Got my power steering fixed!


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Posted by Tim Holloway on Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 08:56:34 :

I installed the new power steering box yesterday, got the plumbing all hooked up and started her up. First thing I wanted to see was if the pressure relief valve was working, and at what pressure. I operated the plow lift piston while watching the gauge and right at 1500psi it relieved. I can watch in the resevoir and see the oil coming in from the relief when it opens. Then I ran the steering back and forth and everything is good!
Here is my post mortem. I believe the initial failure of the steering box was a crack that did not get welded in the failure last year, it just took it awhile to open up. When the most recent failure was repaired, I reinstalled it and was in the process of bleeding the air out of the system, running the wheel back and forth, first without it running and then running, it blew the end cap off again. Yesterday it occurred to me that I had not installed the pitman arm when bleeding it since I only had one wheel off and I suspect that allowed the ram to over travel and blow the end back off. Lesson learned? Put that pitman arm on!!!
The new steering box is working like a charm, drove around the yard for a while and then took it down the road for a few miles, handled really nice, maybe even better than before.
While I had the hydraulics apart I decided to replace the valve that controls the hydraulic winch. A bit of background here; When I first converted the winch to hydraulic, I used a second hand Char-lyn motor and used valve. The winch would take a strain on the cable, the hydraulic motor would make a sound like a teapot whistling and thats all. I replaced the char-lyn motor with a brand new one and the symptoms did not change a bit. The control valve I had used had leaked from the start and several people had suggested that perhaps it was worn inside and allowing the oil to bypass inside the valve, robbing the hydraulic motor of the full pressure of the pump. Sounded plausible, so I replaced the valve. Yesterday, I hooked the cable onto my backhoe, set my brakes and pulled the valve. Same as before, the cable came in, got nice and taught, the char-lyn motor sounded like a teapot and there I sat! The gauge on the hydraulic system was reading 950 psi, so it wasnt relieving. Now I am really stumped. The winch valve is the first thing the oil hits coming out of the pump, so I cant see that I am losing anything in the system.
Thinking on it I suppose I need to test that the valve is opening all the way. I will remove the control rods attached to the valve handle and operate it directly from the valve. I am pretty sure it is opening all the way but like I said, I am running out of ideas here.
Sorry for the long post, but at least its Power Wagon related!
Thanks,
Tim




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