Droopy bucket fix

[alchemysa]

I have had a small problem with my B1550 LA300 loader and I thought I would share the fix with you. The problem was that whenever I put the bucket into the rollback position it would briefly drop towards a dump position before correcting itself. This is no great problem when moving dirt, but its a pain when forks are fitted to the bucket and you need some fine bucket control. The cause turned out to be a valve spool cap that had become slightly bent due to constant use and the pressure of the spring inside it. These caps are very important as they set the centering position of the spool inside the main body of the valve control. The spool caps are made of alloy and are held in place by two Allen head screws. It appears that as the alloy bends, the space inside the cap increases slightly, and this throws the centering of the spool out of whack. The plastic spacers between the caps and the main body have also become distorted over time. (Theres no high pressure oil in these caps so you won't notice any tell-tale leaks). The quick fix was simply to remove the cap and drop a washer into the bottom of the cap to act as a shim. This reduced the space inside the cap back nearer to what it should be. Ultimately I should replace the caps and the plastic spacers, but this simple fix seems to be working fine for now. The up/down cap also contains the ball/spring catch for the float detent. In my case the springs were broken and the detent groove was worn beyond repair so i just left the ball and springs out. I never used the float detent anyway. (I didn't even know it was supposed to have one). Note that If you try this fix yourself you simply need to put the shim into the bottom of the cap. You don't need to remove the large spring and add shims to that. That would simply increase spring tension without improving the spool centering problem.

Hopefuly the above info will help someone with a similar problem.