MVR, may I assume you're talking about possible interference between the top of the cylinder and the lift arm when the lift arm is raised all the way up, as in the yellow-circled area in the attached photo?
If so, you are correct, it will be very, very close. Might even have to resort to grinding out a small half-moon from the lift arm at the touch point, although I don't like the idea of grinding ANY metal from the lift arm. Also, I might be able to gain a tad by grinding off 1/8" or so from the outside edge of the ball itself (where it rests against the linch pin), and adding a washer on the inside surface of the ball end to force the ball to ride outboard a little further than usual on the pin. It may also help that this cylinder comes with Cat 2 ball ends, which in addition to being 1" bore are also quite a bit larger in diameter than Cat 1 ball ends. If I do this I'm going to have to add a 3/4" bushing inside the 1" ball end anyway, and that gives me an additional 1/8" clearance in the critical area.
It also helps that this is a rather skinny cylinder at 2-3/8" OD, which is actually smaller than the 2-3/4" outside diameter of the Cat 2 ball end.
I'll jump through a few hoops, though, to avoid welding on that cylinder. That will be my last resort. I had another brilliant idea earlier about buying a clevis cylinder and welding a Cat 1 ball to the end of the upper clevis, which would avoid having to weld on the cylinder itself and give the ball a couple of inches of standoff distance. But if I did that, I'd have to go to a 4" vice 6" cylinder, I think, to avoid having the retracted length too long. Still thinking about that one. I could cobble up something (like fill in the clevis end with a chunk of steel and weld a Cat 1 ball to that), but it would begin to get ugly.
For reference, also attached is a dimensioned drawing of the cylinder in question.
===================
Went back and re-read this this AM to make sure I was coherent late last night, lol. Thought of one other thing I could do to gain extra clearance: replace that right hand upper lift arm mounting pin with one that's 1/2" longer. That would let me ease the ball a little further outboard from its current position, and that mounting pin is nothing more than a standard 3/4" bolt-on hitch pin with a linchpin hole in the end of it. They are commonly available in several lengths.
And thanks for all the sanity checks as I run these things up the flagpole. I'd rather see pitfalls now than after I've hacked up a new $115 cylinder!
