A. Ford 4000 Lift Adjustment

Then the tractor lift would not lift the plow fully when plowing food plots at the hunting club the following week. When we were finished plowing, it barely lifted the disc harrow enough to load the tractor back onto the trailer. At home when I unloaded the tractor, the lift was even worse and the discs dragged all the way down the trailer ramps. Time to stop and address the problem!

First I read the Ford Service Manual to see how the lift cover is removed. Care must be taken when removing the lift cover to avoid damaging the pressure tube and the cam follower. Both are located on the right side of the lift cover and protrude from the case into the lift cover. Also, the lift cylinder safety relief valve protrudes toward the transmission so the lift cover must be carefully eased back as it is lifted off.

Matt was over and helped me get the lift cover off the tractor. First we removed the seat and linkage on the rear of the tractor. Then the auxiliary hydraulic line.

Then we removed all the 1/2" bolts with a 5/8" socket.

We had to use our engine hoist to get the lift off the tractor. This thing weighs more than 100 pounds. There are delicate linkage parts underneath that will be damaged if not careful.

We inspected the lift cylinder while it was still hanging on the engine hoist. We saw no obvious leaking or problems inside the lift cylinder or with any of the linkage.

I made a wood cradle for the lift cover to sit on since it was going to be off for a few days. I even put wheels on the cradle to make it easy to move around. This thing is HEAVY!

We still needed to figure out what was wrong with the lift not working properly. The manual suggested checking several areas so we continued our inspection.

When we looked under the step plate we found oil leaking near the pump cover.

The next day, further inspection showed this screw was allowing oil to leak out continuously.

I used a small electric pump to move the hydraulic oil to 5 gallon buckets so I could keep it clean and save it for reuse. Then I could see that the screw that was leaking oil held a tube mount. But the nut was loose and had almost had fallen off the screw.

Next, I inspected the check valve.

Nothing obviously wrong here. The seat and the ball had no scratches or wear. The spring was not broken or worn looking. The O-ring looked OK.

Since we had not found the specific problem, I looked on the interweb for a kit to replace all the seals in the lift. I first tried http://partstore.agriculture.newholland.com/ However, on this site, I was having to look up individual part, seal and O-ring. I wanted a kit if I could find one.

I searched some more and found http://waltstractors.com/ . I had ordered parts and manuals for my tractor from Walt many years ago, but had forgotten the name and had lost his web address. Boy was I glad to find them again. These are nice folks.

Walt's site is pretty easy to use and they package many parts in kits which makes it much easier to order. They do have access to many individual parts, but I did not find all of the bushings I needed on their site. So, I did order a few from the other site.

I made up an order online and then called Walt to verify fit on some of the parts. He asked what problem I was having. When I told him about my lift not going all the way up, he told me that most often if the lift will lift at all, the limited travel was most likely an adjustment issue.

Since I needed the tractor by the weekend to do more mowing at the hunting club, I decided to give adjustments a try. Even if it did not work, I would only be out the time. I reused all the old seals and gaskets.

There are three adjustments that must be done in the correct order. Draft Control, Position Control linkage adjustments and Flow Control Valve Cam Follower adjustment. It is important that the lift control lever is placed in the correct position when checking or making the linkage adjustments.

Both lift linkage adjustments require the same .200" measurement from the end of the control valve to the lift cylinder face. But two different linkages are being adjusted with the draft control lever in two different positions. The two positions of the draft control lever affect the control valve adjustment.

Again, the same measurement on the control valve is required for both adjustments. But the draft control lever will be in two different positions. These two adjustments must be made in this order.

The linkages are adjusted until the .200" measurement is obtained from the end of the control valve to the face of the lift cylinder housing for both types of adjustment. Note, I left the 1/4" thick cover on the valve, so I just added .25" to the measurement for a total of .45".

Draft Control adjustment is done with the draft control lever (yellow arrow below) in the horizontal position, lift arms lowered fully and the lift control lever placed 3.75 inches down the slide rail from the top of the slot.

For Draft Control adjustment, the nut and lock nut (yellow arrow below) are turned until a .200" measurement is obtained from the end of the control valve to the face of the lift cylinder as discussed above.

Position Control adjustment is made with the draft control lever (yellow arrow below) in the upright position, lift arms lowered fully and the lift control lever lowered to the very bottom of the slide with the lever stop removed.

For Position Control adjustment, the two nuts (yellow arrows below) are turned until a .200" measurement is obtained from the end of the control valve to the face of the lift cylinder as discussed above.

Flow Control Valve Cam Follower adjustment is adjusting the cam follower height where it protrudes from the rear housing on the right side. the cam follower is two parts that screw together with shims on the screw to make height adjustments.

The lift cover has a hole that lets the cam follower ride a cam that is moved when the lift control lever is moved. To get a measurement from the lift cover mating face to the constant radius section of the cam. To do this the lift control lever is moved to the down position then the distance from the mating face of the lift cover to the cam is measured. Then .010" is added to that measurement. Now use that total length to measure the height of the cam follower above the case.

Then the Flow Control Valve screwed out fully before the cam follower height is measured to the mating surface of the rear housing.

I had to make my own shim out of a small washer to get the proper height.

Next I had to find a fix for the auxiliary control valve assembly (plate). It has to be mounted on the lift cover to direct oil flow.

When I ordered parts, Walt did not have a used auxiliary control assembly like the one on my tractor. So, I ordered a blanking plate to replace it in case I cannot repair my auxiliary control assembly. I have never used the auxiliary hydraulics anyway. I decided to try to fix the auxiliary control plate so I could use the tractor while waiting on parts.

The auxiliary control valve came out of the body after lots of persuasion. It had a rubber boot on it to keep out water, but that gave up many years ago. The valve end had rusted to the body at the end. Also, water had gotten to the ball and spring that holds the valve in the selected position.

First I removed the set screw holding in the ball and spring. It took lots of PB Blaster to loosen the spring and ball. Then the valve did not want to come out of the plate, but it finally did.

I cleaned up the end of the valve bore with a brass gun cleaning brush mounted in my drill. Then I cleaned all the rust off the ball which is really a pin with a rounded end. I had to re-round the end of the pin due to wear. I cleaned the rust off the end of the control valve with a wire brush. I bought a new spring at the hardware store and put it all back together.

The pressure tube banjo bolt and port threads looked pretty bad. The hardware store did not have the correct tap and I could not find the correct bolt to order a new one. So, I just cleaned them up the best I could and reinstalled them.

I reused all the old seals and the main gasket to reinstall the lift cover. I hoped this would get the lift working long enough to mow the roads at the hunting club. Here the lift cover is back on.

I ordered lift repair parts from http://waltstractors.com/ so I could rebuild the lift later. All the seals were pretty old and needed replacement. I also ordered some bushings and other parts to try to fix the brake pedals. The shaft was pretty worn and the pedals flop around. I will detail the brake shaft replacement on another page.

I did clamp the pedals together and drilled a hole for a bolt to make them work as one pedal. Not the best solution, but this did allow the tractor to be used before all the parts arrived.

The foot pad on the first step had been missing since I bought the tractor. Since I now have a nice welder and had a piece of 1/4" steel plate, I made a new one of my own design. I put the weld beads on the surface to make it skid resistant. It works!

I also made a stop for the clutch pedal. It had been coming up too high and rubbing the bottom of the step plate since I owned the tractor. This small tab of 1/8" steel works great!

The tractor worked fine for the weekend at the hunting club. However, there were new oil leaks and the lift would not stay up when the engine was shut down. So, we will be rebuilding the lift. I will also be addressing the brake shaft since a lot of oil was leaking past the shaft seals.

More to come as parts arrive!