Hey guys, having some trouble with an 270 LC has over 14,000hrs. The spool valve for the boom controls keeps jamming on me, some times when you start the machine the boom raises on it's own regardless of the safety lever position, most often you are constantly fighting the boom to keep it on the air and fighting harder when running the tracks, and every once in a while it will stop working completely and require disassembly cleaning and reassemble, each time I'm finding bits of metal and rubber stuck in the machined slots in the spool valve making it difficult to pull and causing damage to the valve and assuming the cylinder wall ( I can see score marks on the valve.) Filters have been replaced including pilot filter, most of the fluid has been replaced, tank has been washed and cleaned. I've stuck a magnet down inside of the valve port and brought up some dirt, metal pieces and filings. My question is what do I do? Can I replaced the valve? Should I have a hydraulic sample done? Is the hydraulic control unit toast? I know there's a serious and expensive problem here, just not sure how I should treat it, maybe it should have been retired along time ago. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Good day VileMisanthropy I suggest you begin with the source of the problem check out the boom cylinders, if these are creating rubber and metal when you repair the valve block the issue will still be present. We suggest that repair of the valve block is very difficult and to date have not seen any users make good damaged valve chests, the body is undoubtedly of soft iron, where as the spool is a hard billet of steel. No guessing what comes of worst. Tolerances are small- damage will cause leakage will will cause loss boom power. Your idea to change the fluid and filters would be a normal precaution. We hope this advice helps. Kind regards Uffex
YMMV but from experience you will need two cylinders retubed, rods straightened, pistons remade, spools chromed oversize and the bores honed. .... and clean every possible cavity from everywhere in every location... etc