Clark CF-60 mast won't lower.

Without warning, I can no longer lower the mast on my CF-60 and am hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. This is something that happened overnight with no previous indicators that something was going wrong. It's not a machine that I use everyday, but I've owned it for years and it was fine a couple of weeks ago and the night before when I prepped my load for moving in the morning. Tilt front and back, and up, still work fine. When I lift the spool it goes up, release and it returns to neutral, but I can't depress it. Also, it hasn't even leaked down after sitting for a few days. Thinking it might be a linkage issue, I disconnected that and tried to work it manually, but he spool still won't depress. Any thoughts before I have to dig into this thing?

Pull the cap off of the bottom of the spool. It should have 2 allen head cap screws holding it on. Under the cap you should find a centering spring held to the spool with a bolt in the end of spool. My guess is the bolt broke or came unscrewed and will not let the spool go down.
It should be an easy fix, not even any oil loss.

That would be great if that's all it is! I can sort of see what you're talking about. It's a little hard to access. When I can get it inside and dig into it I'll report back with what I find -- thanks!

Thanks for the help with this. I did like you said and removed the cap. Removing the cap on this is entirely the cap itself. It is a deep-drawn aluminum cup threaded on one end with a hex on the other. No loose parts were inside. I carefully washed it out and there was nothing but some sludge. The spool moved easily with the lever. After being reinstalled everything is happy, so it's a bit of a mystery to me as to why it was stuck solid.

Could it have been frozen water in the sludge?

My guess is that the carriage is jammed up in the mast uprights or the cylinder has been extended to its max and has tilted forward a tiny bit and is in a bind itself. I would be careful of how you address this as it might come down unexpectedly if the system has been partially drained.

I think I would get in the machine and 'rattle' the mast back and forth with the tilt cylinders to see if something shakes loose. Be careful!

Stuart

Oops...re-reading the thread it appears the carriage won't go down because the lever will not function properly. You have pulled the dust cover off the bottom and verified that spring is intact and there is nothing in the way to prevent the spool from being moved in that direction...but it won't! If it's not some binding in the handle itself then one would almost assume their is some sliver of steel or some type of debris could in the spool. Haven't seen that before but there is always a first..right.

It might be a piece of material that's broken off the inside of a hydraulic hose..just a WAG. I would repeatedly flip the lever in the up direction, letting it pop back of the off position by itself, this might dislodge whatever it stuck in the spool. You could also push the lever with some pretty good pressure in the down direction in an attempt to cleave the item jamming the spool into pieces.

Screwing with the machine with the carriage at full height is dangerous if you don't know what you're doing..get help if you are in doubt.

Stuart

--------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

I would chain the carriage and mast in place until you can find the problem.
Sudden drops or squirting oil are not areas to take chances.

true temper said:

Could it have been frozen water in the sludge?

Click to expand...

That was my original thought as the thing has lived outside for decades, but it has never been an issue in sub-freezing temperatures before, I intentionally kept waiting for warm weather to see if it would resolve itself, and I tried it one last time yesterday immediately before removing the cap and the condition was the same. The spring rebounds off the bottom of the cap, so I expected that once I reinstalled the cap that the problem would return on account of something with that assembly being jammed up, but everything is perfect now.

To the other few comments above:

1: As stated, the issue is resolved since R&R'ing the cap.

2: The mast was never at full height.

3: With respect to all the stuff about shaking, rattling, and rolling, etc., all that was tried in advance with no change in condition.

4: It was secured during the course of the work (thanks for the concern but always worth repeating for others).

4: What had caused the issue remains unresolved as no debris or mechanical interference was found. As stated in my original post, I disconnected the linkage from the spool to isolate the problem. The linkage was fine, yet the spool could not moved down with a prybar. Why R&R'ing the cap would resolve the issue I cannot say, but it was no doubt directly related to that. Everything is back in good working order and I will report back should something change.

... for now ....



------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

We had a Gove 28 ton crane that had a hyd hose come apart on the inside, and sent little bits of rubber throughout the system. They kept getting stuck in the valve bank and would jam up the valves. I bet we had to take the valve bank off 5 or 6 times to clean it before we got it all out.