Case vao eagle hitch help

[13fx]

Been working on an old vao-15 I picked up a while ago. Biggest issue when I bought it was a stuck motor. Motor now runs pretty well, but carb needs yet another cleaning. Problem I. Working on now is no hydraulics to the eagle hitch. I have a loader on front that works fine, when I turn the valve to power the eagle hitch it doesn't do anything and the loader doesn't work. I'm looking to take the control valve off and go through it, but I'm having issues getting the right hand lift arm off the splined shaft. Looking for recommendations on how to get it off without tearing anything up.
Thanks
Ste

 

[DRussell]

Been working on an old vao-15 I picked up a while ago. Biggest issue when I bought it was a stuck motor. Motor now runs pretty well, but carb needs yet another cleaning. Problem I. Working on now is no hydraulics to the eagle hitch. I have a loader on front that works fine, when I turn the valve to power the eagle hitch it doesn't do anything and the loader doesn't work. I'm looking to take the control valve off and go through it, but I'm having issues getting the right hand lift arm off the splined shaft. Looking for recommendations on how to get it off without tearing anything up.
Thanks
Ste

What kind of valve are you turning to power the eagle hitch? Are you sure that valve is opening?

 

[Joe (Wa)]

Can you hear the engine load up when the hitch lever is placed in the raise position? I would pull the piston housing first, the piston can get stuck in the cylinder during prolonged layup. When you pull the piston housing the piston will remain inside, it has a floating connecting rod (not fastened to the piston).

 

[13fx]

So after some more work to it, I believe that the eagle hitch works, it's just the way a previous owner piped in the hydraulics. When I open the valve to use the eagle hitch it doesn't shut flow off to the spools for the loader so there isn't any pressure that's able to build up in the eagle hitch. When I bring the ramps up high, I can slowly raise the eagle hitch as long as there no weight on the hitch. Because there is no way right now to close off the loader control loop the fluid takes the path of least resistance and just circulates through the spool back to the torque tube. I'm going to get a second valve from the store later and test this out but I'm fairly confident that this is the issue. Later I'll re-pipe the system to include a selector valve that mounts near the spools. But I'd still like to know, what's the best way to remove the lift arm? I have three Cases that have the eagle hitch and it's likely at some point in the future I'll have to service the depth control unit on one of them. I've tried prying, and hammering it off the splined but get no movement. No puller I have can get any purchase on the arm and I really don't like using hammers on cast. Thanks

 

[Joe (Wa)]

This typical hydraulic system for Eagle hitch and loader with SA lift cylinder. Obviously

you don't need all those fittings. A selector valve #13, nipple #10 supplies hydraulic oil at the hitch control block.

 

[13fx]

I am wondering, since I don't really see a time where I would be operating the loader and the eagle hitch at the same time, can I just route the loader outflow to the eagle hitch inflow? Both of them should just circulate the fluid until a valve is opened redirecting the flow to a cylinder. Right now there is an overcomplicated mess of hoses and pipes and I'd like to find the cleanest and most effective way to change this up.

 

[Joe (Wa)]

If I am understanding your lift cylinders are at max lift you should have full pressure to the hitch piston so there is something wrong here. You can check the piston seal leak bye by removing the rockshaft housing drain line. There may be residual oil and grease in there, check that that drain fitting is not blocked, idle the engine and cycle the hitch to see the rate of piston seal leakage if any. The control block check valve and release valves could be leaking also.



Your pic is a common ball valve, you need a selector valve. I am assuming your loader has SA lift cylinders and a mechanical bucket. I haven't done a VA installation but have worked on some already in place, all of them had the selector valve in the pump discharge line with no relief valve in the configuration. If I were doing this I would try this simple way to separate the hitch piston and loader lift cylinders, I don't see any reason it won't work. It provides all the functions of the hitch control block, i.e. operating lever, control valve function, relief valve, check valve, and a 2 stage release valve to control rate of loader drop.

 

[13fx]

I must have worded my response poorly. I'll try to explain better, but I'm no word smith. First off the loader has Da cylinders and of course the eagle hitch is a Sa cylinder. With the valve closed the loader works great. When I open the valve to let fluid To the eagle hitch there is currently no way to close off the loop to the loader controls. If I try lifting the eagle hitch it won't move at all unless I bring up the engine rpms or if I pull back on the loader lift spool at the same time. Only reason the hitch will rise when I pull the loader control is because the eagle hitch with nothing on it is the path of least resistance for the fluid to travel. If I had a blade or plow on back that weighed more than the loader the loader would lift.

One of the first things I did test was to pull the breather line off to see if it was plugged as that can restrict an eagle hitches movements. The line is dry and I left it off for a while. I was able to raise and lower the hitch at higher rpm and no fluid seeped out so just air.

What I got to thinking the other day is, can I simplify the entire system by taking the outflow line from the loader controls and instead of having it go right back into the torque tube, have it instead go to the eagle hitch inflow. Both the controls have open flow when not in use so my thinking is that when the loader isn't being used it flows freely to the eagle hitch depth control where it will either power the eagle hitch when the lever is moved to lift, or the fluid flows freely back to the torque tube. I don't see a time where I would be both trying to lift the loader and the hitch at the same time. That being said, there may be a very good reason not to do it that way and someone who knows hydraulics better than me could explain to me why that's a bad idea and then I'll go ahead and get a selector valve and put it in.

 

[Joe (Wa)]

I haven't seen a VA with loader DA lift cylinders. It is basically an SA hydraulic system w/o the factory DA side mounted control valves. I saw a bareback VAI w/belly mower and probably cultivator brackets with the 1st one. The 2nd one has both DA & SA functions. There was a side mount that was SA only also.

 

[13fx]

This is a Sears roebuck loader. Don't know what it was originally made to fit but someone adapted it to mount into the front cultivator mount and than under the axles. They welded up a bracket in the middle and put in another Da cylinder for the bucket. Right now there's an 8' blade on it and that doesn't use the cylinder. It's a really neat looking step through loader. I believe that someone has modified the fenders as well and made them tilt forward at im guessing a 30deg angle. At first I was thinking that it must have been a factory option that I just never seen before but I find it more likely that someone modified the fenders.

 

[Joe (Wa)]

That's a very unique, interesting setup. I wonder if Sears sold it as a package, assembly required.

 

[13fx]

Good possibility. Wish I could find more out about it but not having much luck online

 

[Joe (Wa)]

I don't know if Simpsons is still in business. What are the 1st 3 characters of the model nr?

 

[13fx]

The model is 911.