Ford 3400 3 point system

[ridelght]

Hi guy's I bought a 3400 taractor in April and the guy told me that the draft control was acting up for the 3 point lift. What it is if i dont have it set to stay all the way up it drifts. But if all the way up it stays up for weeks without drifting down. This is a pain when trying to use the blade to grade as I cant set it to 2" or whatever above the dirt it will drift lower on its own as i go.

Is thier something simple or will I need to take it to a dealer is my question.

Thanks alot for the help !!!

 

[J_J]

The drop down could be the seals leaking on the 3pt cyl.

 

[ridelght]

Thanks that makes sense but it is odd how as long as it is all the way up it stays there running or not. I was thinking along the lines of a metering valve or seal leaking. I have bought some service manuals hopefully I can figure it out. I did my fel lift cylinders myself and they work great those seals were all dry rotted. The tractor is a work horse it was neglected some though over the years.

 

[bobflange]

Just to rule out some simple things you can check to help isolate your problem:

1: The 3ph has two settings: position control or draft control, for the work you are trying to do you want to set the 3ph to position control I believe. Things can work right in one and not in the other for a few different reasons.

2: The flow control valve screws in and out to adjust the rate of 3ph arms raising and lowering. This applies in either draft or position control. The flow automatically goes to max when you fully raise the 3ph control lever so you would not notice this when doing a full raise of your implement, but could see slow drifting down when you are trying to fine tune a height (but really might be telling it to go too far down).

If neither of these is the cause then something is not holding pressure, so I would buy an o-ring and gasket kit and take the lift cover off and overhaul the rear hydraulics. I had never worked on hydraulics before trying this and did it myself by using the service manual, which you can get on ebay, so you might give that a shot before taking it to the dealer.