Gehl CTL 60 (Takeuchi) Loss of Hydraulic Power

[bremery]

A friend of mine has a Gehl CTL60 (Takeuchi TL130) with 1200 hours, that is experiencing loss of boom and bucket power. The track drives seem to be fine, but the aux, lift and bucket controls are very slow or do not work.

The problem started today after snow blowing for 4 hours. Towards the end of the day the blower did not seem to throw the snow that great. The machine then started to shake and make a constant noise similar to when you run your aux with nothing connected but worse. The noise would go away when the lift arm float valve was opened. The owner parked it and a few hours later I was able to come by and look at it.

When I got there and started it up, the lift arms wanted to go up all by themselves, but only a few inches. They would not go down until the float was activated which allowed the arms to drop and made the noise go away. Once we moved the machine to make sure the track drives were still working, the arms stopped lifting themselves, but the noise and shuddering was still happening.

We disconnected the snow blower to see if that was the problem, but it did not help. The only function that barely works is when you curl the bucket to dump, BUT rather than lifting the machine it raises the boom like the float is enabled. This did not make sense to me, as it should lift the machine up. I also had disconnected the float solenoid to see if that would help and it did not.

We plan on checking the pump pressure at the aux connection once we get the right fittings for the pressure gauge. I did check for leaks, and anything that may be out of order. The hydraulic fluid level was fine. The filter was changed in the fall and he has put very little hours on it since. The machine was run for many hours during a recent snow storm with no signs of problems. We are looking for suggestions on where to start looking. I unfortunately do not have a service manual for this machine.

 

[bremery]

Update: I was able to check the pump pressure where it enters the control block for the aux, lift and curl circuits. The hose from the pump goes into a tee at the control block and has a plug at the end of it. This is where I connected my gauge.

At engine idle I got 700 psi and at full throttle I measured 900 psi. I believe the full systems pressure is a little less than 3000 psi for this machine.

We are going to pull the main hydraulic filter and check for shavings. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Could it be the pump or should we look elsewhere?

 

[frogfarmer]

Sounds like you may have foamed the oil and lost the pump. At the same time you may have enough moisture in the system that you were experiencing an icing situation. Any how the pressures listed are very low for what they should be. Check the filter and take a look at the oil if you find shavings when you cut the filter its a sure bet you have mechanical failure. We dont run blowers around here so I dont know how hard they are on the machines. Any failure in the blower hydraulics could have introduced debris into the system causing the failure. Also I dont know if the plug where you checked the pressure is the place to verify pressure by the book as we usually hook a guage to the aux lines and see what we get with the lines deadheaded. Could be alot of things but likely is the pump,

 

[Digdeep]

I may be mistaken, and I know it doesn't fix your problem , but the manual used to prohibit constant operation of the high flow circuit.

I would look into replacing the relief too.

 

[bremery]

The owner is going to move the machine to his house tomorrow so we can take a better look. I did not have the proper fittings available to adapt my gauge to the aux fittings so checking the pressures at the control block was the only option. I believe the pressures should be the same though.

Anyways he is going to cut open the filter to check for savings, and if we do see signs of a failure we will look at the pump. I will report back anything we find. Thanks for the replies.

 

[bremery]

We went to move the machine, but the problem now is that we cannot get the machine to move, and we are getting no hydraulic pressure at the control block. We are not experiancing the “shuddering” that we were seeing the day before. I am guessing that the pilots are supplied oil from the same pump that runs the lift, aux, and curl system.

If we can get it back “home” we can start tearing into it. Any ideas will be appreciated.

 

[dirtmonkey]

That machine has two filters. Raise the cab and check the line filter also. It is a long canister type filter normally on the right side of machine if you are looking at it w/ the cab up. Hope this helps you in trouble shooting. Never had this happen before, these are pretty tough and reliable machines. Good luck!!

 

[frogfarmer]

A weak pump would pull warm fluid from the reservoir but may not pull the thicker now cold fluid. Check the filters but it sounds like a pump failure. As stated above they are very tough and failures of this nature are not the norm let us know what you find.

 

[Z2898]

Just read your post.

If the pump is badly worn you should notice an increase in heat in the system. If the hyd system uses a gear type pump have a look at the paint on the pump. If it is burnt you have found your problem.

It sounds more like a load check or circuit relief valve just from the description of the noise.

 

[bremery]

Update: We ended up moving the machine with a ramp truck. I drained the hydraulic tank and the fluid smelled burnt. It also had small metal particles in it. When I pulled the pump I notice the spline shaft snapped in half. It appears to have fractured where the shaft would enter the splined coupler. We have a new pump and I have it partially in. I still need to pull the control block to check for larger particles that may be stuck in the lift spool.