L3710 Loader Creeps Upward

[Mr Haney]

Sometimes the LA681 loader on my L3710 continues to creep upward after the joystick returns to center. When I tap the joystick, it stops. I looked for places to grease the joystick but didn't come up with much.

What's going on?

 

[TheOldHokie]

Sometimes the LA681 loader on my L3710 continues to creep upward after the joystick returns to center. When I tap the joystick, it stops. I looked for places to grease the joystick but didn't come up with much.

What's going on?

With the spool is centered there is no path for oil to travel to or from the cylinders. So the spool in your valve is not self centering and tapping the handle nudges it back to neutral. Thats almost certainly a mechanical issue with the joystick linkage and/or the spring return mechanism inside the valve. The joystick lingage is under the rubber boot. Inspect, observe, clean, and lubricate.

Dan

 

[Mr Haney]

Maybe I can figure out what's going on with the joystick if look it over again. Thanks.

 

[Mr Haney]

Until about an hour ago, I had no idea what a spool valve cap was. Now I have learned more than I want to know. In case anyone else out there knows as little as I did, I will try to explain.

This loader has two caps with the closed ends facing upward. They are on the front end of the big fat valve thing at the far end of the cables. Each cap has a sort of hollow spacer about 1.5" long between it and the valve thing. Each cap is held on with two 3/16" hex screws.

When you take a cap off, you see the end of the cable. It has a big spring around it, and the spring goes up and down inside the spacer.

When you push the lever in the "down" direction, the end of the cable emerges from the valve thing, and three ball bearings fly out and land on the ground.

When these bearings fall out, it is best to be wearing pants you don't mind throwing out.

When I saw them fly, I assumed there had to be a couple of dozen more in there, and I figured more than three had come out, and that I would never see them again. I wondered how I would get the tractor indoors with the loader on the ground.

It turns out the two smaller bearings go into the sides of the part on the end of the cable, and the big one goes into the end. There are only three bearings. This is why I am not drunk right now.

I'm not sure if the tubular spacer has a flat (around 3/32") spacer on both ends or just one, but a flat spacer flew out along with the bearings.

Everything in there was disgusting and gritty. The screws were badly rusted. The spring and flat spacer were rusted, too. The tubular spacer is aluminum.

I used a wire wheel to clean the flat spacer up somewhat. I wiped everything off as well as I could. I shot lithium grease into the general area of the cavity the end of the cable rides in.

I filled everything up pretty well with Super Lube, and I used it to hold the bearings in place while I put everything back together.

The lever seems to move much more smoothly. I didn't fool with the curl cable because it's late.

Kubota's parts manual is an abomination, but it sort of looks like they sell a kit to replace all the cruddy little parts at the end of the cable. I don't think I need one right now, but I will look into it.

Anyway, thanks for the help. If the loader keeps acting up, I will be back.

 

[Mr Haney]

Well, I moved the tractor and found another part in the driveway.

There is a stainless part I would call a sleeve. It has a concentric ridge inside it a short distance from one end.

It also had a lengthwise ridge of hard crud in it, from the concentric ridge to the far end. It was so big and so hard, I wondered if it was part of the sleeve.

It turned out to be hardened rust.

The sleeve was also covered with crud on one side of the outer surface. I took it to the buffer and wire-wheeled it until it was smooth, if not shiny.

I put a 12-gauge brass brush in a drill and used it to clean out the inside of the sleeve, but the crud was so hard, I ended up using a die grinder and burr.

I didn't know which way the part went into the tractor, so I stuck it in there the way that seemed to make sense, figuring I could turn it around if it didn't work.

I think there is an engineer at Kubota who doesn't know you're not supposed to put carbon steel, stainless, and aluminum right against each other.

I don't believe this was caused by water intrusion, because the joystick has a boot on it, and water would have to run uphill to get into the cap.

Maybe I should see if I can find kits to replace these cruddy parts. I don't want to take it to the dealer, lose a month, and spend $1500.

 

[Mr Haney]

I found the kit to replace this junk. The number is 75536-65100. At Messick's, it's about $178 per cable.