L45 with a limp thumb

workinallthetime · Sep 5, 2022

Noticed today the thumb on my L45 is not pulling its weight. The thumb opens and closes just fine however it seems to have lost its strength to hold with any kind of pressure.

oldnslo · Sep 5, 2022

Does the thumb have a relief valve in- line to allow the thumb to move when you curl the bucket? If yes I would check to see if that has failed.

workinallthetime · Sep 6, 2022

I will dig into it this week to see if I can locate the valve. May have possibly been recently contaminated when I had the unit off to do 3-point work. I was really thinking about moving up a model but with the next size sitting around 100k I will probably just old on to it.

LD1 · Sep 7, 2022

You can test the cylinder to see if it needs rebuilt.

workinallthetime · Oct 17, 2022

Talked to the guys at one of our maintenance shops last week who mentioned that if I could overpower the cylinder by hand it was most likely a failed cylinder. True or not the cylinder has been seeping for quite some time so I pulled it. He also mentioned that a cylinder coming apart could damage the hydraulic pump due to metal contamination. I dumped the remaining fluid from the cylinder into a container to check. Looks like it was earning tips, $1.00 at a time. Dropped the cylinder off this am to be rebuilt, we shall see what they find. Off to get fluid and filters for an unscheduled maintenance interval while I wait for the repair.