5718 Hydraulic Lift Stopped Working

[p5718]

We have a year 1973 Zetor 5718 and the hydraulic lift just stopped working after being used. Gearbox oil was low and has subsequently been topped up, but the lift still does not work. All positions of the various levers have been tried. The PTO does not appear to be working either, but has never been used by us in 10 years of ownership.

 

[Renze]

You can put off the oil pump drive with the PTO gear shift.
The pto selector lever on the floor should be in lowest position.
Also check the position flow regulator.

 

[p5718]

Thanks for the advice Renze. The lever I have tried in all 4 positions, but this does not help . It has been left in the lowest position as you have suggested. I am assuming, although the manual is not clear, that the flow regulator is the one under the seat. If it is, I have tried this in several positions. Any other ideas?

 

[crystalman]

I think if you push the lever too far forwards you end up with another neutral position. If the pto is not working either it must be a lever related problem.Is the 540/1000 rpm pto selector lever pointing to the left as if this is pointing to the front I think this will also put the pump in neutral.

 

[Renze]

Well said, crystalman. When the PTO 540/1000 rpm selector is in neutral, the oil pump isn't driven either.

 

[p5718]

Thanks Crystalman and Renze. The hydraulic lift is now working. It did require the PTO to be placed out of the neutral position. I had some trouble putting this into either the 540 or 1000 position, but stopped the engine, selected 540, restarted the engine and up came the plough. The flow control is doing its job so all I need to learn now is the various postions of the hydraulic controls. Initially when the plough was lifted, as soon as the lever was let go, the plough dropped back down, but after some use, it stays up as it should. Thanks again for the great advice.

 

[Renze]

For what kind of work do you use your 5718 ?
You said you havent used the PTO in 10 years, but you DO have a plough.. that makes me wonder, most tractor users use their PTO often, but newbies usually dont use a plough ??

 

[p5718]

The tractor belongs to my Father. We used to have a farm (including a 80HP Zetor ) where my father was in a partnership for about 40 years. When my father came to retire at 65, he wanted to continue in a small way, but the farm was sold. My father continued to rent about 2 acres of land and bought himself the 5718 for 600. This was about 14 years ago as my father is now 79 and still going strong (rather like the tractor). The tractor is only used about three times a year and now the hydraulic lift is working, a three furrow Ransomes plough will be used to basically turn the whole field for the winter months. At some point a chisel plough will be used to break things up and go deeper and after that in the spring a tine and harrows will prepare for planting. The finer work will be done using a 5HP Agria rotavator and manual labour. Products grown are mainly market garden like broad/runner beans, carrots, raddish, sweetcorn, onions, pumpkins etc. We have no implements that require the use of the PTO. I was helping my father to fix the problem, but had never used the tractor, hence my ignorance.

 

[Renze]

Ah.. So you and your father are vegetable growers ??
What kind of crops does he have ??

 

[p5718]

My father is the vegetable grower, I tend to be the occasional week-end help . I got involved in the loudspeaker industry many years ago, so farming is very much a distant memory. As it is more a retirement hobby than a business now, my father grows things he likes to grow and sell rather than crops he needs to sell or likes to eat. Beans including broad, runner and french are favourites and sweetcorn, onion sets, carrots, radishes, marrows, corgettes and pumpkins, plus anything else easy to grow.