Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to look into fixing the art. valve. I got new solenoids and it was working but then got intermittent in one direction and then stopped working. I'm not sure if the spool is stuck or the plunger for the solenoid is stuck in the tube. I'm going to try the manual override to see if the spool is hanging up and may correct itself after a few cycles but not very confident it will fix the problem. I have a procedure for disassembling the valve and solenoid components. Was reading that it only takes the tiniest amount of contamination to prevent a spool from shifting. Hoping that cleaning everything and installing new o-rings will fix the problem. Wondering if anyone has ever worked on a Champion art. valve operated by solenoids? Also is there a safe spray cleaner like contact cleaner that can be used to clean the valve body and other parts or is it best to just use clean hyd. fluid?
Our 730 had sticking valves all the time when it sat. Is your valve bank under the cab, or in front of the window?
I remember you mentioned sticking valves under the cab but mine has the main valve bank in front of the cab. The articulation valve is solenoid operated and is on the left side of the engine down behind the battery box. The aux. valve that used to operate a snow wing and now controls the ripper is the same type of solenoid valve as the articulation valve except a few less optional features. It works great. Was hoping someone may have worked on these type of solenoid valves before. Of course it has to be the articulation valve with the problem. It's a bit of a pain to remove and install, where as the aux. valve is on the outside of the frame under the cab door.
When you say solenoids, are they electric controlled? You may have a bad connection or earth.
Yes, 12 volt solenoids but they are new. The articulation was working but then got intermittent and finally stopped working in one direction. I tried another new solenoid and it made no difference. I also tried with a wire straight from the battery. I'm going to try pushing the manual overrides to see if maybe the spool is sticking but I think the issue is more likely the plunger is stuck in solenoid tube.
could try swapping conectors first and see if problem moves. Then swap the solenoid over and see if the problem moves. That will tell you if its switch, wiring, electro solenoid or spool. Then swap the spool over in the valve itself.
The one under the door is for the front wing post. Most wings raise front and rear, plus an in and out function at the rear. Fixin that stuff never ends. Turbo went in one of the L70 loaders today. They lost 3 halfton trucks in less than a month Deer ran out in front of one. He took the ditch, and hit a culvert pipe another one hit a moose, and is a total loss. The bigg boss got a new Ford king ranch this May. Was measuring a long lane with a measuring wheel out the door. Was looking at the wheel,drove off the end of the driveway over a 40 foot bank into the trees. If not for the trees, it was another 60 feet to the river. Truck is a wreck
Yikes! I've done a little testing but will do some more tests to try and better pin point where the problem is. When I got the grader one solenoid was missing so I have a feeling that's the problem side. It needed all new solenoids and I found them really really cheap from a place that sells overstock and surplus parts. They were about $9.00/ea. cad, $96.00 for 2 with shipping to Canada. Jade Equipment wanted $575/ea. and Parker wanted $620! I just had to change the wire from a spade connector to a ring terminal which I think is better anyway. First thing I'm going to try is push the manual override pins several times to see if the spool is moving. Maybe if the spool was caught up with debris this could flush it out. That would be the simplest fix but I doubt I'd be that lucky. I don't think parts other than solenoids are still available but I haven't checked if they're still available through Volvo or directly from Parker. The Parker dealer here had no information except that the part number for the solenoids was good. A couple years ago Jade had a used articulation valve with 1 solenoid for $400. That has likely gone up and I don't know if it would be any cheaper without the solenoid. I'm also not sure if it was tested to work properly. If I have to take the valve off I'm hoping that taking it apart and cleaning it with new o-rings would solve the problem. It's a bit of a pain to remove and I lost about 2 pails of oil waiting for the new coils. The 1 coil was rusted in place and I had to totally destroy it to get it off. That's why I had to remove it. I put dielectric grease on the stems with the new solenoids. There is a lot of wire wrapped up inside the solenoids. It was working with the new solenoids so hopefully is a fairly easy fix. I've read about silt-lock causing solenoid valves to stick or not work. I have articulation so might as well try to get it working.
You will know this, but be careful manual operating a valve, especially an artic valve. Might move and crush you. Do you have a picture of the valve? Picturing in my head, Guessing it has a separate pilot valve mounted on spool valve.
It's just a standard valve with solenoids on each side. I will need to be careful using the manual overrides when it's running.
I had a chance to play with it today. One side definitely works. The other side does nothing, not even pushing the manual override button. The button is a little harder to push on the bad side. I'm wondering if the plunger in the tube is stuck, will it stop the spool from moving? If not could something be preventing the spool in the valve from moving in one direction? Here's a pic. from the parts manual and old pic. showing a solenoid assembly on one side from the valve maker. It seems like pushing the manual override pin should shift the spool but it doesn't. It did work for a bit so I wonder if an o-ring(s) was bad could cause the valve spool not to work in one direction? What ever it is it looks like I need to pull the valve and take it apart which sucks. I don't think parts are available but maybe just taking it apart and cleaning everything and putting it back together with new o-rings will make it work??
I found out parts for the solenoid tube assembly are available. I'm wondering how difficult it is to repair the valve myself? I'm hoping it will be obvious once I take it apart. I do have the procedure for taking it apart and reassembling it. It looks pretty straight forward.
Looks like you will need a pin spanner to take solenoid tube out. Grinder spanner might come close. 2000 wet and dry on a stick with kero will polish up any little burs. Dont go too hard as it wont seal. Im not sure but is the top housing some sort of burst/ holding valve(no idea what the correct term is but hold pressure so hydraulics dont bypass) relief valve or pressure regulator? Couldn't hurt giving it a turn in. Might do something.
There's a lock valve and cross over relief on top of the basic valve. I think those are OK because it was working. The manual override pin is hard to push on the bad side. The tube assemblies may have been replaced or were updated from the manual because they have a hex for a wrench rather than requiring a pin wrench. I'm hoping it's a problem with the tube assembly, maybe a bad o-ring, the return spring or something easily fixed that's preventing it from opening in one direction. When I first bought it, it was missing the solenoid coil on one side which makes me think the tube assembly is the problem.
I got the articulation working. Spool was stuck but I managed to free it. I have a thread in the general industry forum that may be of help to someone else with a Champion grader.