Replacing 1/4” control lines

Yes, I just did this repair this past fall.

my suggestion would be to have a helper, between the two of us we still had to fight it to replace the bundle. You will have to replace the entire bundle most likely instead of just the damaged ones, mine were all taped together in a bundle.
1 mistake I made was I went through and bundled all of mine with electrical tape every 12" or so, and then found that with them being in a perfect circle that they would not fit through the lower boom which has a oblonged space for the cables. I then had to remove all of the tape as we pulled it through the lower boom. The upper boom does not have a "wireway" (electrical background so that is the best word that I have to describe the conduit like section in the boom for the tubing to go through) so you will want these bundled together with tape to prevent getting damaged by the cables that move in the boom.

I also used fishsticks (small diameter fiberglass poles used in the electrical industry for fishing wires through tight areas) a heavy duty pull string and a wire lube to help the tubing slide in.

It was a physical job getting them in there, and it was not uncommon for us to only get it to move 3 inches at a time even with one person pushing and the other pulling on the opposite end but as long as its moving you'll get it.


another tip on replacing them, if they have not broken, or at least not all of them, unhook the lines one at a time and use an air compressor to identify the tubing on each end, then draw out the connections and create labels, this way you will have the upper controls connected to the correct lower controls when you are done. on mine half of the lines broke during removal ( I did not use an air compressor as I am suggesting) my plan was to tape a label on one end, then pull it all the way out and see where the other end was connected. with half of my tubing broken I had to deduce where 3 of them went, I got one correct and I had the other two (rotation clockwise and rotation counter clockwise) reversed. easy fix, just took one end off and swapped with the other tubing.

My final tip for now is that once done these will have to be bled, to do this raise the boom straight up in the air and then crack the thumb screws at the lower controls to allow the system to bleed (might be obvious but the truck will need to be running and the PTO pulled) also you can use a clamp to hold in the palm button to make the lower controls activate. This will engage the hydraulic system that will push the air out of your lines. For my truck I could not get the lines to bleed, and so I rebuilt the pistol grip controls at the bucket, very easy rebuild that took me 3 hours and cost $8 in O-rings. It is a time consuming process to bleed the system, but you can walk away while its pumping, just come back and check on it periodically. Not sure if you have to do it this way, but I bled one line at a time, you can lower the bucket and try the upper controls, if a certain function will not work then there is still air in the lines.

Sorry for the long post and if it seems jumbled up, just trying to get it all in writing as I remember it so I don't forget anything that I ran into. If you have any issues or other questions feel free to ask, as I may have experienced it too and forgotten to write it down. Also for reference my bucket is a hi-ranger, yours might vary a little depending on year and make.
 
one more thing, any where that you have exposed tubing after your repair, make sure that you cover them with something to block the UV light. The UV rays is what makes the tubing brittle to begin with and leads to them breaking. Something as simple as wrapping them with electrical tape will work.
 
Justin, do you understand how the pistol grip works? I'm guessing a pressure regulator sends low pressure fluid up to the bucket, then after that Im not sure how the upper valves function. I understand that the lower controls have a small line either side that actuates them, I'm just not clear on the fluid dynamics. Its very hard to diagnose problems without a working knowledge of the system.
 
Airhead said:
Justin, do you understand how the pistol grip works? I'm guessing a pressure regulator sends low pressure fluid up to the bucket, then after that Im not sure how the upper valves function. I understand that the lower controls have a small line either side that actuates them, I'm just not clear on the fluid dynamics. Its very hard to diagnose problems without a working knowledge of the system.
Click to expand...

I have no formal education in how the system works, just as a disclaimer, but assuming you have the same setup as mine you will have a bank of 3 levers at the ground with tubes on either side of each lever as you described. At the top of the bank you will have a 7th tube that is your supply to the system, it pumps up the the upper controls and is the only 1/4" connector not located at the bottom on the pistol grip. Once the fluid is pumped to the pistol grip it then bleeds past the controls back to the hydraulic tank, this bleeding past is designed into the system and allows you to bleed the air out from the ground. When you call for a function from the bucket it diverts the pressure through that line and the fluid in the tubing pushes the lower controls to operate the bucket.


Hope this helps answer your question.
 
The red arrow is the pressure line into the pistol grip, the green arrows are your rotation function that you mentioned before was giving you fits. I forget which is which, but as oriented in this picture the two without arrows on top control the up and down of one of the booms; the two unmarked lines on the bottom control the other boom.

20190122_211046.webp
 
yep, that is the same as mine and I figured mine works pretty much like you describe. When I disconnected the "swing Left" line at the lower controls ( to bleed air) I put it in a bucket and twisted the pistol left. When I did the oil flow increased.
When I did the same with the "swing right" line, and twisted the pistol right, the oil flow stopped !!?? WTF ?? All day in the rain covered in oil getting pretty annoyed.... All bucket functions work great except swing right.
 
You might try disconnecting the tubing from the pistol grip and see if you get an increased amount of oil from the controller. If so then you may have a blockage in your tubing or a crack in the line.
 
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