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Hydraulic Troubleshooting
The complete course. An absolute must for anyone responsible for the maintenance or repair of a hydraulic system. From the physics of hydraulics through schematic reading, component function, troubleshooting techniques, adjustments, and reliability. Nationally recognized as a standard of excellence among hydraulic courses. Downloadable certificate upon achieving a passing grade on the final exam.
Hydraulic Safety
Hydraulics does not receive much recognition for being an occupational hazard. Surprisingly, hydraulics is not recognized as a licensed trade nor is it listed as an occupation, despite the fact that 25% of occupations are exposed to hydraulics. Few hydraulic courses, whether taught in colleges or by private training companies, have a very comprehensive hydraulic safety regimen. In my career, I have come across many horrifying practices in the day-to-day operation and maintenance of hydraulic systems. I am regularly surprised that more people are not injured or killed than there are, though there are PLENTY. This hydraulic safety course examines bodily contact with fluids, injection injury hazards, whipchecks (and their shortcomings!), stored energy in places you may not know to check and much more. If you work on or around hydraulics, you owe it to yourself to take this course.
Schematic Reading
If you aren’t troubleshooting from the schematic, you aren’t really troubleshooting – you’re parts changing! Fluid power schematics are not really hard to understand if you approach learning how to use them from the right perspective. While there are admittedly a lot of schematic symbols to memorize, there are only a few characteristics. If you focus on the characteristics, then, when you encounter a symbol you have never seen before, it’s a simple matter of studying how the symbol is built to understand the component it represents. In this course, you will learn my system to quickly become proficient in using this valuable troubleshooting tool.
Fluid Maintenance
A very high percentage of hydraulic failures is caused by improper care of the fluid. My own personal experience bears this out to some degree. While there are certainly other causes of failure, it is a rare component indeed that I have ever seen removed from the system and I could not have attributed its failure to improper care of the fluid.
There’s a lot more to fluid maintenance than changing the filters and keeping up the oil level. Take this course to understand how the fluid and the reservoir work together, avoiding overheating, selecting filters by Beta rating, oil sampling & analysis, eliminating leaks and much more.
Troubleshooting Hydraulic Pumps
The first component often changed in the hydraulic system is the pump. This is usually a mistake. Not only is the pump likely to be the most expensive component, the component that would take the most time to replace (thereby guaranteeing the greatest amount of system downtime), and the component likely to make the biggest mess while changing, of all the components in the system, the pump is the least likely component to be causing almost any problem you might have. Learn in this course how to eliminate (or confirm) the pump as a bad component so you can get on to the business of finding the real problem.
Troubleshooting Directional Valves
The directional valve sends the fluid where we need it for the system to do its job. They come in a lot of varieties and sizes, but most of them work similarly. Some are just more complex than others. In this course we explain the operation and troubleshooting of solenoid operated valves, hydraulic piloted valves (both internally and externally piloted), two-stage valves, various forms of manually operated valves, detented valves, poppet valves and much more.
The directional valve is the component most newcomers to hydraulics have trouble understanding. They are explained in full detail here with the help of animated valves and systems along with cutaway valves to see the internal workings. The best methods of troubleshooting valves are presented with close attention paid to working safely.
Check Valves & Logic Valves
The simplest form of directional valve, the check valve is often overlooked in the system. Sometimes they are hard to find since they may look a lot like a pipe junction or even a hex bolt. Many a good pump has been replaced only to find a check valve was stuck. Learn how the check valve can be used either as a directional control or a pressure control and what will happen if it fails. Pilot-to-open and pilot-to-close check valves are fully explained as well as demonstrating troubleshooting techniques. Learn in this class the six things most people don’t know about check valves and the failures they can emulate. Most importantly, the necessary safety measures that must be taken as these valves lock pressure in the system after shutdown.
Along with check valves, logic valves are included in this course. Learn how the logic valve is more conducive to high pressure systems than conventional hydraulic plumbing and valves. These valves can be the hardest component to diagnose unless you understand how to use the schematic to troubleshoot. Also discussed are the advantages and disadvantages of valves mounted in manifolds and the special techniques needed to effectively determine which valve is bad and how to properly flush the manifold whenever a valve is replaced.
Pressure Controls
Pressure controls are critical to the smooth, safe operation of the system, but they are largely misunderstood and often mistaken for other valves on the schematic. The subtle differences are fully explained so that you always know what valve you are dealing with and the particular characteristics. How to properly adjust these valves is discussed in detail as well as the symptoms that will be shown as they fail. Pressure reducing valves, reducing relieving valves, air bleed valves, sequence valves, and counterbalance valves all are covered fully, including the safety measures that must be taken where pressure gets locked in the system even though it is shut down.
Hydraulic Troubleshooting
This is the complete, definitive hydraulic troubleshooting course, famous for fulfilling the Five Things a Hydraulic Troubleshooter Needs to Know:
- The FUNCTION of every component in the system. If you are unaware of the function of any component, you have no way of knowing if it could be causing your problem. This course explains fully the function of most standard hydraulic components.
- How to read and use a hydraulic SCHEMATIC as a troubleshooting tool. The best five minutes you will ever spend troubleshooting your system will be spent tracing the flow on your schematic. Yet, most technicians I meet have not been taught how to read schematics, so they miss out on the benefit of using them. Schematic reading is seamlessly integrated into this course, not requiring heavy memorization, but instead fully explaining the characteristics of every symbol. All standard symbols are discussed, but with the firm understanding of the characteristics, if the students encounter a symbol they haven’t seen before, they can easily interpret its meaning.
- How to TROUBLESHOOT individual components without removing them from the system. Never remove a component from the system without good reason to believe it is bad. Whenever anything is removed from the system, it becomes open to airborne contaminants. The student will learn how to test components without removing them.
- How to properly ADJUST the system. Most systems are adjusted haphazardly on the fly. This course will teach the student how to tell when something is out of adjustment and the right way to set it for maximum speed and efficiency as well as extended uptime.
- A real troubleshooter understands the correct RELIABILITY checks to make on a scheduled basis in order to find worn components BEFORE they cause an outage. Yes, catastrophic failures do occur, but they are extremely rare. Component wear is usually a very gradual thing and accompanied by specific symptoms. If the reliability checks taught in this class are followed regularly, there is not much in the system hydraulics that can go wrong without the technician being well aware of it. Most repairs will then be made during scheduled outages rather than interrupting production.
Short video clips, coupled with rich text summaries and downloadable study material make this course the next best thing to being there. A contact form provides the student the ability to ask questions to the instructor at any time. Blocking quizzes ensure that the modules and their individual units are taken in the order intended and fully understood before progressing. At the end of the course, a passing grade on the final exam allows the students access to a downloadable certificate to prove that they have attended and passed the nation’s most respected hydraulic troubleshooting course that has turned thousands of parts changers into hydraulic troubleshooters!
The course can be purchased outright and never expires. Alternatively, a monthly subscription will allow full access to ALL content and ALL courses for as long as the subscription remains active.
Hydraulic Safety
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Schematic Reading
Available Soon!
Fluid Maintenance
Available Soon!
Troubleshooting Hydraulic Pumps
Everyone’s favorite component to change, no matter what the symptom. I have had countless calls over the years that started out, “Well, I’ve changed the pump, but that didn’t help! Do you have any ideas what else it could be?”. The pump is usually one of the most expensive components in the system. It also is usually the component that takes the longest to change, thereby guaranteeing the maximum amount of downtime. Replacing the pump can make the biggest mess of any component – a mess that SOMEONE has to clean up. And we all know who “someone” is… But the fact is that, no matter what symptom the system is showing, the pump is the least likely of all the components to be causing the problem. I’m not saying that pumps never fail – of course they do. I’m saying that pumps do not fail with anywhere near the regularity that they are replaced.
Most people think that pumps are like light bulbs – they work great until they don’t. In fact, pump wear is usually a very gradual thing, and very easy to track. In this course, you will learn how to keep track of the condition of the pump so that you will know ahead of time that its failure is imminent. You can then replace it during a scheduled outage rather than interrupt production. You will even learn how to tell in less than one minute whether a pump is good or whether it needs replacing – without removing it from the system!
Fixed and variable displacement pumps are discussed and particular attention is paid to the most common type of variable displacement pump, the pressure compensating pump. Stop changing pumps unnecessarily. The first pump you don’t change as a direct result of this course will pay for the course many, many times over.
Troubleshooting Directional Valves
Two position three-way, three position four-way, closed center, tandem center – we hear the terms bandied about, but not everyone knows what they mean. In my experience, the directional valve is the component that confuses people the most – arrows pointing every which way and strange symbols on the ends. Most schematic symbols are pretty intuitive, but most folks don’t find the directional valve to be so. Most people can find the pump, trace a line and recognize components here and there, but often bog down at the directional valves. That’s when most people fold the schematic back up and go change the pump! This course not only clears up the mystery of all the arrows, but explains how to tell exactly the type of valve by the schematic symbol and gives valuable troubleshooting tips for all types of valves.
Check Valves & Logic Valves
Often misunderstood or overlooked, a check valve has the potential of rendering the system unusable or doing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ damage. Electricians may compare them to a diode as they allow flow in one direction and block it in the other. Learn how they may be used either as directional controls or pressure controls in the system and how to tell when it is bad.
Logic valves become more prevalent as hydraulic systems evolve because they have advantages that conventional valves do not. You will see more of these as time progresses – it would be wise to understand them.
Pressure Controls
Pressure controls are very often misunderstood and one is often mistaken for another because of the subtle differences in the schematic symbol. This brief course fully explains:
- Pressure Reducing Valves
- Pressure Reducing/Relieving Valves
- Air Bleed Valves
- Sequence Valves
- Counterbalance Valves
- Brake Valves
How to read the symbol and distinguish it from similar pressure controls, how it operates, common symptoms of wear and failure, how to adjust them, how to troubleshoot them, and how to work on and around them safely!
“
I learned more than I did in a 6-month college class!
This is NOT a theoretical course – everything presented was practical information that I will use over and over!
Riley Smith, Sawmill Mechanic
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
If your question is not addressed here, use the contact form below to ask and I will answer you as soon as possible.
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If I purchase a single course, when will it be available?
Individual courses are automatically enabled in your account so they are available immediately upon purchase. Webinars and live streaming classes are scheduled and are available at their scheduled times.
Is there a way to try part of a course before I buy it?
It’s reasonable to want to try something before you buy it. That’s why I have picked three course units that I feel are representative of the rest of the training. You can access them for free at the Free Samples link at the top of the page. If you like these, there is every reason to feel confident that my training is a good fit for you.
Can I request a course to be included in the curriculum?
Yes, by all means! I want my site to provide the information YOU need to know. If you don’t see what you need available, ask me. Chances are, since the site is still growing, that what you are requesting is currently under development, but if not, I will consider any and all requests. If I feel comfortable with the content and believe it has appeal to a wide group, I will develop and teach it!
How long is my course available to me after purchase?
Even though you may have completed your course, the information remains on my server indefinitely. So, let’s say a year after you completed your course, you encounter a problem related to a subject covered in the class, you can go back and review it to refresh your memory. This is not the case with monthly subscriptions – your access to the material is only available as long as your subscription remains active.
Will more content be added to the site?
Yes, more content will be added regularly. As soon as I start a new course, I post a projected launch date so that you will know when to expect it to come available. Is there anything you would like to see added to the curriculum? Use the contact form. If it isn’t already in the works, I will consider it.
Are webinars and live-streaming courses included in a full-site subscription?
Yes!
Do you still do in-plant training and consulting?
Yes, I do. If you require such services, call me at (770) 714-0609, email me at jdweeks@travelin.com, or use the contact form below.
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