2) Fold up the wings carefully, making sure none of the bridge hoses get caught or pinched.
Adjust if necessary, or tether them away from the pinch points.
3) Use zip-ties to further secure the header hoses so they don’t slide around on the trays.
4) Attach warning tags to header hose. These are an important reminder to not crack any fittings
open until the pressure gauge reads zero.
The UniForce system remains pressurized when openers
are in the ‘up’ position.
Don’t assume you’ll always remember this—install the tags. Also,
someone else might be operating the drill, and try to repair something.
Prepare the system
Get all the air out of the lines! Cycle the system multiple times with at least one fitting per header
cracked open (preferably the ends of the header highest in elevation, or the farthest from the
manifold). You may also need to considerably loosen a fitting close behind the block itself. Note:
the pressurized hose should be the one going into the top port on RH side of UniForce manifold; if
not, reverse the hoses at the tractor remote. Even if the loose fitting behind the manifold isn’t
spurting a geyser of oil, the rest of the system should still slowly filling with oil—there’s a lot of
gallons involved, so be patient. You will need to add oil to the tractor during this process.
This is only the beginning, however, since these are single-action cylinders. What really needs to
happen is to collapse them (push the rod all the way in), and preferably on all of them at once.
This must be done while oil is flowing thru the headers. This is best done while going over a
sharp change in elevation with all the openers powered up—good examples would be the lip of a
waterway, or the edge of a crowned dirt or gravel road (terraces aren’t pointy enough at the top).
Another option might be to have the openers set down on a log or utility pole lying on the ground.
Even after doing this several times, there will still be air in the system, which may cause strange
things such as openers hanging up in the air. Keep working at getting the air out until all this
ceases. The more times you go over that jump in terrain (or a log) with the system powered up,
the sooner you’ll get all the air out and it will behave normally. Also, letting the oil cool down
completely (overnight) allows the remaining air bubbles to migrate upward where they can be
more easily purged when oil resumes flowing.
