Farm Equipment - 185 Power Steering

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185 Power Steering

Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=206339
Printed Date: 19 Apr 2025 at 8:01am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: 185 Power Steering

Posted By: Grave
Subject: 185 Power Steering
Date Posted: 17 Apr 2025 at 8:42am

The 185 is our spray tractor, we cover 2500 acres a year with it. We run GPS and ez steer in all are equipment, mostly old stuff. I have been struggling to get good response from the steering system in our 185 and believe that it is becsue of the force it takes to turn the wheel.

Is there a way to turn up the hydrulics pressure to make the steering easier?

Could we put a hydraulic cylinder with a larger piston on the steering?

Replies:

Posted By: DanielW
Date Posted: 17 Apr 2025 at 12:05pm

I'm sure you could. But I'd recommend checking to make sure everything's as it should be before modifying it. My 180 and our neighbour's 185 both have finger-tip, very light steering. Probably some of the easiest steering tractors I've ever driven. First thing I would do would be to make sure the spindles aren't packed with old, tough, dried-up grease (this can make a huge difference on ease of steering), make sure there's no slop or bad bearings in other steering components, and if it's still tough I'd start checking pressures and rod seals in the steering cylinders/hydraulic circuit.

Just a guess, but I suspect either stiff spindles or that the pump's in need of a rebuild. I believe it's the centre section of their three-section pumps that are used for the steering, but someone with a better memory than me will chime on on that. Doesn't really matter: If you're rebuilding one section of the pump, you'd rebuild all three. They're a pretty straight-forward pump to rebuild - you just have to make sure you get all the shimming correct.

Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 17 Apr 2025 at 6:13pm

Two answers...NO. You cannot just turn up the "pressure" to make the steering work better. And NO. There should be no need for a larger diameter steering cylinder in any kind of "normal" use. Think about the thousands of 180-185 tractors that have had manure loaders on them for the last 40 years. I've never heard anyone asking what you're asking. So, not being right next to the tractor and having to guess, is the chassis laden with a whole bunch of extra weight that would heavily load the front tires making it difficult to steer??? I'll have to wait for an answer on that. What age/year is your tractor ?? I know there was a vendor change to the power steering control valve in 1977 or 78 it seems. I notice things. I noticed that the effort required to actually turn the steering wheel was higher. But, I never had one customer complain about it. I had a dozen R-52's back in 1992-93 that had high effort steering. High enough in fact that I had people complaining. It used to take me about an hour, but I'd drop the steering valve down, pull the end cap off, remove 2 (of the 6) leaf type centering springs and reassemble. After that, it was back to pretty much one finger steering. Now, if you are using one of those rubber wheel gizmo's rubbing against the steering wheel for auto steer, AND you happen to have what I might call a high effort steering control valve, you might be onto something. If you didn't complain about this before you added the auto steer, maybe your effort is a little high, but you got along with it ?? If you cannot even turn the front wheels (at 1,200 RPM or more)....your steering system is overloaded or your pressure is not at 1600 psi at the relief valve.

Posted By: Clay
Date Posted: 17 Apr 2025 at 7:00pm

If the tires are underinflated, steering will be hard to turn.

My D-17 does not turn easily when the front tires are underinflated. This is especially true when hauling a large round bale of hay.

Posted By: Grave
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2025 at 9:01am

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No extra weight, its a spray tractor so we want minimal compaction. It's a 1979, i believe, SN8143. I made 3D printed gears for all tractor to alliviate any slippage. The force to turn seems constant at high RPM, no where near as easy as our 7000 or 200. According to the sevice manual the PSI for the steering shoulf be 1550 +- 50 psi gonna check that.

Posted By: DrAllis
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2025 at 10:06am

Steering effort should be comparable to both the 200 and 7000 with one exception. The 180/185 will have to be throttled up to 1000 to 1200 RPM or more to be as good as the other two are at an idle. That's normal. Steering relief pressure is in that 1600 psi range. That is not operating pressure. There is a brass bushing inside the steering wheel tube that could be dry and could cause high effort.

Posted By: ranger43
Date Posted: 19 Apr 2025 at 7:32am

We have 78' 185. One owner, low hours when we got 10 years ago. From day 1 noticeably harder to steer that our 170, 175, 180, 210. So maybe it is primarily related to the vendor change?