John Deere 1600 Blade engagement problem

Tammy Quail · Dec 24, 2025

Need help on John Deere 1600 series 2 WAM Please. The front Blades just barely move and the wing blades do not move at all. All other hydraulic functions work such as deck lift, and forward/reverse. The lights in the side panel indicate that the deck is engaged. TIA

beenthere · Dec 24, 2025

Welcome to TBN

Thinking you might need to track down some hydraulic line pressures to separate a problem.
Might mean doing some plumbing work to isolate the different parts of the system and building or finding a pressure gauge.

Assume you have already changed out hyd. oil filters that are involved.

Tammy Quail · Dec 26, 2025

beenthere said:
Welcome to TBN

Thinking you might need to track down some hydraulic line pressures to separate a problem.
Might mean doing some plumbing work to isolate the different parts of the system and building or finding a pressure gauge.

Assume you have already changed out hyd. oil filters that are involved.

No I haven’t changed the filters and I am going to try that first. Then thought about testing the electric solenoid valves for the blades thinks they may not be working properly.

Spanner · Dec 26, 2025

How many hours on the machine ?
Do you clean your radiator & screens regularly (Daily) ?

In my experience those 1600 WAM's suffer from heat-induced O-ring failure in the Mow Valve.

I'd look in there after testing with a flow meter and or pressure gauges.

Get the Service Manual if you haven't already got one.

Tammy Quail · Dec 26, 2025

Spanner said:
How many hours on the machine ?
Do you clean your radiator & screens regularly (Daily) ?

In my experience those 1600 WAM's suffer from heat-induced O-ring failure in the Mow Valve.

I'd look in there after testing with a flow meter and or pressure gauges.

Get the Service Manual if you haven't already got one.

About 3500 hours on it. Bought it used with this problem from a golf course so I’m not sure how well they have maintained it. Are the o-rings usually hard to replace or is it easier to replace the valve if that’s the issue? I don’t have a service manual yet so how do you recommend hooking the gauges up to the valve and what pressure gauge?