Droopy FEL Bucket

[Skidmark25]

Neighbor just got a JD 4200 with a 420 FEL. Curl function on the bucket bleeds down with no weight or pressure on the bucket.

Bleeds down so quickly that if the bucket is curled all the way back and you let off the stick you can see it with your eye. Bucket seems strong otherwise. Only 290 hours on the tractor, no visible leaks on the cylinders or hoses.

I told him it probably wasn't the cylinders because there were no visible leaks and that he should look at adjusting the control valve on the stick.

My question: Was my answer correct and where is the adjustment and how does one adjust the valve???

 

[kennyd]

Skid,
There are no adjustments unless the linkage for the joystick is so messed up that its actually activating the dump function when the joystick is in neutral.

It can be the cylinders, they can leak internally and cause the condition you describe-to check this, curl the bucket and then disconnect the to dump/curl circuit hoses and see if the bucket still moves, maybe adding some weight to the bucket also. The seal kits to rebuild the cylinders are about $20.00 per cylinder if they are the cause.

It can also be the valve itself, to check this-swap the dump/curl hoses for the lift/lower hoses and see if the trouble follows the valve-meaning now the whole FEL should bleed down like the curl did before.

If it's the valve, unfortunately it's not rebuildable as the parts inside are a matched fit and JD will not sell the spools separately.

Good luck, let us know the results of the tests

 

[JerryG]

With it going down that fast, I would say that one or both of the cylinders need to be packed. Like the other poster said, the packing isn't usually to expensive. You can take the bottom hose off of the cylinders, and watch for fluid running out. I would just take one line off at a time. It it is more than a drop once in a while, buy some new packing.
There doesn't have to be external leaks for the packing to be bad.