Is my spliter pump shot already?

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muncybob

muncybob

Minister of Fire
Apr 8, 2008
2,158
Near Williamsport, PA
I have less than 40 hours on my Huskee 22 ton splitter. Yesterday at the very end of a load the cylinder started to move VERY slowly. Now it does not move at all. Changed the hyd filter, fluids are full, love joy is secure. So I disconnected the hose from the pump to the valve, started the engine and nothing coming out!
 
Remove suction hose to make sure you have flow from tank?
 
Look for loose connections especially at the valve. Happens with mine when vibration loosens some small screws on the valve body. Lets it suck air instead of fluid. If the pump had cratered, you would have heard it cavitate.
 
im with coaly check suction line. then remove pump and verify gears inside are turning. no sheared or worked out keys on lovejoy which you would find when removing pump. with any luck you just had a chunk of foreign material that plugged the suction line.
 
Betting it's something simple, like sucking air.
 
Make sure the suction line isn't collapsing somewhere. Pumps usually make some interesting noises when they buy the farm. Be very careful starting the motor when you have something disconnected as your dealing with thousands of pounds of pressure, there is enough pressure to do major damage. The safe way is to disconnect the spark plug and pull it over, you will know if you have flow it just won't shoot fluid 30'
 
OK, I know where the suction hose is and will look into that later. I cannot find an air breather valve in the parts list.
 
The cap is vented with a tiny hole. Make sure it's open.
 
sucking air or cavitating usually makes pump louder and makes cylinder studder since air is more compressible than fluid. it will compress the air to the point it moves then acts like a spring jumping forward then compressing again instead of a smooth extend retract. on some hydraulic applications it can sound like a higher pitch whining all the way up to hammering that will make you think the pump is going to explode.

generally anything after the pump (valves cylinders hoses ect) will not suck air as its under pressure.

in this case the op can rule out anything past the pump as he has verified no output from pump. so either the pump isn't pumping or isn't getting fluid.

so start by checking suction hose. simple unhook pump end of hose over a drain pan and see if fluid runs out. if fluid runs out in a relatively steady stream your good to go. in the op's case he should have no fluid running out. as even a partially restricted flow would be pumping. cant rule it out so check it at 40 hours its not gonna be sludged up but never know maybe the welder dropped a rag or other foreign object in there that has finally migrated over and sucked into the suction hose. or the hose itself has a kink or has sucked itself down. I once saw where the inner lining on a suction hose had separated and severely restricted flow inside while outside of hose looked perfectly normal.

since almost every commercially made splitter uses a simple gear pump if the gears are turning it will pump. even worn plates, gears, shafts. may prevent pump from building pressure or make pump noisy but it should still flow. a broken pressure relief spring inside the pump may cause reduced flow but you should still get some flow with hose disconnected.

my money with the symptoms described is on a sheared or lost key in the lovejoy. or an input shaft broken. clearances are tight between them gears something gets in there locks up the pump shears the key sometimes it passes but the damage is already done. friction because the key doesn't shear off perfectly square keeps it turning for a while but every time it builds pressure it slips a little more which causes more wear which causes more slippage until finally it isn't turning the pump anymore. but basically if you can see the gears through either the inlet or output port and they are turning it should have flow. it may only be a few pounds pressure if the pump has an internal failure between the first and second stage but should still pump.
 
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if vent in cap is in question remove cap and run it. if it starts flowing then go back and check cap if removing cap makes no difference then replace it and move on.
 
if it were me when I disconnected the output hose from the pump and started it I would have put that hose back in the hydraulic tank so if it came gushing out while testing it wouldn't have lost any. lol
 
notshubby said:
sucking air or cavitating usually makes pump louder and makes cylinder studder since air is more compressible than fluid. it will compress the air to the point it moves then acts like a spring jumping forward then compressing again instead of a smooth extend retract. on some hydraulic applications it can sound like a higher pitch whining all the way up to hammering that will make you think the pump is going to explode.

generally anything after the pump (valves cylinders hoses ect) will not suck air as its under pressure.

in this case the op can rule out anything past the pump as he has verified no output from pump. so either the pump isn't pumping or isn't getting fluid.

so start by checking suction hose. simple unhook pump end of hose over a drain pan and see if fluid runs out. if fluid runs out in a relatively steady stream your good to go. in the op's case he should have no fluid running out. as even a partially restricted flow would be pumping. cant rule it out so check it at 40 hours its not gonna be sludged up but never know maybe the welder dropped a rag or other foreign object in there that has finally migrated over and sucked into the suction hose. or the hose itself has a kink or has sucked itself down. I once saw where the inner lining on a suction hose had separated and severely restricted flow inside while outside of hose looked perfectly normal.

since almost every commercially made splitter uses a simple gear pump if the gears are turning it will pump. even worn plates, gears, shafts. may prevent pump from building pressure or make pump noisy but it should still flow. a broken pressure relief spring inside the pump may cause reduced flow but you should still get some flow with hose disconnected.

my money with the symptoms described is on a sheared or lost key in the lovejoy. or an input shaft broken. clearances are tight between them gears something gets in there locks up the pump shears the key sometimes it passes but the damage is already done. friction because the key doesn't shear off perfectly square keeps it turning for a while but every time it builds pressure it slips a little more which causes more wear which causes more slippage until finally it isn't turning the pump anymore. but basically if you can see the gears through either the inlet or output port and they are turning it should have flow. it may only be a few pounds pressure if the pump has an internal failure between the first and second stage but should still pump.
Click to expand...

What Notshabby said X2
 
OK, put this one in the "what the heck was I looking at" file. First off let me say that I never knew what a lovejoy was until after I bought this splitter. Then I thought there was only 1 set screw and after checking to be sure that the top screw was tight I thought there must be something else wrong. Well, as it turns out the bottom coupler's screw was loose enough that this part did shift/drop enough that eventually I "lost" hydraulics. After closer inspection I could see that the coupler was somewhat damaged so I replaced it, applied some Loctite Blue thread stuff and am good to go.

I did learn how to take apart and reassemble most of the splitter though :)
 
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muncybob said:
OK, put this one in the "what the heck was I looking at" file. First off let me say that I never knew what a lovejoy was until after I bought this splitter. Then I thought there was only 1 set screw and after checking to be sure that the top screw was tight I thought there must be something else wrong. Well, as it turns out the bottom coupler's screw was loose enough that this part did shift/drop enough that eventually I "lost" hydraulics. After closer inspection I could see that the coupler was somewhat damaged so I replaced it, applied some Loctite Blue thread stuff and am good to go.

I did learn how to take apart and reassemble most of the splitter though :)
Click to expand...

Good on ya,the only way to go you gotta get your hands dirty,now you can fix it again if
the event comes back. WAY TO GO!
 
Good deal, glad ya got it fixed! Reminds me that I need to crawl over mine and check all the nuts and bolts before I start splitting again. Love my "little" 22 ton Speeco.
 
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