Greetings from New Zealand. I just acquired a large forklift that was locally manufactured in the 1970's. The brand is called "David Taylor" with a body built from steel plates and imported components. I think later on they were called "Lees" and were maybe also built in Australia. It currently has a steering problem that is alleviated by jacking the rear of the forklift up to take some weight off the steering tyres. I'd like to ID the steering components so I know where to go to try to find parts. I'm wondering if someone can recognise the source of the engine, trans, pumps etc. So here come the photos...
So you likely have a problem with either the steering cylinder bypassing, or the pump isn't putting out enough pressure to move the cylinder. I would bet money that its the cylinder, but who knows. You'll want to find out, if the steering cylinder is run by a separate power steering pump, or the main hydraulic pump. I would start by dead ending the steering cylinder with the return line off, and see if its bypassing the cylinder seals. If its not, then you'll need some pressure gauges, and see what the steering pump is putting out for pressure. I think the steering and hydraulic pumps are going to be on the side of the engine that you didn't post pictures of. So lets see a picture of them, and a picture of the steering cylinder might help also. Do you have a good hydraulic shop? And a little knowledge to fix it yourself? Or are you hiring it all done?
Thanks for the great info. I have mechanical ability so will be doing most of it myself. Following your advice, I'll start with the bypass test and report back. There's 2 hydraulic pumps running off a driveshaft attached to the front of the crankshaft, so I'm guessing the one with the smaller hoses is for the steering. Still have to get underneath and follow the hoses around to confirm this. Photos...
Is the second picture the oribital under the steering wheel?
The engine looks like a Ford Industrial. Also found in Ford Tractors. Selick used a lot of them at one time.
Yep. Here's another shot of it.
Bingo! You win the chocolate fish. I spent an hour underneath scraping off about 20kg of oil/dirt mix (here must be one or more fluid leaks happening here) and look what appeared on the transmission casing... So it's pretty much a Ford D3 tractor running backwards. :^)
exactly You can see the blank off plate where the pto shaft would come out and the castings for the 3pt hitch in the rear end.
Do you know what tractor # I would need to search on to locate PDF's of an operator and/or service manual?
Check out Ford 2000 and 3000 tractors. same engine
Thanks for that. I found "438" stamped on the casing near the flywheel area. Is that meaningful? The cabin has a diagram showing 4 gears, but the gear lever appears to have been put into gear (don't know which one) and then the lever has been cut off. There's also a push-down pedal in the cabin to the left of the steering shaft attached to a lever on the gearbox that I don't know what it does. You can see it in the 2nd photo - the thick rod coming down past the 2 hydraulic hoses, attached to a lever inboard from the brake system. Any ideas?
The push-down pedal locks the diff. It has internal "wet" brakes which requires a special oil commonly referred to as "Tractor Fluid"
Great info. Thanks!
On the hydraulic steering problem, if I remove the output hose from the pump, there is a steady drip of fluid coming out of the pump. Does this indicate a seal failure of some sort?
Update on the hydraulic steering issue. While the steering end was jacked up (so it would operate properly), I noted that when the steering wheel is moved fully around to the end stops, the steering wheel would be prevented from moving any further. I'm taking that as confirming that any slippage is not coming from the orbital. As there are two external hydraulic pumps, one running the mast and the other the steering, I switched the hoses around on the output of the pumps (so the steering is getting pressure from the mast pump that I know works properly) and I still have the same problem, which points to there being bypass in the steering cylinder, as predicted by Crane Operator above. So, it's time to drop the steering cylinder off, try to ID who made it and dismantle it to check the seals. I shall report back. The mast hydraulic controller is "Sperry Rand", so I'm thinking that's a quality brand.
I would be shocked if there is any identifying marks on the cylinder. Its going to be a disassemble/ order seals to fit/ reassemble kind of thing. It shouldn't be anything exotic, as far as seals go.
Hopefully. It's probably a 50 year old cylinder so shouldn't be too advanced. :^)
Cylinder bypass confirmed. Now to track down the right seals. The ends have fairly standard seals with part numbers on them - "NW 50" and "UN 50 66 12" but the big black one in the centre and the 2 nylon rings that sit beside it but were broken into 2 pieces have no numbers on them :^(
At least you know why the steering doesn't work. Take it to a hydraulic shop, or call them, and send pictures and ask them what you need to measure. You'll need a caliper.
Update - I've sorted the seals and after deciding to repaint the exterior of the cylinder before the rebuild, I decided to take a look at what looks like a hammer dent on the cylinder. It's in a weird location - on top of the cylinder just past one of the ports, and I ca't think of any way it could have happened while installed on the forklift so I think it was put in with the dent already there. That's the dent AFTER I'd ground down the bits that were sitting proud. Hmmm, I thought - maybe I'd better check what the inside of the cylinder looks like, and sure enough it's carried through to there and is most likely the reason the seal blew out... Out of focus but you can defnitely see the bump. I think there's also scoring up by the port too. I'm hoping a hone would take care of this?
Quick update - I've repaired this forklift and it's now proving a very useful purchase. Thanks to all of you that helped out!