Loader DL250 Won't Force Roll Down of Bucket

[JWR]

DL250 loader mounted on an MF2660HD low Profile tractor. The machine has about 90 hrs on it, though I've had it since April 2011. In all that time I noticed the bucket could not be "forced tip down" to do things like smoothing soil or sand or gravel in reverse. It curls up fine but only rolls downward via gravity -- you cannot force the tip down. This is with the loader frame stationary -- not a loader frame issue but rather a bucket control issue. Yes, the loader will lift the tractor (but not using bucket down roll. It just goes limp.) I thought it was a disease of this brand at first (my older John Deere would easily lift the tractor with down roll after I'd had it 10 years) but now everyone agrees this Massey is not right.

It is as if there was a "float" function in the bucket roll axis sort of -- roll up works, roll down does not. One dealer says the loader valve body is the problem. Another dealer says the O-rings are bad in one of the two long cylinders that roll the bucket (top front cylinders on the loader.) Note that both those cylinders are fed pressure from a "T" so a failed O-ring allowing constant bypass in either of the two cylinders would make both of them useless. Keep in mind this is nearly a brand new machine and none of this stuff has any significant wear on it.

What say you ?

 

[JWR]

DL250 loader mounted on an MF2660HD low Profile tractor. The machine has about 90 hrs on it, though I've had it since April 2011. In all that time I noticed the bucket could not be "forced tip down" to do things like smoothing soil or sand or gravel in reverse. It curls up fine but only rolls downward via gravity -- you cannot force the tip down. This is with the loader frame stationary -- not a loader frame issue but rather a bucket control issue. Yes, the loader will lift the tractor (but not using bucket down roll. It just goes limp.) I thought it was a disease of this brand at first (my older John Deere would easily lift the tractor with down roll after I'd had it 10 years) but now everyone agrees this Massey is not right.

It is as if there was a "float" function in the bucket roll axis sort of -- roll up works, roll down does not. One dealer says the loader valve body is the problem. Another dealer says the O-rings are bad in one of the two long cylinders that roll the bucket (top front cylinders on the loader.) Note that both those cylinders are fed pressure from a "T" so a failed O-ring allowing constant bypass in either of the two cylinders would make both of them useless. Keep in mind this is nearly a brand new machine and none of this stuff has any significant wear on it.

What say you ?

I guess I am mumbling to myself here as no one else said they had the problem BUT: I finally gave up getting Massey Ferguson to resolve the loader issue. Went directly to NIMCO valve manufacturer and found that -- Yes, they knew some bad loader valves of the CV152 type had "gotten out." They have produced a slightly modified spool control assembly that mounts on the opposite end of the spool from the control cable. Installs in 15 minutes and essentially fixes the problem. The bucket tip CAN be forced downward now. I know of 4 bad valves (and no idea how many there were total. I'm guessing there were many.) The 4 I know of were the 2 on my own MF2660 (the original and the replacement), and another 2 MF 2660's sold in WV. I can provide the NIMCO point of contact if any of you have this problem with MF DL 250 or DL260 loaders. I believe all the "bad ones" were on 2600HD series tractors having the regen quick bucket drop feature. The smaller tractors like MF 2615 that used DL250 loaders did not come with the quick bucket dump feature and thus did not have the problem. As usual -- keep it simple stupid would have saved people a lot of headaches and expense.

 

[Cynical]

I guess I am mumbling to myself here as no one else said they had the problem BUT: I finally gave up getting Massey Ferguson to resolve the loader issue. Went directly to NIMCO valve manufacturer and found that -- Yes, they knew some bad loader valves of the CV152 type had "gotten out." They have produced a slightly modified spool control assembly that mounts on the opposite end of the spool from the control cable. Installs in 15 minutes and essentially fixes the problem. The bucket tip CAN be forced downward now. I know of 4 bad valves (and no idea how many there were total. I'm guessing there were many.) The 4 I know of were the 2 on my own MF2660 (the original and the replacement), and another 2 MF 2660's sold in WV. I can provide the NIMCO point of contact if any of you have this problem with MF DL 250 or DL260 loaders. I believe all the "bad ones" were on 2600HD series tractors having the regen quick bucket drop feature. The smaller tractors like MF 2615 that used DL250 loaders did not come with the quick bucket dump feature and thus did not have the problem. As usual -- keep it simple stupid would have saved people a lot of headaches and expense.

Interesting. I have a dl260 but on a mf3645, this has not been a problem for me.

 

[JWR]

Interesting. I have a dl260 but on a mf3645, this has not been a problem for me.

I'm not familiar with the 3645. Do you have a CV152 type loader valve (that provides a "regen" position to the right for quickly dumping the bucket by gravity) ? The DL250 on smaller tractors has a different valve and does not have a quick dump feature. I do know the DL250 and 260 can use the same valve but that doesn't mean they all do.

If you move the joystick to the right into the first position and it will force the bucket tip downward in that position, then you don't have the problem. Talking to the valve manufacturer, Nimco, they implied that only some of the bad valves "got out the door" from them. Hopefully you got a good one. The dissapointing thing is that Massey never caught up on any of this, did not weed the bad valves out of their supply depot inventories and never notified anyone. My second valve came out of Massey supply chains thru my dealer and it too was bad. That's when I gave up and went to Nimco.