325 lift arms blocking door

[Stsharpe]

My 325 shut down with the lift arm up but dropped enough to block the door from opening. Is there an external manual hydraulic pressure release or pin I can use to lower the bucket and get into the cab?

 

[brdgbldr]

My 325 shut down with the lift arm up but dropped enough to block the door from opening. Is there an external manual hydraulic pressure release or pin I can use to lower the bucket and get into the cab?

I am not familiar with that machine but here are my thoughts.

First off, this is an extremely dangerous situation. You need to stay away from those arms in case of a catastrophic failure. If you can't wait to let the arms bleed down on their own, then you need to find a way to brace the arms in place before working on anything near them. People have died in situations like this.

On most machines the hydraulic valve used to lower the arms is inside the cab (If your machine has one of these you should have used it before getting out). In machines I am familiar with it is normally a red knob next to the seat that has to be pulled up and twisted to operate.

Your best bet is probably going to be pulling the door off (if possible on your machine). The hardest part will be if you have any wiring or windshield washer parts that will need to be disconnected.

Another option would be to try and remove the back window. This is normally used an emergency escape. The problem here is again that it is set up to be used from the inside. You normally pull a chord and the window will come out.

Another option would be to brace the arms with a crane, forklift or whatever, remove the lift cylinder hoses, and then lower the arms down.