Backhoe Cylinder Rebuild Questions

[mmranch]

Howdy folks! It's been a while.

OK, so it's not that I'm a slacker... it's just that I bust a$$ all the time and there are some projects I never seem to get to.

I've been 'kicking the can' on my leaking backhoe cylinders for years. I have a bunch of cat litter pans that I keep under the backhoe when parked in the shop to catch oil. These work great and have allowed me to kick the can for a long time. But now my Bucket cylinder is at the point of ridiculousness and makes a mess whereever I am working. I have a project where I need to use the backhoe and I'm considering (just considering mind you!) fixing the cylinder to reduce the leaking mess.

The Bucket cylinder rod has a small ding in it which has damaged the cylinder head seals and is the source of the leak. I need to grind the ding a bit and smooth it out and replace the seals and I think it will work with minimal leaking (a small leak, I can obviously live with).

I'm in a remote situation and there are no cylinder rebuild services around that I can use. (Besides, I'm DIY to the bone partially because of the remoteness issue). I've never rebuilt cylinders but have done lots of other complicated projects (splitting tractors, rebuilding engines, etc.) so I'm sure I can do it.


But still, as I look at the backhoe on the tractor and try to pre-think the process... I have questions.

Is it better to have the backhoe off the tractor for this process? If so, the tractor will be easily usable regardless of the state of the backhoe. But the backhoe will be on the ground (outside the shop) in a certain configuration. It will be difficult to manuver the boom, dipperstick, bucket with it on the ground vs on the tractor in the warm shop.

The cylinder will have lots of oil in it and will want to make a mess unless I can get most of the oil drained out cleanly. The only way to purge the cylinder of most oil would be to manipulate the bucket/cylinder rod to push more oil out but this may not be possible with the backhoe off the tractor and on the ground?

The gland nut is a critical part of the process. It would probably be easiest to loosen the nut when the cylinder is still on the dipperstick... but most oil should be out to help the loosening process?

After the gland nut is loose/off, how hard will it be to move the rod to pull it out and put it back in?


When kicking the can years ago, I purchased parts for the bucket cylinder. I have a new complete cylinder head (with seals installed) and also the new seals for the old piston. (I'm sure the leaking is in the cylinder head section but I might as well replace the piston seals while I have it out). Not sure how hard it will be to install the new seals on the old piston... I have seen reference to other brands of backhoe where special jigs are mentioned to help install the seals. Not sure if that is needed in this case?

Anyway, once the cylinder is torn down, the backhoe is out of commission until I can get it reassembled again. And I really need it for the project so I may have to live with the mess for longer. We'll see.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[loggin]

Howdy folks! It's been a while.

OK, so it's not that I'm a slacker... it's just that I bust a$$ all the time and there are some projects I never seem to get to.

I've been 'kicking the can' on my leaking backhoe cylinders for years. I have a bunch of cat litter pans that I keep under the backhoe when parked in the shop to catch oil. These work great and have allowed me to kick the can for a long time. But now my Bucket cylinder is at the point of ridiculousness and makes a mess whereever I am working. I have a project where I need to use the backhoe and I'm considering (just considering mind you!) fixing the cylinder to reduce the leaking mess.

The Bucket cylinder rod has a small ding in it which has damaged the cylinder head seals and is the source of the leak. I need to grind the ding a bit and smooth it out and replace the seals and I think it will work with minimal leaking (a small leak, I can obviously live with).

I'm in a remote situation and there are no cylinder rebuild services around that I can use. (Besides, I'm DIY to the bone partially because of the remoteness issue). I've never rebuilt cylinders but have done lots of other complicated projects (splitting tractors, rebuilding engines, etc.) so I'm sure I can do it.


But still, as I look at the backhoe on the tractor and try to pre-think the process... I have questions.

Is it better to have the backhoe off the tractor for this process? If so, the tractor will be easily usable regardless of the state of the backhoe. But the backhoe will be on the ground (outside the shop) in a certain configuration. It will be difficult to manuver the boom, dipperstick, bucket with it on the ground vs on the tractor in the warm shop.

The cylinder will have lots of oil in it and will want to make a mess unless I can get most of the oil drained out cleanly. The only way to purge the cylinder of most oil would be to manipulate the bucket/cylinder rod to push more oil out but this may not be possible with the backhoe off the tractor and on the ground?

The gland nut is a critical part of the process. It would probably be easiest to loosen the nut when the cylinder is still on the dipperstick... but most oil should be out to help the loosening process?

After the gland nut is loose/off, how hard will it be to move the rod to pull it out and put it back in?


When kicking the can years ago, I purchased parts for the bucket cylinder. I have a new complete cylinder head (with seals installed) and also the new seals for the old piston. (I'm sure the leaking is in the cylinder head section but I might as well replace the piston seals while I have it out). Not sure how hard it will be to install the new seals on the old piston... I have seen reference to other brands of backhoe where special jigs are mentioned to help install the seals. Not sure if that is needed in this case?

Anyway, once the cylinder is torn down, the backhoe is out of commission until I can get it reassembled again. And I really need it for the project so I may have to live with the mess for longer. We'll see.

Thanks for any ideas!

Seems to me, if I read this correctly, you are having to make a decision here as to either put up with the mess or perform the repair quickly. If you decide to do the repair I would personally leave the backhoe on the machine since it will be easier to work on and get the job done more quickly.

If you decide not to do the repair well then you know what to do.

If I were in your predicament I would bring the cylinder to a repair/rebuild shop and have them do it and be done and move on. I know you said this was not an option but I thought I would comment anyway.. Haha

Just my 2 cents.

Hope this helps!!

 

[mmranch]

Thanks for your thoughts on this!

 

[mini14]

i did my the stabilizers on my backhoe. watched a few youtube vids and was confident enough to give it a go. Its super simple, i did buy the seal bending tool kit off ebay, it did make installing the inner seals super simple. hardest part was betting the piston nut off, on super tight. also get a few picks.

 

[DJ54]

Not sure about others, but the seals on my Case Backhoe's swing cylinders are cupped and must face in the correct direction. Someone has been into it before I got it and had one of 2 sets in backwards. That and not having the bolt that holds the piston together and to the ram tight. Loosened enough the seals failed but did not damage the inside of the cylinder barrel when the piston slightly cocked.

I too got a set of the inner seal tools and made it very easy to install.

Overall way easier than I imagined. Left the barrel on the hoe, took the ram and piston to the shop to rebuild. Tightened the bolt with my high torque impact wrench with thread locker on the threads.

 

[caver]

I remove the gland nut while cylinder is still attached. Some cylinders it's not a big deal to leave the cylinder on while removing the piston/rod. Remove the hose from each port. I have JIC caps and plugs to minimize oil mess. I've pulled the rod/piston out with a comealong. I once had a cylinder removed and was trying to remove the piston with little blasts of compressed air. Bad idea and it shot out without warning even though I was putting very little air to it. No harm to me but put a small dent that I had to file out on the piston. The first two cylinders I paid a guy to rebuild them. His labor was well worth it but he charged me higher than Case prices on seal kits so I started doing them myself. this may not apply to you but I had to get a torque multiplier to get even close to some of the torques in the shop manual. the bigger the cylinder the higher the torques are.

 

[mmranch]

Thanks very much to all for these tips... greatly appreciated!