and then the lever just flopped. I pulled the starter and took it to a shop to have it tested. It was pretty dead was the reply. I have a new one coming tomorrow so I will see if that changes how it starts. Hi delmer, I don’t see any oil leaking out of it so hopefully that’s not it. I will try what you suggest for getting it out Saturday. A buddy of mine was going to see if he could make up a “jagged” socket type thing to try to turn it out but I think your suggestion might work better as there is not much room with the spring from the bottom of valve in the way. Of course it has to be right above the swing cylinder too. Fingers crossed
Droopy, that spring will probably remove from the end of the spool to give you more working room. The rod or bolt that goes thru it should thread into the spool. Be careful if you remove it to not drop or lose any small parts.
It looks like there is a c clip that holds it on. If I remove that can I unthread the rod from the bottom?
You'll have to remove the linkage at the top, and then the spool should come out which ever end has room, no unthreading. removing the spool should give you more room to get the remains of the cap out, good idea, if it doesn't come out easy right away. you might be able to remove the spring, and move the control handle so the spool goes up into the valve body and out of the way without removing the linkage.
Do I need to worry about any seals when removing the spool?
i couldn't tell you. The seal will stick to the spool if it pops out of place, it won't go flying like the spring and washers could.
So we got the new starter in and boy what a difference!! Cranks like a scared cat and fires right up! So hopefully that is one problem off the list. Going to try to tackle the broken cap tomorrow. Thank you all!! The help on this forum is unbelievably amazing!!
More success today!! Took the snap ring and spring off the bottom of the valve. Used a 1/4” wood chisel and slowly peeled the remainder of the broken cap till we could cut it and turn it out using the chisel. New cap in and the valve works great! I make it sound easy but it was a couple of hours trying different things and using lots of words I hope the kids didn’t hear lol. Now to tackle the dipper cylinder but not likely for a week or so as the weather is turning a bit crappy and we have forms and concrete to get done. Thanks again all for your help and advice!!