149 Winter Tear Down.

[DSarow]

I'm really enjoying this post,your pictures and explanations are great.Your analyzing the problem and then coming up a solution has raised the bar for all of us.Your making jigs and fixtures tells me you have machine shop experience.Do you do house calls?Keep your informative posts coming

[Ambush]

Yesterday I figured to get started on mounting the hydraulic valve that I bought a year and some ago because it was on sale dirt cheap. Took it out of the box and pretty quick realized it didn’t have a float position. Well crap! Not sure how I missed that! Blinded by the price maybe.

So anyway, off to buy a two spool valve WITH float. Being a cheap senior on a budget, I hated paying regular price, but you can’t win them all. I did find a piece of 1/4” plate, in the stash, that was about exactly the right size so that made me feel better. Just had to drill three holes.

[Ambush]

I spent a few minutes testing locations for easy lever reach, out of the way of my knees and handy for plumbing. Got the plate set and tacked it on. I won’t finish welding it until all the plumbing is in. Right now I have the pressure hose going to the joystick valve on the right side. I intend to hard plumb to the new valve then feed over to the joystick and from there it will use the existing return through filter and to tank.

[Ambush]

With the vale now located I can start getting fittings and tube. The float spool will go to the rear lift cylinder. The other spool will feed a pair of outlets at the rear. I’ll put in a tee and cap it incase I want to run a set of outlets to the front. Not sure what for yet because it has the loader up there already.

[Ambush]

Welp, that didn’t go as planned!

When I bought this new valve it was listed as not needing a Power Beyond adapter to feed another valve. It had T1 and T2 ports and you simply plug T1 (return to tank) and plumb T2 straight to the next valve inline, in this case my existing joystick. That’s handy, I thought. But while I was figuring out the plumbing there was a nagging doubt in my mind. I pulled the plug out of there and sure enough T2 is machined for a PB adapter.

I sent an inquiry to the supplier and got a reply back that said; “It does require a PB adapter, we will correct the product description, an adapter should be available spring of ‘26.”

Ok, back to the store I go with my valve and have a discussion with their hydraulic guy and a manager. Long story short, they let me have the $300 valve for $135 and I will build my own PB adapter. I’m not sure how many of these valves are being used as the product description says, but there will be some grenades on some machines.

[Ambush]

Now to make my PB adapter. Since a normal adapter would put me very tight up against the dash tower and I needed 90 elbow anyway, it made sense to convert the elbow to an adapter.

I did some math and measuring then drilled the elbow oversize. Next I machined the stem end to fit the bore of the valve and an o-ring groove. It also needed to be drilled through for the oil to pass. Then it was just a matter of machining the stem to a light press fit into the elbow and cut off at the exact correct length. Some retaining Loctite 620, a quick press and I had a custom PB adapter.

The one pic also shows a regular PB adapter. ( it’s the wrong size, or I’d use it)

[Ambush]

I had picked up some 1/2” and 3/8” tubing and a bunch of fittings so it’s time to start the tedious task of bending pipe. With compound bends in limited spaces, I have to measure four or five times, sketch it out and bend a little, bend a little more and just keep tweaking. So far I have the supply line from the pump to the new valve, pressured line from new valve to the inlet of the joystick and the tank drain into a new tee at the filter. I need to connect the joystick tank drain into the other side of the tee yet. Then I’ll start the pressure line plumbing to the rear of the tractor. The float side will go to the hitch lift and the other spool will feed two couplers

[West Valley G]

That's awesome. Way over my head but sure fun to follow along.
Just to put my ignorance on full display. What does PB stand for.
I thought is was when you caught the biggest Salmon or shot the
biggest buck in ones lifetime.

Ken

[Ambush]

Haha, yeah Ken it’s that too and I have a couple!

PB stands for power beyond. Basically feeding pressure from the first valve (which would have the adapter) to another valve.

[Ambush]

I didn’t get much done today. Got the joystick tank port plumbed into the tee to the return filter. And two of the lines to the rear to run the lift cylinder. These were tedious because I had to snake them in and out several times to make small adjustments at a time. You can bend tube more, but it’s not easy or advisable to unbend it. Hopefully tomorrow I get to the other two rear lines that will go to the implement female couplings