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New old forklift acquired.

berk

Aluminum
Joined
Nov 10, 2012
Location
portland
03868696-F912-44DF-8148-C50BAABF151C.jpgPicked up an old baker forklift yesterday and started tinkering on it immediately. It’s in fair shape I guess. Runs pretty good but smokes a little. It might need a head gasket. Little looking indicates that it’s got a continental Y112 flathead engine. It seems to have been running on gasoline at some point, and there’s ancient smelly goop in the fuel tank, but it’s been converted to propane.

Couple questions if anyone is familiar with these. One, how does the automatic trans work? It seems to provide fwd and rev but it has an odd behavior, when on slopes it doesn’t want to go as rpm increases, but just off idle it does try to catch you can feel it. But then it loses the torque from engine. Hard to explain. Feels like it low on fluid and raised rpm pumps it dry or something and starves it.

Second is the cylinders. They are smooth and don’t really leak but there is a tiny bit of weep around them. I don’t think they warrant resealing yet, but I was wondering if any miracle seal swell or similar would be recommended or if that’s just lame.
 
Only way to fix cylinders is to rebuild them. Don't even try that hydraulic stop-leak.

As far as the trans goes, it could be low of fluid. If it has plenty of fluid and still acts as you describe, you probably have a bad trans and/or torque converter. If you it does look like you have to tear into the trans, you've got a decision to make, as you are probably fixing to spend more on the lift than it is worth. Transmission parts and labor can get expensive, if you can even find the parts for older lifts. I'm not saying don't fix it, but just know you're going to have to use it a long time to get your money's worth.
 
Does it have a third pedal that acts similar to clutch? This is an inching pedal, it could be out of adjustment or just stuck almost engaged. Being a Baker it may be to old for the inching pedal though. You could replace the rod seals on it without taking the entire cylinder apart, usually without even disconnecting hyd lines.
 
Well I need to figure out where the trans fluid is lol. It’s not apparent. Must be under floor.
 
Does it have a third pedal that acts similar to clutch? This is an inching pedal, it could be out of adjustment or just stuck almost engaged. Being a Baker it may be to old for the inching pedal though. You could replace the rod seals on it without taking the entire cylinder apart, usually without even disconnecting hyd lines.

Yes it has the inching pedal. Yes maybe it’s adjusted poorly. That would make sense.
 
See if you can pull up on the pedal to get it to release a little more. I have a datsun that came with a stuck inching pedal, it was not used much so was sticking. A little ol on the moving parts as well as where the pivot goes onto the trans made it work as it should.
 
D043CC2E-6E82-4B40-B55B-FAAFAD15CE12.jpgWell further inspection today reveals that both pedals are tied together as one solid welded piece, but there is an inching system on them. Not sure how it works but I saw the plunger going to tranny. I also found trans dipstick, which showed nice clean blood at the low mark. I put in about a half quart. Is there a filter on the trans?

There was no t stat in the engine, so I found one and installed it and let the engine run a good while which cleared up the oil and it was running very smooth, until the propane reg froze up. Idecided to fill the tank and let it run another good while and curiously this time the propane rigs got hot. That was a surprise. It may have had air in the coolant circuit after t stat for a while. Anyway I gave it a good spray and adjusted on it a bit and the smoke is a lot less so that’s great.
 
Pretty sure on mine when you push on one pedal they both go down and if you push the other just it goes down. I will have to see in the morning which is which. Does it look like they ae suposed to be welded ot did someone do you a favor by welding them to make it work "better"?
The propane regulators need to be cleaned out periodically, the have a plug that can be removed to get the gunk out of them, do it hot when the goo is soft. They have a hot water line to them so they do not freeze up.
 
I’ll check pedals again but they seem to be made in one unit from factory. In other words, both pedals disengage the drive when pushed.
 
On mine the brake pedal works by itself, it activates the brakes without disengaging the transmission or moving the inching pedal.Like a normal brake pedal would work.
When you push the inching pedal (on left) that disengages the transmission and also is connected to the brake pedal so brakes are also applied when inching pedal is pushed. This is a mid '80's datsun 5000 lb lift
 
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On mine the brake pedal works by itself, it activates the brakes without disengaging the transmission or moving the inching pedal.Like a normal brake pedal would work.
When you push the inching pedal (on left) that disengages the transmission and also is connected to the brake pedal so brakes are also applied when inching pedal is pushed. This is a mid '80's datsun 5000 lb lift
these pedals seem factory paired as one piece with the same duties, both actuate inching system. This is an Otis baker fjd-025 lift.
 
I previously owned 3 Bakers--
one 6000 lb big tire yard lift and 2------- 5000 lb warehouse models

6k lift I recall had clark transmission--gas powered flat 6 engine
unit was too fast for gentle handling of delicate loads--very difficult to feather movement into load

5000 lb model was 10+ years newer--Baker built transmission which had few friction plates as compared to Hyster--and slipped under load going up incline
they were built for flat warehouse floors--these trannys very prone to atf leaks---we had cookie baking pans wired under the lift truck and suctioned fluid weekly--while continuously adding

once slippage begins--you are likely facing unit removal and rebuild

https://www.liberatedmanuals.com/TM-10-3930-623-12.pdf

manual provided by pm member--4k version
 
I previously owned 3 Bakers--
one 6000 lb big tire yard lift and 2------- 5000 lb warehouse models

6k lift I recall had clark transmission--gas powered flat 6 engine
unit was too fast for gentle handling of delicate loads--very difficult to feather movement into load

5000 lb model was 10+ years newer--Baker built transmission which had few friction plates as compared to Hyster--and slipped under load going up incline
they were built for flat warehouse floors--these trannys very prone to atf leaks---we had cookie baking pans wired under the lift truck and suctioned fluid weekly--while continuously adding

once slippage begins--you are likely facing unit removal and rebuild

https://www.liberatedmanuals.com/TM-10-3930-623-12.pdf

manual provided by pm member--4k version
That appears to be a much different unit, but thanks anyway. This one has an Otis built transaxle, model 100449. It has a toque converter and runs on red blood. I’m still diagnosing the run conditions, it seems to drive fine, not sure about hill climbing but it made it up my sloped drive fine, but it didn’t want to burn out on the wet steel trailer backing up that’s for sure. Maybe it’s designed to have slip in reverse but not forward? Dunno. I scored a factory repair manual from eBay which is great. Will do more investigating.
Do you know if there are online manuals like the one you posted for this model? FJD series.
 
my baker 5k machines were otis-baker

torque convertor plus friction clutch pak tranny

red atf -----------clutch paks are identical forward reverse
slippage is usually worn friction discs--rarely pressure bypass assembly


go to this website and search manuals--governments purchased many of these machines and manuals are free legal access

Igor Chudov is member here and good guy

Igor Chudov
 

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Do you think frictions are available for it? I wouldn’t have expected them to be worn out at 3300 hrs. I guess that is quite a while though.
 
both friction discs and pressure plates should be available--both are easy to produce
my concern about Baker units is too few friction discs were used in comparison to hyster--I sold my bakers without rebuild but routinely tear down Hyster lifts with clutch pak rebuild
 
both friction discs and pressure plates should be available--both are easy to produce
my concern about Baker units is too few friction discs were used in comparison to hyster--I sold my bakers without rebuild but routinely tear down Hyster lifts with clutch pak rebuild
I see what you mean about the friction discs, there are only one for fwd and one rev. The manual details some pressure tests to check the bypass regulators and I’ll do that at some point. Also shows a filter screen which will be a little hard to access as it’s right under the truck. I’ll drive it up on blocks maybe. I’ll clean it and put new fluid, although that might make slippage worse. That old gritty fluid sometimes masks worn discs.
 
I was waiting to be helped at the auto parts store the other day and saw some trans fluid additive to help slipping. Might be worth looking at if it still slips after fluid change. It might have been made by Lucas for about $25 jar.
edit:
Looks like this is it, they may have others as well:
Transmission Fix
 
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Yes I was thinking along those lines too. I’ve actually use the tranny doc shudder fix on my very sensitive sprinter tans with good results.
 








 
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