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1541 Hydro lift problem

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pkearney

New member
Joined
Oct 28, 2010
Messages
4
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Patrick Kearney
I have owned my CCC 1541 new since 1991. It has hydro lift and hydro tranaxle.No problems until last week. While mowing with the 46" mower, the hydro lift stopped working suddenly. The tractor receives excellent care- new filters each year, it's garaged and has 400 hours.I checked the Hy-tran fluid level and have installed new O rings in the lift piston, rebuilt the lift valve and checked the charge pump (gerotor gear, gerotor pin, and pressure relief valve are fine looking).The speed fwd/rev runs fine. I disconnected the connecting block/pressure valve on the hydro lines going to the control valve and the supply line has very low flow.Before I replace the charge pump, which seems fine, I was wondering has anyone encoutered this problem? The lift assembly is found in many other hydro units and all are welcomed to chime in. I'm stumped!
 
The first thing I would check would be the spriol pins in the rock shaft.
Pull the tunnel cover.
Fire it up and move the lift lever up and down while you look to see if the lever that attaches to the rock shaft moves and the shaft doesn't.
Course you didn't say anything about what or if you looked at anything other than external or not.
 
Thanks for the reply.There is no rock shaft on this garden tractor. The lift is an external hydraulic dual action piston mounted under the drive shaft tunnel.

After talking with two other dealers, I decided to replace the hydraulic filter even though I replaced it in August, 2010 during annual PM. After replacing it I went to test the lift again and this time the charge pump self-primed and the lift cycles good as new. I examined the nearly new Cub Cadet filter (723-3014) and it visually looks fine. It guess it had defective filter media as it must have been restricting enough hydro fluid to prevent the piston from cycling. I mulched leaves for over an hour with no problems. Good as new. This is a reliable garden tractor that I've owned for 19 1/2 years with almost no problems. It's never been back to the dealer for repairs. Runs great in the winter too with an IH QA-42 single stage snow thrower. Needless to say, I plan on keeping for the forseeable future.

Future diagnosis procedure- First step:Change filter even if it is new.
 
Patrick, good to hear that it was a simple fix. However, with all due respect, your 1541 DOES have a rockshaft, it is the part that the hydraulic cylinder rotates to lift implements. Item #1 in the parts drawing:

215548.jpg


Quite often the Spirol pins that hold Item #1 to item #2 shear and the lift will be limited or non-existent.
 
My error. Thanks for the schematic. First thing I did check, after the hydro fluid level, was all the linkage. My selling dealer recommended that. All linkage was in good working order. I was thrown by eliminating the filter as that was new and by the fact that the failure was sudden. I disconnected the cylinder from the linkage after it did not retract/extend and still got no movement. That made me think the problem was with the control valve or the piston.

I spoke with my dealer today and he's interested in cutting open the filter and looking for abnormalities. I'm gald I spoke to other dealers as the last one I spoke with insited I replace the filter. I've been working on the problem for almost a month. Glad I had another tractor to mow and mulch with.

You can't have too many tractors, and just one isn't enough!
 
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