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EF3 Loader Joystick Repair |
| The Earthforce EF-3 has a single loader joystick lever. Fore and aft for boom lift, left and right to curl the bucket. The lever is Z shaped and screws into a base, an aluminum block tapped for the lever. That block connects to three actuators that lift, drop and curl the bucket. Sometimes, I push the lever forward, like to drop the boom or put it into float, it tends to unscrew the lever from its base. That makes the machine no fun to use. So it has to be fixed. |  |
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Just so happened I needed this to be fixed in the middle of clearing the driveway from the 2016 Snowstorm called Jonah. I was about a tenth of a mile into it and had another two tenths to go. | ||
| Here is the lever in the block. Those four holes in the corners hold countersunk hex head bolts that go into the hydraulic actuators underneath. The lever screws into the block and is held by that nut. |  |
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My first quick attempt to fix was to run a tap through the threads to clean them up. It cleaned the two or three good ones up, but they weren't mighty enough to hold tight when I put a tiny bit of torque on the 17mm nut. Its too bad the other 10 threads had relinquished their puny aluminum hold long ago. I had no choice but to fab something new. | ||
| I had a little plate of aluminum, though it was about half the thickness of the block. So I figured I could just bolt the lever into the middle of the plate with a nut on both sides instead of tapping the hole. Here I drill the four corner holes. Only needed three, but with four, I would have options in case my measurements weren't so good. |  |
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The finished plate prior to being precisely cut out. | ||
| Precisely cutting out the plate using my high end machining equipment. Here I make the cut along the length of the stock. When finished, I'll cut the line along the width. This is all preprogrammed into my Machining computer so that I can make the part exactly right for this job. Lucky I only need one. |  |
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All cut out and mounted on the actuators. Works well. | ||
| So after that unexpected hour of fabbing, I was back to the snow moving. No more problems with that lever. Still took me five or six hours to do the other two tenths of the driveway and touch up a bit of the first tenth.. |  |
