Recently I found a lot of water in my KX41 hydraulics. It was working alright but not the way I like to maintain equipment. A couple days ago I did a drain/refill on the tank and checked the filters. Then I ran the machine for a while working the system to flush as much as possible. Things went well. Today I did the second drain/refill to further clean the system but after refilling the tank I now have no joystick controls. Tracks, blade, and swing boom work fine. I immediately thought electrical but it would be quite the coincidence that it happened just now. I did, however, check fuses and such. Is it possible the pilot circuits are not getting fluid and are airlocked?? thanks for any help!
Sure sounds like a electrical problem ,think you have two switches and of course the left one get more use, Best to use meter out switch(s). Have seen broken wires an backside of switch that looked good but wires were broken and was held together by insulation.
It has to be air locked. I'm not that familiar with your machine, but I believe it has 3 pumps. That accounts for having drive hydraulics, but nothing going to the controls. Hopefully by the time that you read this, oil would have migrated into the pump and everything is back to normal. If not, you'll have to manually bleed the air.
Going to get at this today. Will check out both switches for sure. Thanks for the reply.
It's been left sitting since I posted so I'm hoping all is normal when I go at it today.
That machine uses gear pumps, meaning, if it's turning it's moving oil, the fact that your drive, blade, and boom pivot operate confirm pumps are moving oil. However, the joystick controls are PPC pilot system oil, the pilot system is controlled by the change valve solenoid, this solenoid is powered up by the safety lever switches mentioned by jack345, a malfunction of either of these switches, problem in wiring, or problem with solenoid valve would cause no ops for joysticks. BTW, welcome to HEF CompEdgeX. :drinkup
Still no joy! Thanks for the welcome. I just finished checking out the switches. Both are good and I have 12V on the chassis side wiring. Tells me something else is teh problem. Do you know the location of the solenoid? I'll need to check there for power next I guess. Thanks Colin
Sorry to hear that. I had the exact same issue on my volvo after a hydraulic fluid change. I went for lunch. When I came back to bleed the air out, I started it up and everything was working as it should- probably the easiest repair I've ever made. I was hoping the same for you.
Hehe, several lunches for me. It's been a couple days. I'll have to locate the control valve and go from there. thanks
Well, I've checked all elect...nothing wrong. You can hear the solenoid click when switch is pressed. So I guess my problem is fluid related. Boy, I'm stumped now.
The main hydraulic pump sends oil to the main control valve to operate the various functions. The pilot system has a separate pump (shown in red circle) that sends oil to the solenoid change valve (shown in yellow circle). You might crack the inlet line (engine not running) at the pump to see if it has an air bubble preventing pump from drawing oil. On edit, that looks like a suction hose/clamp connection, you may create a monster (oil mess) if you pull it off. Maybe crack open the outlet line and bump engine over. Just be careful to not let engine run for long as oil mess will be just as much as pulling suction line.
Willie I got things working about an hour ago. It was just as you suggest! I loosened the line from the pump to change valve and a good fart later things were back to normal. Thanks so much for taking the time to post that information though. If I hadnt got lucky bleeding lines your info would have saved the day. Cheers
Well, I was a little busy today or I would have posted it sooner. But, as long as you got it sorted out. :drinkup
I know the last reply was in 2013 but I have a similar issue with a KX41-2s, I had been working and suddenly lost hydraulic power and now the only thing that has hydraulic power is the left track and the Aux service, can anyone help?