A freind of mine has a bucket truck, it's an older (around 1990-91) Int. 4900 with a telelect (sp?) boom, its a pole truck with the auger/claws.

Anyway, he has never had any tools for the hydraulic accessory connectors up top, and aquired some lines/tools. The lines have parker quick connects on them, the boom has some other type (damaged) of connector, and the tools have yet another type. Trying to get everything to fit, but I can't find out the basic info on ordering new fittings.

The connecting lines are 1/2" rubber hoses, one has 3/8" MPT ends and the other has 1/2" MPT ends. Threaded onto those are Parker FF series (FF-371-8FP for example) connectors, they have a flush face on them. The fittings on the bucket side are both 3/8" threads, one is a larger connector (probably 3/8 vs 1/2, supply and return?) so I'm looking for a chart or something that lists the different fittings to match these up.

To make it even less uniform, the tools seem to have a 1/4" supply and 3/8" return. Does anyone have any experience with these type connectors? How about a supplier that lists different sizes? Thanks for any help.

 

Ok, here is what I would do.
get everything swapped over to 1/2" parker FF series. on the smaller hoses, you can reduce down without affecting flow.
The flush face connections are "zero leakage" meaning they wont trap a bit of oil between the fittings that you'll loose when you disconnect.
Depending on what your local hydraulic shop carries, you may have to go with Aeroquip.
By all means, dont let them try to tell you that this will interchange with that. stick with a single brand whether it parker or aeroquip. You can go chinese knockoff, but you'll replace them more often from blown seals or broken check valves.

 

Sometimes you're best off just finding out what your local tractor supply or NAPA stocks, and replace everything for uniformity. I'd start by replacing damaged connectors in pairs.

I do some of my son's design and setup for hydraulics. Sometimes we use different size fitting just so lines in a bundle don't accidentally get mixed up. Saves blowing the sides off hydraulic motors in the field.

 

Awright, here's a question for ya;

My backhoe would be pretty easy to remove from the machine, (4 pins), if it weren't for the 12 hydraulic lines. They're all the same size and they all attach within 6" of each other at the valve block, which is exposed. Is there a way of doing it so that they can only go where they're supposed to? Essentially there are 6 pairs.

I could rig a 3 point hitch if I could get the backhoe out of the way, hence my reason for asking. I've never been able to figure it out.

 

sounds like its time to call a hydraulics shop and have them make you a stab plate.

 

What is a 'stab plate'?

 

its a pair of plates with several hydraulic and/or electrical fittings on it. the fittings are pressed together and the plates are bolted together.

http://www.maxbar.com/assets/images/stab-plate.jpg


Only place I have seen it used is on subsea equipment.

 

Chaikwa

Get a couple feet of old school telephone wire. The kind with multiple pairs, all different colours. Use this to mark the lines ( red - red, blue -blue, green - green, etc.) this way, when you reconnect, all you need to do, is match the colour tag on the hose, with the colour tag on the valve body. This stuff is nearly bulletproof too.

 

I'm sure that you've seen the brackets on farm tractors that hold the hydraulic connections in pairs. I've seen tractors with 4 pairs so 6 pairs should be doable.

If I were doing it, I'd get hoses made to run from the valve block to an accessible location (edge of a fender?) where things aren't so tight and put female hyd. connections on the end of those hoses mounted in brackets. Then you can put male ends on the hoses coming from the hoe to mate with the appropriate female ends. As far as keeping the correct ends paired, it could be as simple as tying a colored piece of wire or zip tie around each male/female pair of ends or you could paint the ends to match (6 pair/6 colors).

A stab plate would be a nice foolproof way of doing it but low-tech might be more affordable.

On edit - Pind beat me to the wire idea. Great minds think alike.

 

Colored zip ties , baby.

 

i know that you're cheap so just buy six cans of spray piant in differ colors.

 

thats like $6...

one can of paint and make stripes...