log splitter has no pressure to split

[Captain Bruce]

Fear of pavement. That's a great thread. I have a log splitter that works perfectly with the exception of: I got the hydraulic oil heated up (because it was low) and now, although it goes through it's full range extending and retracting, it doesn't have enough hydraulic pressure to do anything but put a dent in the wood. I took off the pump and everything looks fine. Reinstalled it, changed the hydraulic oil and filter. Still the same. I'm going to try to adjust the pressure before replacing the pump. Any ideas? Would heating the hydraulic oil ruin the pump?

Lets err on the side of caution, and assume the cylinder is chinesium. The articles about the seal materials used are just silly. The seals have the pressure quality of Grandmas O-ring. Junk.

NASA - Military-grade rubber seals have been used my American cylinder suppliers, since before WW2!

The H. Frght offerings will squirt you in the face like a wedding cake decorator....1/2 ways thru a 12" 2 x 6.

They flex, mis-align? I'm no Hydro mechanic, but all the cylinders on our farm, are 20 - 30 yrs.old, and function as intended.

 

[jenko]

If you want to know if the cylinder is bypassing, run the cylinder to full extension, all the way out. Then take the hose off the rod end of the cylinder (return side) and continue to extend the cylinder. If oil comes out of the rod end of the cylinder the seals are bypassing. If the oil was low you have probably damaged the pump, or possibly relief valve if it overheated

 

[TRTermite]

I used the terminology (post 29) Return and should have stated "Retract" And yes I agree with your way of thinking....

 

[Code3dragon]

If you have a hydraulic jack you could stand your splitter up , place jack on base (?)plate , bring wedge down to jack (might want to put something to protect sharp edge of wedge) , then take line off extend end of cylinder and cap the cylinder fitting (JIC ?10?) , Jack the ram/wedge/shaft back into the cylinder barrel . If jack will shove ram into barrel that tells you the fluid is bypassing internally And that will confirm your cylinder needs a working over. This is assuming your jack is big enough .Good luck.

Hi guys,
I did get it figured out. Going the cheapest route, I did what TRTermite suggested in the reply above. I had a cap to block off, so it literally costed nothing to do. I put a 3 ton jack under the wedge and surprisingly I was able to lift the wedge quite easily. I took the cylinder in to get it measured for seals (see below). While there I just decided to have them rebuild it. Costed about $200 for everything and the splitter works great now. So yes, ut was the cylinder.
As for the cylinder: I looked all over the web for a seal kit for the Troybuilt cylinder and couldn't find one for that exact model. Turns out that Troybuilt is very protective of those part numbers apparently because they don't want you to rebuild, they would rather you order a new $800 cylinder (plus shipping). After measuring, the guy at the hydraulic service said they were metric seals and had to overnite a set that was correct.
Thanks for all the help guys, appreciate it. Imma stay warm this winter., made a cool heat exchanger too!

 

[TRTermite]

Proprietary parts suck. They must profit a lot from them. Many people take for granted the convenience of hitting a parts store and walk out with the 'right parts on the first trip. I would wonder how long before planned obsolescence dominates the market. CAN'T BE FAR FROM IT NOW.
Glad you got it back to work. Hopefully this/your thread will benefit others in the future.