heritageequipment
New member
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- Location
- Morgantown, PA
Hello,
We have a 5 Ton dump that we have had for several years and never drove due to the steering not working correctly since we purchased it and now we need to use it. The steering works find while turning left, but turning right does not have power assist. I have listed below what we have noticed, tested and tried.
1. We jacked up the front end and tried the steering. It steers to the right and left very smoothly while jacked up. It doesnt seem to matter if the engine is on or not it feels about the same.
2. We thought it may be the spool valve on the steering box so we removed it and opened it up. The spool valve is in excellent condition inside. We installed new O-rings and reinstalled the spool valve making sure to follow the spool valve adjustment procedure.
3. The spool valve reseal and adjustment did not help the problem.
4. Then we installed a hydraulic gauge inline with the steering cylinder (see pic).
5. When turning left, the gauge read 900 PSI on the top cylinder port and 0 PSI on the lower port
6. When turning right(the direction with no power steering), the gauge read 1500 PSI on the bottom port and 0 PSI on the lower port.
Now, having different pressures is strange, but aside from that it seems like maybe the problem lies in the hydraulic cylinder. We had an all-terrain forklift that had the same exact problem and it ended up being the steering cylinder even though it was a completely different design with the steering cylinder being mounted to the knuckle instead of on the gearbox. We have a cylinder rebuild kit so we will see if we can get the cylinder off without removing the whole darn steering box. Do you guys think we are barking up the right tree?
Thanks,
Kendrick
We have a 5 Ton dump that we have had for several years and never drove due to the steering not working correctly since we purchased it and now we need to use it. The steering works find while turning left, but turning right does not have power assist. I have listed below what we have noticed, tested and tried.
1. We jacked up the front end and tried the steering. It steers to the right and left very smoothly while jacked up. It doesnt seem to matter if the engine is on or not it feels about the same.
2. We thought it may be the spool valve on the steering box so we removed it and opened it up. The spool valve is in excellent condition inside. We installed new O-rings and reinstalled the spool valve making sure to follow the spool valve adjustment procedure.
3. The spool valve reseal and adjustment did not help the problem.
4. Then we installed a hydraulic gauge inline with the steering cylinder (see pic).
5. When turning left, the gauge read 900 PSI on the top cylinder port and 0 PSI on the lower port
6. When turning right(the direction with no power steering), the gauge read 1500 PSI on the bottom port and 0 PSI on the lower port.
Now, having different pressures is strange, but aside from that it seems like maybe the problem lies in the hydraulic cylinder. We had an all-terrain forklift that had the same exact problem and it ended up being the steering cylinder even though it was a completely different design with the steering cylinder being mounted to the knuckle instead of on the gearbox. We have a cylinder rebuild kit so we will see if we can get the cylinder off without removing the whole darn steering box. Do you guys think we are barking up the right tree?
Thanks,
Kendrick
