Hello I recently acquired a new to me ford 4500 TLB with a shuttle shift transmission and the gas engine. Appears to be in pretty decent shape and low hours on the engine. The biggest problem it has is one of the outriggers drifts down while it’s running. It drifts with pressure down I can raise and lower it and it lifts the machine just won’t hold it there. Is it possible that an o ring is bad in the valve body? This is my first machine with a backhoe and front loader.
Welcome to HEF, Old Ford ! It most likely is the cylinder piston leaking. Can you do it yourself or do you need to take the cylinder to a repair shop ? Normal procedure with a cylinder drifting like yous is to reseal the cylinder and if it still drifts you would start looking at the control valve.
I have never done it before but I’m willing to learn. I going to be ordering the service books for it soon
https://www.ebay.com/itm/152113315252?hash=item236aa8fdb4:g:mw4AAOSwvg9XUIxO Getting the gland ( end of cylinder) off is the hard part. Some have a hex, some have either 2 or 4 holes for a special wrench, some are held in with an internal snap ring or spring wire. Then you might need the cheap o ring pliers. Each set cost me about $30 on ebay. The picks are handy too. This is just the first ones I saw. Shop around! I had to pack 4 cylinders on my 580, need to do a couple more soon.
Owned a 3500 and 4500 over the years. Now at almost 60 years old it probably pretty worn. Being an open center system if it is drifting down when running as you state I would think it is related to a control valve issue. You can take the cover off the control tower and inspect/remove linkages in question, it could be just a corrosion is not letting the spool return to neutral. Those shafts as I remember had no way to be lubricated and were always binding if left out in the weather. To get to the control valve easily the backhoe needs to be removed from the tractor. Working thru those little holes in the side is almost impossible. The other way is to cut out the floor just above the control valve. There are basically no hard parts available for those units as they transitioned from ford/new holland/case. Those service manuals you find online are pretty much useless. The ones that dealers had were great, but hard to find and expensive >$500. Good luck.
To clean or lubricate the connections do you just undo them and clean with scotch brite and hit with oil or grease?
Also do you have any tips on draining or flushing out the transmission? it doesn’t appear to have a external filter just lines going up to the trans cooler
The linkage in the tower will be pretty self explanatory once you take off the cover. The control handles pivots on a long shaft, and ear off the side of each then attaches to a lower shaft pivot which in turn attaches to the spool valves. In other words there are multiple places on each lever where wear could cause binding. I have seen those shaft worn so much that they need to be bushed and rebored. If your control handles have lots of play before they activate a function, they probably need some attention. ALL THE ONES I HAD WERE MANUAL TRANS, SO CANT HELP YOU THERE.
Start it cold and run it with both the out rigger controls in the lift position. Do that for maybe 3 - 5 minutes. If fluid is bypassing in that cylinder if will be a lot warmer to the touch than the other cylinder.
It drifts down while it’s running doi just keep raising it?
When mine were leaking like yours I welded a chain hook to the stabilizer and welded the chain to the tractor frame. I no longer use them since I sealed the cylinders.
That would work except it will lift the machine but it won’t hold it up it slowly sets back down.
So very true Old Ford ! I put up with the same situation tooo long because I had trucks hauling rip/rap and I couldn't take the time to fix it. You cannot go wrong by resealing the cylinder. Chances are 10 to 1 that is the problem.
I think that is what I’m going to do. I want get this thing out and start digging/ moving dirt.