Ok . Great . It is looking like I have a problem with 1 of my main lifting cylinders . Getting lots of leakage but
the ram is inside the structure of the front end loader cast frame . Almost as hard to describe as it is to see .
It is the inside the yellow structure aft of the front tire .
What does it take to repack a hyd cylinder ?
Cylinders are really not that hard to deal with. Usually there is a nut that either uses a large wrench or spanner type of wrench on the end of the cylinder once you get this loose and that can be exciting at times, heat may be necessary and should be on hand.
Then you will need to actually get the rod out of the cylinder, in theory this rod should just easily push out .......................... in theory. You could either take it apart in a very large vice that is holding onto the cylinder about mid way down or leave it in the machine with the bucket supported up with a chain or lock out device. In order to get the rod out of the cylinder it should just slip out, problem is, that is somewhat rare, we usually put them in a large vice and use air pressure to blow the rod out of the cylinder into a barrel or something ............ I have seen the rods blow out and almost go through walls, so be careful if you use this method .............could pull them apart with a chain hoist too, in the field you could have the machine blow it out itself, all methods are messy to some degree.
After that its pretty easy. There are just a few O-Rings and V seals, make sure you keep track of how the V seals are pointed, as they only work one way. You obviously have a camera, so take pics of the assembly before you remove the rings/seals. Either order a repacking kit from a dealer or measure each item and call a company with the measurements. I can get the kits for my CAT 910 for about $110 each, but there is a hydro shop that I can get everything the exact same for about $14 if I remember right and that was everything. I assume you are far from everything so a proper kit might be cheaper in the long run as mistakes could be made with individual items and measurements.
In summary, if you can get the nut off of the end, do this in the machine if you don't have a good huge vice to hold that cylinder and then the next hardest thing is getting the rod out of the cylinder (might be easy might be hard). You could do all of this in the machine by unbolting the upper part of the cylinder and letting it hang down while leaving the other side attached, but you have to support the loader arm because it will fall down after you blow the arm out of the other side. Use the machine to push the cylinder out ............ gently ................ you will loose some oil so be prepare for that event however your morals dictate.
If someone will just charge you parts and $100-150 to do this in a shop, thats the route I would go, the problem is around here most every shop will charge you $800-900 to do this and it takes longer to order the seals/kit than to do that whole job (if you are set up to do it), so however the economics work out for you.
Hope that helps,
Sam
