New 147 updates & electric lift woes

[aprophet2]

My son and I have been having a lot of fun with the 147 we picked up a few months ago. Since my last post we bolted on a new seat, restored the rims, and added new rubber all around. Only 1 out of 4 original tires had a slow leak. I am amazed at the quality of those 50 year old OEM Goodyear tires but they owed us nothing and were deeply cracked in spite of the fact that they still held air, so they've been put out to pasture. On top of all that a lot of scrubbing and degreasing and the old machine really doesn't look too bad. The electric lift works consistently and through its full stroke but when we bolted on the plow last weekend we realized that the lift is really weak. In other words it won't lift the plow completely unless you help it. Does anybody know if this could be low voltage from the starter/gen or if its just worn out? How serviceable are these electric lifts? My search of the forums seem to indicate that there is no direct or obvious aftermarket replacement and my search of google shows that OEM units remaining in the wild are very expensive. Any advice or direction on this lift is appreciated. We're kind of stuck at this point since we bought the tractor in hopes of using it this winter as a plow rig. Thanks!

[Billy-O]

Sharp looking tractor!

Regarding the lift, did you check and make sure all the wiring and connections connections leading to the lift motor are clean, bright and tight? Make sure the ground is good, too! This is something I'd do before assuming the lift motor is bad. Also, does the lift work freely?

[IHCubCadet147]

I can’t help with your lift problem, but that is a nice looking tractor!

[aprophet2]

Yup. It works fine when not under load. Im wondering if anyone has seen these get "weak" but still operate?

[aprophet2]

Does anyone have any direction / troubleshooting suggestions for an electric lift that operates fine when not under load but does not have the power to raise a 42" dozer blade? Thanks

[crazycubtrio]

On my son’s 147 we had similar problems and after replacing a bearing in the lower part of the housing,wire wheeling the worm gear and lubing as well as cleaning up the motor armature it started working decent. What REALLY helped though was installing a spring assist. I’m talking about snugging that baby down so much that the lift won’t go down if an implement is not attached! That being said we still weren’t happy with the up and down speed and found a linear actuator. World of difference with those since the motor and the ram are parallel.

[xcookpac]

Try powering the electric lift with a pair of jumper cables directly from your battery (one 12V positive and one negative). If the lift works better then try just providing 12V power through jumper cables (this tests whether electric lift has good ground). Then try just providing ground through the jumper cables (this tests whether electric lift has good positive supply). Once you do the above tests, you should have a better idea whether the problem is the lift itself, positive wiring or ground circuit wiring (or all of the above).

[aprophet2]

Good stuff - thanks fellas. Back at it this weekend...

[Tater305]

Also fighting a E lift as well, bought a used one that turned out the worm gear was bad. It would take the slack out of the pin but would stop and the cylinder would just spin. Swapped it with the original one that was on the tractor and now it works fine. Besides the switch being bad it worked it I hot wired it.

[finsruskw]

The cylinder is spinning because the clutch on the end of the rod is not adjusted tight enough.