336D FEL bucket dropping

[Vern]

Morning
Bucket on my FEL dropps, sometime fast some times slow. Put new o-rings in the control valve - nothing changed. I pulled the pins for they cylinders off the bucket and the left one creeps out, the right holds position.

Question - Can one bad cylinder cause the bucket to drop?

Thanks

Vern

 

[SSdoxie]

Yes it can. Both cylinders are plumbed together, in parallel, so what ever oil leakage occurs in one that oil balances out to the other cylinder so both move.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Yes, they are hooked together so oil bleeding from one would be replaced from the other cylinder and both sides would fall when hooked to the FEL. Rebuild that leaking cylinder and it might cure the problem although the other cylinder might also we leaking by at pressure. I think I would rebuild both while the machine is down..

 

[Vern]

Is rebuilding the cyclinders something I can do myself or need to have proffesional done?

 

[California]

I had the first one done in the local hydraulic shop. $165.

The other one I disassembled myself and took in, because there was one seal in a groove that I had to have them remove/install. As I recall, I paid them for a quarter hour labor plus minimal for parts, maybe $15 parts. I recommend this solution.

Technique: I got a 36" pipe wrench at HF to get the end off the cylinder. And loosen that first, before removing anything from the tractor.

Putting gouges in the end cap with a pipe wrench seems barbaric but that was what I had seen the shop do to that first cylinder.