# Broke the tilt on my front end loader (john deere 512)



## Joelan (Feb 28, 2017)

I didn't realize my hay fork was in the dirt and I drove an few feet and it ended up messing up my front end loader. The lift works fine, but the tilt doesn't. I can tilt down just fine but tiling up is really slow and once I let go of the joystick the tilt falls down to zero. Any suggestions?


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## BigT (Sep 15, 2014)

Hello joelan, welcome to the tractor forum.

When you drove forward with the hay fork in the ground, you put extreme pressure on the tilt system. I've done this with a loader and blew a hose, which was old and the weak point in the system. 

You may have blown a piston seal in your tilt cylinders, or possibly damaged the joystick.


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## Joelan (Feb 28, 2017)

Thanks BigT. I figured I blew something out. All the hoses look good. I did notice that there was a small bit of fluid residue under the left piston arm. Not sure if that was new or if it had been there but I don't remember seeing it. In your opinion would it be better to start at the joystick or start tearing apart the pistons?


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## sixbales (May 18, 2011)

I guess I would start with the tilt cylinders first. They were first to see the pressure spike.


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## dozer966 (Dec 30, 2014)

You can take off the HYD hose on lower part of both cylinders ,put them in a bucket activate valve for top line till cylinders max out and keep pressure to see if the packings bypass. Then you would know if one ,both or non are leaking oil. If only one leaks bad isolate it and repeat process on good one to make sure it dose not have a slight leak. Good luck


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## Joelan (Feb 28, 2017)

Say Dozer966, I thought about what you said and I think I finally understand it. It's actually simple I think but I've never had to troubleshoot hydraulics like this. So just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly, it's possible that the extreme pressure damaged the seals on both of the curl cylinders to where an downward pressure would cause fluid to flow past those seals in one direction but the seals would still work to keep fluid from flowing in the opposite direction. If there is any fluid bypassing the seals when I try to tilt up then we know the problem is definately at least in the cylindars. Am I understanding this correctly. Sorry, I'm a bit slow on this.


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## dozer966 (Dec 30, 2014)

Joelan sorry it took so long to answer but you are on the right path. Only one cylinder could be the culprit. Both cylinders are attached to the same HYD circuit. That's why I said to isolate the one that is obvious after the first test. Oil is like water, lazy, it will take the path of least resistance. Most cylinders will leak to a sertain degree on the older equipment. Example when your bucket is curled up and you stop the engin you can here it crepe back down. No big deal if you can deal with having to curl it back up every 15-20 minutes for a few inches.
Hopefully I've​ explained enough but if you have more questions please don't be shy. I or someone will be Glade to answer


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## Joelan (Feb 28, 2017)

That clears something up Dozer966. I was thinking I somehow messed up both cylinders but since one might be blown out it would have an effect on the whole system since it's a circuit and the cylinders aren't independent of each other. That was tripping me up. Thanks for the information. Hope to get this figured out this weekend.


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