JD 445 with 40 loader trouble

[wwivhobbit]

Bought a 445 back in May and have been upgrading and fixing things ever since. The latest acquisition was a JD 40 loader for it. I have found and fixed so many cob jobs done to this poor tractor that I can't count, but I thought hooking up the loader should be a piece of cake. Well, when I bought the tractor it had the hydraulic valve under the left footrest, but the caps were all missing, so I had no idea what color each one was supposed to be, but found several pics and was able to put new caps on, all nicely color coded, or so I think. So, I get the loader home and attach the brackets to the tractor and drive it up between the uprights as instructed in the operator's manual. I went to hook up the hydraulic hoses and there were no caps on those either, but three of the hoses had green, yellow and black tape on them, so I figured it should be an easy hookup. Well, when I hung the hoses in front of the hydraulic valve it looked like there was two hoses a couple inches longer than the other two. I figured that made sense that the short ones would hook to the top two connectors and the longer ones would hang down and hook to the bottom connectors. BUT, the colors weren't correct that way, so I hooked up according to the colors instead of according to the length which seemed to make more sense.

Now, all connected, I tried to lower the bucket as instructed but it wouldn't go down but a couple of inches and stopped. I had to push both levers alternately to get the thing to pick the front wheels off the ground to finish the hookup, but finally got it hooked and locked on. Then, when I tried to raise the bucket it would only come up a little bit and stopped. I then tried to curl the bucket back up and it only curled up a tiny bit and then the whole loader began to raise! I double checked to be sure the mower deck was all the way up and cranked the deck knob till it stopped as instructed. I also double-checked the hydraulic level and that was fine. I also double checked that the hydraulic lockout under the left footrest was turned all the way in.

One thing I read was something about the bottom lever being pushed forward to a "float" position and locking there and I don't see this doing that. Also, When I tried to lower the bucket with the lower lever it was all or nothing. I wasn't able to slowly lower the bucket using the lower lever as I thought I should be able to.

Does it sound like a hose is on the wrong connector, something fishy with the hydraulic valve itself, or maybe whatever the levers are hooked to are messed up? Thanks!

 

[wwivhobbit]

Thanks! The operator's manual says to turn it all the way clockwise to use the loader and all the way counterclockwise to use the deck and rear 3-pt. So, that's wrong?

I watched the video and on his tractor the silver and yellow are reverse from other pictures I've seen. Maybe thats it?

 

[wwivhobbit]

No, that's just weird. I had mine just like yours there and that's how I have seen many pictures have shown them to be located, but using the chart below, the top two had to be reversed on my tractor for the loader to curl in the right direction! Here's the chart I found earlier and was able to get everything working great. I just had to swap the yellow and silver hoses from the way I had them.

Here's the color chart I found earlier....

I talked to my brother this morning and he told me the same thing, so I came home and dug up an old post I found, printed it out and went to the garage. Seems that the hoses on the loader were all mislabeled, but the top two ports on the tractor were swapped as well. I did as you suggested and followed the lines, using the following instructions as well, and got it all working great! Thanks!

Just to help anyone else who might need to know what colors go to what, here's the contents of the post about it...

This the current color code John Deere uses:

Yellow = bucket cylinder head end
Black = bucket cylinder rod end
Blue = boom cylinder head end
Red = boom cylinder rod end
If you have third function:
Orange = attachment cylinder head end
Green = attachment cylinder rod end

Former color ID
Loader:
Silver = bucket cylinder head end
Yellow = bucket cylinder rod end
Green = boom lift cylinder head end
Black = boom cylinder rode end
For 3rd function attachment:
Brown = attachment cylinder head end
Blue = attachment cylinder rod end

I am not sure when JD changed their color codes.