170 3 point hitch won't go down

I have to start off by saying that this is my father-in-laws tractor and I know very little about it. A while back, he was brush hogging and lifted the brush hog all the way up. When he tried to lower it, nothing he could do would make it lower. We have since removed the brush hog with a backhoe. If you hit the other hydraulic levers, the pump binds up like normal (no front end loader or other equipment to test if they're working properly). today, we disconnected the hydraulic lines to the two cylinders and set the bucket of the backhoe on the lift arms to try and make them go down. Wouldn't move. What could be wrong? Is there some type of cylinder lock that I'm missing? Please help and thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum.If you have taken the hoses loose where they attach to the cylinders and still can't get it to go down,then you have some extremely poor or rusted cylinders.

DSeries4 wrote: The traction booster linkage under the hydraulic console is rusted up and pushing on the traction booster valve.  Common problem after 40 some years of water and dirt creating rust. There is a cam that is pushing on the traction booster valve.  Pull the cam away from the valve and your hydraulics should lower when you use the hydraulic lever.  The best thing to do is to take the cam apart (sits on a bushing) and clean the rust out and apply some anti seize to it - should be good for another 40 years after that. This is a picture of what you are looking for (from my 175).  On the right is the cam I am referring to.  it's a bit of a tough spot to get to, but since I had everything apart to paint...

I doubt if that is his problem since he took the hoses off the cylinders. But the last one I did had a stuck valve that the cam mechanism activates. I was able to reach in fron the side with a pair of channel-locks and twist the valve end slightly and it popped right out.

Linn is right, unless you unhooked the wrong lines.   MACK

rebelfireman02 wrote: we disconnected the hydraulic lines to the two cylinders and set the bucket of the backhoe on the lift arms to try and make them go down. Wouldn't move. What could be wrong? Is there some type of cylinder lock that I'm missing? Please help and thanks in advance.

 If the hydraulic lines to both cylinders are disconnected, and the arms won't go down, I see NO WAY it can be the traction booster cam causing the problem.


Edited by CTuckerNWIL - 18 Apr 2016 at 6:42am

Thanks for the help. I will try all of this tomorrow when I am off work and see if it helps! I appreciate it!

170 should have the small shaft cylinder, Take the offending cylinder off and unscrew the end cap that has the cylinder rod thru it, and pull plunger from cylinder and you may see why it is stuck. could be the seal wedged and not allowing it down. or the nut came off inside and ..... well you will find out.
Now if its like the cylinder like the one in Eldon's picture with the big shaft cylinder, then you have to get the cylinder collapsed to pry a keeper ring off down in the bottom thru the hose inlet port which allows the cylinder rod to then be extracted from bore.