T250 Steering sticks stiff/pushing back

[thoughtbelt923]

Hello,
I recently had both drive motors rebuilt, replaced the gear pump, and had tandem pump gone through and one rotating group/plate replaced on my T250.
All that along with multiple system flushes, filter changes, valve cleaning, two new tracks, and a new drive sprocket.
It's running pretty good now, but I still get push back when I go uphill, especially under load. This is my first time running a hand/foot machine so I'm not sure if this is normal or not. When I go uphill with a full bucket, the sticks get stiff. I can make it if I go slow and I can stall it if I push forward all the way. Without a load, downhill, the sticks move freely with very little resistance. Basically the more load I give it, the more resistance I get back.

I'm basically wondering if it is normal for the sticks to get stiff when under load or should the sticks feel like normal, until the motor begins to stall. I don't have another machine to reference and with everything I've done to the machine so far, I'm nervous that something is still wrong.

My charge pressure is good. Hovers around 400-420 depending on hydraulic temp at high idle. Fluctuates a lot while moving, but no low pressure error or anything like I was getting before the rebuild. For reference, the slopes I'm talking about are in the 20-30% range, but the stiffness will still happen if I try to do a 360 turn with a load in the bucket. I can push through, but it pushes back almost like the brakes are coming back on. Similar to trying to move the levers before pressing the "Press to Operate" button.

Thanks for any input.

 

[brdgbldr]

Just a guess, but it seems this could be a problem with the governor.

 

[thoughtbelt923]

Well I actually messed around with it last night and found that the drive belt stop wasn't against the tensioner and the drive belt had quite a bit of play in it. I could push the belt with a finger down to the bottom of the guard on the section of belt between the drive pump and crank pulley.

I slid the belt stop all the way forward against the tensioner and this seemed to help things, but I still feel like there is a little bit too much play.
There doesn't seem to be any adjustment on the spring. The manual says the tensioner stop is the only adjustment and to "just make sure the spring bolt is tight". I really like the technicality from bobcat with that line.
With it being all the way forward now and still having some play in the belt, I may need to replace the tensioner entirely.

It did seem to run better after that with less push back. It was raining though also so soil was soft and I couldn't get a great grip uphill without slipping. I'll do some further testing tonight.