333 planter

[rrlund]

I've got a 4 row 333 No Til Special planter that I've had for a dozen years or so,so it's not new to me. I CAN'T keep that miserable thing level. It started acting up at the tail end last year,so I took the left side 2 way cylinder apart before I started planting this year. Figured the o-ring in the middle was bad. It wasn't. I got it leveled,seemed to be OK at first. About every other fertilizer fillup,I was having to open the leveling valve,level it,then close it up again. That went to every fillup,now today about every ROUND. If that POS would burn,I'd set fire to it for sure. I've even tried it with 2 different tractors. In fact I think I've destroyed the hydraulics on one tractor because of it,but that's another story.

Any ideas? There's no rhyme or reason for it.It has the stock factory cylinders. If you leave it up while you fill it,the left 2 way cylinder settles. When you're planting,raising and lowering it,the right side one way cylinder will stop going all the way down,but the 2 way does go down. I can't keep this up.The vent plug in the one way is clean. The only thing I haven't taken apart is the marker control switch,but that works fine,so I can't see what that would have to do with it.

 

[thurlow]

I had one for a long time.....with 10 no-til units (7400 maybe, can't remember) on it. I can't remember a lot about it, except the plumbing was weird. One side always came up....and went down......first, but it worked fine. BOTH cylinders were double-acting, but I seem to remember an equalizing valve (just a disk with small hole) somewhere in the system. Do you have a manual; I think mine went with the planter, but maybe not; I can look. The thing worked great if soil conditions were right, but the shoe would plug instantly if you went through a wet spot.

 

[rrlund]

Yes,I have all of the manuals. All it shows or says is that the valve has to be opened to fill the system then closed. It mentions that you might have to open it ocasionally to relevel the planter. But the way it's worded,it's a rare ocasion that you should have to do that. The small cylinder on the right wheel is actually a 2 way,but it has a vented plug in it. The book is pretty specific that those are the cylinders that it has to have on it. I just don't know what to do with it anymore. I even took the guts out of the transport valve and put them in the leveling valve and that didn't make any difference. You'd think that when you drop it,that one way would want to freefall,but it just comes right to a stop a little higher each time until you open the valve and equalize it again. You can hold the remote lever on the tractor til the cows come home and it won't go down.

 

[LilFarmer]

Been a long time, but if memory serves the oil flow is to the barrel end of the bigger cylinder. The oil from the rod end of the big cylinder goes to the barrel end of the small cylinder, which has the rod end vented. Sort of a "master" and "slave" arrangement.

If the small cylinder is not retracting all the way you have to have oil from the barrel end of the big cylinder leaking by the piston in the big cylinder to the rod end.

Go to AGCO and pickup a cylinder rebuild kit and rebuild the big cylinder. It may look good to you, but 2500 lbs of oil pressure will make some things leak that look good to the naked eye.

 

[cadet trooper]

Offhand it sounds like one of or both of the cylinders need rebuilt I'm guessing only one but which one? That's the question they're designed to react with each other so they keep the frame level pretty ingenious actually but certainly a major headache to troubleshoot.Don't ask me to tell you how it's plumbed I've put several together but still spent several hours trying to figure how it works and once I figured it out it was a whole year until I needed to do it again.

 

[TractormanNC]

Have a model 600, older but the hydraulics are the same I think. Put a hose on the rod end of the single acting cylinder to make it double acting. Been running my 600 that way since 1975 without a problem.

 

[rrlund]

Where did you hook the other end of the hose? T it at the other cylinder?

 

[TractormanNC]

One end hooks to the rod end of the cylinder as I mentioned, the other end of the hose hooks to the tractor remote outlet beside your other hose. Makes the whole system double acting. Had to do this on a Farmall 656 because it would suck air when trying to lift the planter as originally plumbed. HTH.