dump cylinders

[hernando]

i was doing some grading today and had my bucket in the dump postion ,,,one of the teeth caught on a lage rock that i did not see...when i raised the loader both dump cylinders were leeking at the hydraulic line where it screws in the cylinder,,,it stoped leeking right away ,, do you think i hurt anything ?? should i just rebuild the two cylinders ???any ideas ?? thanks for the help in advance...bruce

 

[kennyd]

It sounds like your cylinders over-extended? Where you traveling forward or backward when the tooth caught the rock?

 

[RonMar]

Leaking where the lines attach to the cylinders? You may have just damaged the hose fitting seals. Are the fittings tightened properly? Grading with the bucket dumped in general is pretty hard on a FEL, after all they are called loaders, not graders. Any force applied to the bucket should be directed at the bucket pins. IE: bucket bottom flat on the ground. With the bucket dumped, it acts like a lever and you can inadvertently apply, as you discovered, very high shock loads to the dump cylinder, those sealed hydraulic circuits(no relief when levers are in neutral), and the structure they are attached to. Doing that while backing up with the bucket in the dump position has been known to collapse/pretzle the bucket cylinders as they are at their weakest for compression loads when fully extended...

If it leaked around the hose fittings, I would say the high pressure found the weakest link and leaked there. Sounds like you dodged a bullet, but I would check those fittings and inspect all the cylinder attach point structures for obvious cracks and bends.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Leaking at the line where it screws into the cylinders........there are about 5 different places for the fluid to come out from the rubber hose to the cylinder. Did the fluid come between the hose and the crimp? My guess is that if any fluid came from anywhere near the area you describe, you did damage something. Were you going in forward or reverse? big difference in components involved. If it doesn't leak right now, it will.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

i was doing some grading today and had my bucket in the dump postion ,,,one of the teeth caught on a lage rock that i did not see...when i raised the loader both dump cylinders were leeking at the hydraulic line where it screws in the cylinder,,,it stoped leeking right away ,, do you think i hurt anything ?? should i just rebuild the two cylinders ???any ideas ?? thanks for the help in advance...bruce

I am assuming that this tractor is for use at your home and that you do not make a living with it. If that is the case, leave it alone until something breaks. Most likely a hose or fitting. Read your manuals, I doubt that you will find any instructions on how to grade in the manor that you were. (wrong) Maybe do a little test to see if you can find the leak area. If you know which connection points had leaked, then clean them very good, and go and use the loader for a bit and check those points for any new signs of oil seepage. If there is a leak, then you have a problem, if not, then I would use it but keep an eye out for a future problem. If this is a concern to you, you should then take it to a professional to check and repair.

This is just what I would do, not knowing you, none of this may apply.

Good luck

 

[jinman]

... should i just rebuild the two cylinders ???any ideas ?? thanks for the help in advance...bruce

By all means, do not rebuild your cylinders. You probably only have hydraulic oil seeping out of the connection. Using your bucket as a grading blade causes very high pressure as everyone has said. My guess is that your fittings are not completely tightened and may continue to seep fluid slightly. I'd wipe it off and not worry if it isn't squirting or dripping constantly. You might see if the fittings can be carefully tightened. Actually, you are probably lucky to have not blown a hydraulic hose. That's what I did when I went to spread some loose dirt I had just dumped and hit a small stump I had not seen. As everyone noted, be careful using your loader as a grader.