One more question about my '02 wa180. Have almost all of he bugs worked out of it. When you first start it you can float the arms for back blading. after it starts to warm 5 minutes or so, the float feature is gone. You can feel in the joystick that the lever has the travel;however you have very little area that has the float position, and it soon goes away. How does someone adjust this? It looks like that lever is run via oil? not cables. It has lines running down from the cab to the front of the machine where the valves are located, they are soft, not hard like a cable wound line. Is it possible that they may need bleeding? any help would be appreciated.
As I recall that stuff is run by pilot pressure, somewhere around 425 PSI to operate all the functions. The pilot pump is a gear pump that is positive displacement and there is a regulator valve in the system. The regulator maintains the pressure in the pilot system and is subject to wear. As I recall again there is a cone type needle inside that gets a groove worn in it and the pressure drops off as the oil warms up. So any way plug in a gauge in the system and check that pressure until the system is at operating temperature. I'm thinking you will see the drop off in pressure that corresponds to the loss of the float function. Good Luck!
Is this worn valve in the valve body or up in the controls? I have a parts manual on order and have the shop manual but it is rather vague.
The valve is usually a cartridge mounted in a block with a few hoses attached to the block. Follow the hose from the small pump on the hydraulic pumps and it will go to the block. There is usually a gauge connection on that block or on the fitting or line coming off the pump.
I think you are talking about the block right at the bottom of the joystick, it is a larger aluminum body with 4 banjo fittings with lines going down out of the cab. Is that what you are refering to? I should have my manual this weekend, so I hope it helps.
No it isn't. The block will be somewhere close the the pump.