Not completely finished with the project but am getting close. The cylinders I linked in post #17 are going to work perfectly! Very easy to modify. I chopped off 1.5" of the base end which came as a "tang". This included the 3/4" pin hole it came with. I went to the local steel yard and had them match the cross tube to OEM. The cylinder rod was then about 3" too long so I laid the good OEM cylinder next to the new one and put a pin through both base ends to get them even. I fully extended both cylinder rods and made my but mark on the new cylinder. Chopped it off and tacked the new cross tube in place. The trickiest part of the whole process was in having new hoses made. The ports in the cylinders were in line with the hose direction so no 90* fittings were necessary on the cylinder end. I simply bought Male to Male 1/2" O Ring Boss to JIC 3/8". Then had one of my hose ends a JIC 3/8 Female. The other end stayed same - OEM 3/8" ORSF 90* to attach to the loaders hard line fittings. The picture may help make sense out of that Gibberish.
I want to say thanks to Marc for the inspiration to do the project (through his videos). Fortunately with the cylinders I was able to find my mods are MUCH simpler. All I have left is pulling the new cylinders and finishing the welds on what is currently tacked in place.
I'll add pics shortly
I want to say thanks to Marc for the inspiration to do the project (through his videos). Fortunately with the cylinders I was able to find my mods are MUCH simpler. All I have left is pulling the new cylinders and finishing the welds on what is currently tacked in place.
I'll add pics shortly