BL25R boom cylinders extends only a third of the way

[bernardcuziillo]

I have a 2011 Branson 4520R with a BL25R loader. Suddenly the boom cylinders will only extend to less than half of their normal travel, or about 8" of rod chrome showing. The barrel is 23" long. Also, the boom won't lift the front end. The bucket cylinders works perfectly, as they always did. The hydraulic fluid level was low due to a leak in a special pump return fitting, so I added a gallon or so before running out, but no change in length of travel. The pump sounds just like reaching the end of travel on the bucket cylinders. I guess I should put a pressure gauge on it since I have the gauge and fittings.

Any ideas?

 

[ptsg]

That looks like the typical case of one of the quick connects popping out. Check the quick connects. Disconnect them and reconnect again. Make sure those are fully seated, because sometimes it can look fully seated even though it may not be.

 

[LD1]

Yup....reseat couplings.

And verify the hydraulic oil level......You had a leak, and added a gallon cause its all you had.....doesnt give me a warm fuzzy feeling

 

[bernardcuziillo]

Unbelievable!! Yes, one look at the quick connects and I see one partway popped out. Plugged it back and everything works now. I never, ever would have thought to look there! Thank you so much!!

 

[ptsg]

Easy fix! Thanks for the update!

 

[bernardcuziillo]

Now I have a new mystery, although a fortuitous one. The steering effort had been way high ever since I’ve owned this tractor, and it had a nasty habit of wandering off the road in spite of steering correction, sometimes requiring a full stop and backing up. Maneuvering was so tedious that I dialed it into account when planning motions. I thought this was normal. Now it steers like a car with power steering. I haven’t yet tested it in the road. The only other thing I did was R&R the special rubber inlet boot at the pumps to fix a leak. I didn’t see any blockage. Was it sucking air? And the steering runs off a different pump from the SVC system for the loader. So I’m puzzled. Your thoughts?

 

[ptsg]

Now I have a new mystery, although a fortuitous one. The steering effort had been way high ever since I’ve owned this tractor, and it had a nasty habit of wandering off the road in spite of steering correction, sometimes requiring a full stop and backing up. Maneuvering was so tedious that I dialed it into account when planning motions. I thought this was normal. Now it steers like a car with power steering. I haven’t yet tested it in the road. The only other thing I did was R&R the special rubber inlet boot at the pumps to fix a leak. I didn’t see any blockage. Was it sucking air? And the steering runs off a different pump from the SVC system for the loader. So I’m puzzled. Your thoughts?

Could indeed be air getting into the steering pump via the inlet side, which has the rubber part you replaced. That would cause hard steering and some weird behavior as well. Could be as simple as tightening the clamp but since you replaced that, you have that piece of mind now.

The steering should be nice, smooth and light and should require minimal adjustments going on a straight line.

I've been hauling some logs with mine, which requires driving on the road a lot and it just goes nice and straight. The only adjustments I have to make is to dodge the marvelous potholes on some of these roads.

 

[bernardcuziillo]

Yes, I think the p/s/pto pump was sucking air along with oil. The external oil leak was relatively modest in view of the fact that the rubber inlet boot had a large circumferential hole around half of the circumference. This special hose has an internal spring to keep it from collapsing at vacuum pressure. Here’s a photo before rework.

 

[ptsg]

Oh yeah, there was definitely something going on there but you got it fixed and going again.