I've had pretty good luck on expensive paint cans by removing the nozzle after using it and soaking it in paint thinner, then blowing it out with compressed air.

I've also been able to free up a few dried up nozzles by doing this, but it took a few rounds of soaking to clear them up again.

Your control lever is different than anything that I have seen. I just looked thru the 44 parts manual and it shows the lever like you have circled in the parts drawing you posted. The drawing is the same as I have on an RD4. Do you have a winch on the tractor? The lever with the ratchet is probably a winch brake handle.I see what you mean about the blade lever hitting you in the kneecap. I would think that it is somebodies shop built idea. Just my 2 cents worth. Grant.

The cans are plugged up inside after removing the valve, can't even get a torch tip cleaner inside! Worthless pieces of S%$#. The spray cans from farm supply stores have a hell of a lot better plungers or valves and never had trouble with them!

Grant,

Yeah, I think I reverse engineered what took place. They started with a D4 winch with the wrong control setup (the winch was configured for a fender tank, not a seat tank), so they had to "fabricate" the gear selector and brake control to match. The gear selector wasn't too bad to fix, but they put the winch brake way far forward to clear the seat tank, which conflicted with the hydraulic control. To remedy this, they made their own custom control with both levers (hydraulic and brake) in one piece with what appears to be angle iron welded together using a stick welder running at about 8 volts.

My idea was to revert to the original hydraulic control and then rebuild the winch brake lever and move it further aft, drilling a hole through the seat tank spacer. I guess we will see how it works.

Rome, gently pull the tip off of one of the good cans and replace the bad one. I have done that in the past as it seems to me it does not matter the color of paint in the can, the one I want to use has the worst pattern in the cabinet. Good lock, Mike

Sorry Rome, missed page two before I replied, Mike

Added an old D8 master clutch handle to a fabricated stand.  Good access to winch brake and plenty of room for knees