Force 125 leakdown issue fixed...sort of

[cancruiser]

Hey all,

I followed the directions on some other threads here and sort of successfully fixed the leak down issue on my 88 Force 125. It no longer leaks down, as a matter of fact, it doesn't come down at all! I hear the motor working but the engine will not lower unless I loosen one of the hydraulic lines and let it leak down.

Does anyone have any insight on what I need to address?

thx

 

[MickLovin]

Your motor sounds like it is working properly, it may be the valve body not releasing or your tilt cylinder, others here may have more insight.

 

[cancruiser]

I took the valve assembly back apart and found that the shuttle (black piece between the check valves isn't sliding freely. The shuttle has scored the walls of the tube. Can I polish it back up? maybe some emery cloth on a wooden dowel attached to a drill or a brake cylinder hone?

I thought it was kind of tight when I first took it out and it was hard to get back in. I just didn't know how free it should be.

 

[Jiggz]

The shuttle valve needs to be able to slide back and forth without any hesitations. You need to smooth the cylinder if required and then replaced the o-ring. Otherwise you will need to replace the entire valve body. How it score the cylinder is beyond me since it basically rides on o-rings on both ends.

 

[cancruiser]

So I cleaned up the bore and the shuttle moves freely back and forth (with just a little resistance from the O Ring), Put it all back together and again, it goes up and holds fine but it does not lower at all. I hear the motor but have no movement

 

[Jiggz]

You will have to disconnect the tilt's lowering hyd lines (connected on top of the cylinder) from the valve body. Have someone bump T&T switch to lower the motor and see if hyd fluid is being pumped out. If it is then the problem is in the spool valve not allowing the fluid to return. The spool valve is activated (opened by being pushed by the shuttle valve pointed end) by the shuttle and if the o-rings on the shuttle valve are not properly fitted it will not push enough to open the spool valve.

If there is no hyd fluid pumping out, then it could be a check valve problem. If you disassembled the valve body you might want to double check the ball bearings and springs are properly located.

 

[cancruiser]

Where does the small spring go? I though I had everything back where it belonged but I am questioning the small spring location. The big spring sits on top of the larger BB. Then there are there are the 3 smaller BB's. 1 sits on top of the channel. 1 sinks into the other channel and the 3rd sits on the small port off to the side. Is there where the small spring goes?

 

[cancruiser]

Success! I took the upper part off again and reset all the BB's and springs and put it back together. This time I put the BB's in the upper cover instead of laying them in the channels. Put it back together and the motor raises and lowers pretty good. The leak down issue seems to be solved as well with the new rings on the check valves.

The only slight issue remaining is when the motor is at full tilt it doesn't always want to drop. A wiggle of the switch a couple of times get the check valve to open and it lowers properly. It doesn't seem to do this anywhere else but at full tilt. I can live with that for now.

 

[Jiggz]

No Title

Great! But for future reference here's a diagram of the valve body with the BB's and springs location.