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Hitachi 40U installing thumb issue

Hitachi 40u ยท 2024-03-27 01:49

Good day everyone, I have a 2004 Hitachi 40U. I recently added a EFI hydraulic thumb to it. As it was not set up for a thumb I had to make up mounting ears for the cylinder and plumb in all the high-pressure lines. There was a spare section in the manifold so made connecting easy. I also purchased and installed the 2 new relief valves. Once that was all complete I put in all the low-pressure pilot lines. I Teed into one of the main low-pressure lines and connected it to the P1 port on the block under the 12v DC closed centre D03 control valve. I teed into a return line back to the hydraulic tank and connected it to the T1. A and B lines went down to the manifold to control the high-pressure flow for the thumb cylinder. When I push the open button on the joystick the thumb will open when I release the button the thumb does not stop but slows down but still continues to move. It also does this when I push the close button. I thought it was a faulty closed centre valve and changed it out to another but it still did it. I tried teeing into a bunch of different low-pressure lines to see if that would help; unfortunately, they all did the same thing. I tried disconnecting the return and just running it into a bucket thinking maybe it was getting some back pressure as it was teed into another return, resulting in not letting the valve fully return to center; but changed nothing. I unplugged the + and - wires to the solenoids and tried the manual buttons to see if there may have been something to do with the wiring but had the same results. Picture attached of the high-pressure manifold with high-pressure lines coming into the top and the low-pressure pilot lines coming in on either end. You can see the new relief valves and the shiny new low-pressure fittings Does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks

Replies2
  1. #1Diesel Dave2024-03-27 09:40

    Welcome to HEF Hitachi 40u . I think your closed centre D03 control valve is not draining the pilot spool caps in the main manifold when the D03 valve is in the center neutral position. Most pilot valves (manual or solenoid operated) are closed center on the inlet P port only. The 1 and 2 ports in the pilot valve are connected to the T port when the pilot valve is in neutral draining the main manifold pilot caps and allowing the spool in the main manifold to return to neutral. Screenshot below shows a manually operated pilot valve in the neutral position. .

  2. #2IceHole2024-03-27 10:38

    I'm surprised it's joystick. My 10 year newer 40U3 uses a little foot pedal, which is kind of annoying as I'm used to joystick buttons.