Aux hydraulic stem/cartrage not working?

[Tazza]

I recently bought an S150 with a smooshed cage, it obviously fell off a truck in an acciedent as there was bitumen stuck in one fo the lift arms where it hit the road. Anyway, i got it started up yesterday and found the bucket would only close with the thumb control. I confirmed the coils were both fine and it was a bad stem causing the problem. The stems on this machine can actually be pulled apart. I held the end that the aloy nut screws onto hold the coil on the stem in a vice with alloy blocks to prevent damage to the threads. Only hold it here to prevent crushing the tube. You can then use a spanner and un-do that part from the large hex part that you use to screw it into the valve block. You will have two sections. The end for the coil should have a pin sticking out about 3mm, you can push it in and it will spring back. The other end has what appears to be a tiny spool. This part was stuck, i pushed it out, cleaned the 'spool' and housing and blew it down with compressed air and re-installed it (after confirming it moved smoothly) re-installed it into the valve block. The bucket now opens and closes, even with the proportional mode its vairable.
So before you commit to buying a new stem, you may as well give it a go to repair it. I had nothing to loose and it did pay off.
I pulled apart stems from a 753G before and noticed it was the same, its screwed together, but in a slightly different location. I believe they all will pull apart, you just need to work out where and where to hold to not crush them.
I should have taken pictures, but sadly i didn't.
Hopefully it may help someone else.