3 Pos. 4Way manual valve question.

[Kobalt]

I have an old control valve with IN/Out A/B ports trying to push/retract a cylinder, but I'm getting flow on port A and OUT when the lever is in neutral(center) pos. , however when I pull the lever to Open port A it shuts the flow off to A(no fluid from hose). However port B works as I would Expect, pushing the lever in opens port B and fluid flows from the hose and neutral stops flow. Everything I've looked at says that in neutral the fluid from the pump should go in the IN port and bypass to the OUT port and back to the tank. And the lever PULLed should open port A to extend the cylinder and PUSHed to open port B to retract it.
Does this mean the control Valve is bad or could somebody have set it up for a gravity return cylinder(if that's even possible)?
I picked this valve up from a farm auction, so who knows what its been through.

 

[JoshNZ]

I have one here that I'm working on and it wasn't hard to pop the spool out and clean it which improved it's function a lot. Once you see the spool and the position/size of passages it might be more clear what it's intended purpose is.

 

[Tx Jim]

Welcome to TBN
Are you sure you have in/out ports on valve attached correctly? You're correct in your statement that on open-center valve with control lever on valve in neutral that hyd oil should enter "in port" & exit "out port" but oil shouldn't exit any other port.

 

[Tx Jim]

Welcome to TBN
Are you sure you have in/out ports on valve attached correctly? You're correct in your statement that on open-center valve with control lever on valve in neutral that hyd oil should enter "in port" & exit "out port" but oil shouldn't exit any other port. Are you positive valve is open-center type as it could be closed center type?

 

[Kobalt]

Thank you.
The Valve has actual raised lettering in the cast labeling each port(kind of nice I thought) so I'm sure the hoses are correct (as per labels any how). As for open or closed-center that I can't say. I've never taken one of these apart so I wouldn't know for sure what to look for, I know the rudimentary basics but thats it.