Takeuchi TB260 - where to tab into hydraulic pump to feed hydraulic quick coupler?

[crazydane]

I received the AIM hydraulic quick coupler kit last week, and spent the weekend getting the hoses routed into the hydraulic area of the machine.

I installed the valve/solenoid in the front corner as seen here:



Blue marked hose goes to the lock side of the cylinder and the yellow goes to the release side. You can also see the short hose with the green mark on it going to the tank. I need to drain the tank before I can make that connection since the fluid will pour out if I remove the plug now. Ask me how I know, lol.

Anyway, looking at the instructions:



Per the service manual, the top 3 ports on the valve stack feeds the Bucket, Boom and Right travel motors. And it looks like this is the line from the pump that feeds those top 3 valves:



I need to Tee in this hose at that point I think:



Note that it has a restrictor attached to prevent shock.

The Tees that came with the kit are kind of universal and none are the right ones for what I need.

I'm thinking my best bet is to to remove that hose coming from the pump and then remove the adapter the hose end screws into and figure out what I'm dealing with. I'm guessing 1/2" BSPP, so I think I need a Tee with 1/2" male and female BSPP and then a 1/4" JIC male.

Does that sound right? Also, I don't suppose there's another place on the valve block I can tab into more easily.

From the instructions, they are saying to use the test port on the pump, but the pump is in the opposite side of the machine from where the coupler valve is installed, so I would much prefer to tab into something closer.

And given that constant pressure is supplied to the coupler cylinder, I don't know that it matters which pump I tab into for pressure, since they have pressure when the engine is running, right?

 

[crazydane]

Got it all sorted out and working great. Ended up running a 1/4" hose from the test port on the pump that does the boom, bucket and right travel motor. Works great and a huge improvement over the pin on bucket when it comes to changing out attachments.

Got rid of this goofy AIM control box that came with it:



Pulled out the guts:



And installed the switch in a blank in the bank of switches:



It almost looks factory. Buzzer and fuse are behind the panel and I was able to tab into power from the 12V outlet right below it.

Only problem is the coupler offsets the pins about 10", so the thumb is quite a bit short now:



Still somewhat usable I suppose, but I can see a lot of situation where it won't work very well at all. I guess I need to find someone that can cut me 2 10" extension pieces to weld on. Alternative is to contact TAG and see how much they would charge me for a longer thumb. I bet adding extenders will be way cheaper.

 

[skyking1]

way cheaper! Get some cardboard and mock it up, and then get some proper thickness metal cut if you can't do it yourself.

 

[Tags]

looks good! Nice job on the switch install. You could also reach out to tag, there’s a good chance they may extension pieces readily available. If you have a set of torches or a plasma cutter you can do as Skyking said and template new extensions and cut them out of similar thickness material. If you don’t you could reach out to a local welder and have him knock it out.

 

[crazydane]

Called TAG and they don't have those extensions cut up and ready to go, but they could make a pair for me but he said (as Skyking suggested) to just get some card board and trace it out and take to a local welder.

TAG guy also mentioned it would be a good idea to extend the center brace to keep the extended fingers from bending.

Some better pics:







I guess the way to do it to make it look nice, would be to cut off that rounded tip at an angle up where the center brace 45's end and then butt weld extensions on? And then add a 2nd cross brake down below the existing one.

If I wanted to get fancy, I could have a place with a laser cutter do the pieces for me, but not sure if the cost would be a lot higher. Cost would mostly be in them them transferring my cardboard template into a file they would feed into the laser cutter. At least it would be 2 identical pieces.

 

[KSSS]

If you were going to modify it, here is an option. This is an HPF thumb on my Taki. Really like it, very HD. I like the four tine as opposed to two. This is a Prolink

 

[crazydane]

Very nice! I like how it has a link connecting the rod to the thumb, thus not exposing the rod like with a direct connect link like what I have.

Been working with a local shop that does laser cutting and I'm hoping he can cut me a couple pieces for a reasonable price. Told I'd like to stick with T1 steel like what my current one is made with.

Did a quick cardboard sketch:



Notch lines up with bottom edge of bucket:



About 14" long:



He said just to cut it out and he can scan it on his flatbed laser scanner and create a .dxf file and then just cut it on the laser machine from that file. I figured once he scans it, he can "smooth" any rough edges/corners in the cardboard model. I'll discuss that with him when I bring him the cardboard mockup.