hydraulic valve cleaning
Wow, that link is really helpful! And thanks dumptrucker for telling us a valve is a do-able job!
I'm a good driver but a lousy mechanic. I was about to go through the time, gas, and expense of taking in my '04 ezyV (I go out of state) for a sticky valve but you guys have inspired me to at least look at it first.
Reporting back, I used the link from OSCLandscaping for diagrams of the valve internals. My right wing would lock, then drift back out of position. I followed the line from the push (primary) end of the double acting cylinder on the right side back to the manifold. I checked that relief valve first. I started by screwing it all the way in as I counted and wrote down the number of turns. When I pulled the valve stem, right on the valve seat was a nice clean shiny flake of metal! Wow, the problem found right off the bat! I then needed a way to lift the internals vertically out. I took a 6mm allen wrench and stroked it (one direction only) with a pickup magnet to magnetize it. I lowered it to the ball bearing in the valve and lifted slowly. Out came the ball and the spring spacer. Next try the spring. I tried again for metal flakes but nothing. I should have checked but didn't, I don't know if the flake was magnetic.
I knew I could quit right there but decided to check five more valves just in case the metal flakes were throughout the system. The secondary relief valve on the right side had some blackish film I could wipe off and some air trapped under it (from leak?) but the other reliefs were clean. I checked two solenoid valves as well. They looked like a computer clean room inside and the spools moved freely in the valve body. I decided I was doing more harm than good so I stopped.
While looking closely at the pump I noticed the ground looked dirty (see first and JD's last post). It's on the backside, out of sight out of mind. Remove, wire brush all, load up with dielectric grease, same on the postive wire. Put everything back together and viola! Perfect function with no travel expense, drop off, return, or $$$.
Thank you JD PLOWER for being man enough to tell us that it turned out to be a grounding problem. Hard to admit but very useful for others to know. It's not just the savings in time and $$$, it's knowing more about the equipment so you can deal with it at 2AM instead of feeling helpless.
