Steering cylinder on 4300

[pat32rf]

About three years back I bent my cylinder rod. Straightened it and the next time I was at a dealer I asked about parts to rebuild it. No dice, must buy a whole unit ($500).
Three days ago it finally broke. Well, the rod came unscrewed from the piston, nothing actually broke.
When I phoned my new dealer about a new unit he informed me that he had rebuild kits at half the price of a complete unit, BUT they don't fit my original cylinder. Apparently the replacement cylinders ARE rebuildable, but not the originals.
Does this ring a bell with anyone?
I've ordered a replacement cylinder and it should be here soon. In the meantime I removed the old unit and connected the two hoses (with a $27 addapter) so I could move the tractor from my front porch (I was loading the woodbox when it quit) out back to the garage where my tools are hidden. Thank goodness for those steering brakes.

 

[kennyd]

I do seem to recall that the steering cylinders are welded, so the capo are not easily removable. A good hydraulic shop can probably do it though...

 

[dfkrug]

About three years back I bent my cylinder rod. Straightened it and the next time I was at a dealer I asked about parts to rebuild it. No dice, must buy a whole unit ($500).

That's a lot of scratch. Maybe you should have a shop make a new rod
for you.

There are several different axle designs used on the 4x00s. Mine has
a double-ended cylinder, which was replaced by a single ended one
shorty after. Mine is early....DEC 1999.

The tie rods ends are very pricey, too, BTW.

 

[Egon]

Last fall I bent the rod on one of the backhoe stabilizer cylinders. New cylinder was $750. A local shop repaired it for under a hundred dollars.

 

[pat32rf]

Part of that cost has to be the two ball joints that are integral with the cylinder/rod assembly. In order to repair the unit a shop would have to cut the cylinder in a lathe, then build a new rod that has a ball joint on the end. Re-assemble everything, then weld the cylinder back together. A couple of hours of machinist labour and I would still have the old ball joints (and seals) with a new shaft. The ball joints have 3000hrs of off-road use on them as is.... My BIL used to do cylinders in the local machine shop and helped when I did my FEL cylinder but this one has him stumped.
Its definitely a non-rebuildable design, but the new units are different....just waiting to see how different.

 

[mfreund]

When I broke mine on my 4310 a guy at work said his BIL was a machinist and could fix it. I gave it to him and he took a look at it and said buy a new one. The new ones have a snap ring on the shaft end and are easily rebuildable. I choked on $460 for mine 14 months ago. They have gone up a little. I still have the old one. I have a dream someone will be able to fix it someday or I will find a use for a broken $460 cylinder.