Hydraulic leak - Newbie question

[MossRoad]

Which gets me back to the original question -- which way is tight? Do I want to make the two nuts further apart, or closer together?

Don't think you could put them closer together. What is under the geasy area to the left of the nut marked "cylinder hose" and the threads?

 

[MikeOConnor]

Don't think you could put them closer together. What is under the geasy area to the left of the nut marked "cylinder hose" and the threads?

yeah yeah... shoulda cleaned up before i took that photo.

That greasy thing is the fitting that goes into the hydraulic cylinder -- so the cylinder is above and to the left, and the plate that holds the attachments is behind the fitting. Just to the left of the fitting is the latch thingy that's being moved by the cylinder.

I was working on the "make the nuts further apart" theory, but the nut on the right (the one on the hose) was turning the whole hose as I tightened it and I ran out of twist-room. I'm thinking now that I'll take the hose out of it's little tracks so it can just spin freely and keep pushing down on the right-side nut and tighten it all the way up, the way DirtWorksEquip is suggesting. It was getting tighter when I did that, but I began wondering what I was doing.

Nice thing is, it'll be easy to replace the hose if it turns out MadReferee has the right of it. Anybody know whether this is a JIC fitting or an NPT fitting?

 

[MossRoad]

yeah yeah... shoulda cleaned up before i took that photo.

That greasy thing is the fitting that goes into the hydraulic cylinder -- so the cylinder is above and to the left, and the plate that holds the attachments is behind the fitting. Just to the left of the fitting is the latch thingy that's being moved by the cylinder.

I was working on the "make the nuts further apart" theory, but the nut on the right (the one on the hose) was turning the whole hose as I tightened it and I ran out of twist-room. I'm thinking now that I'll take the hose out of it's little tracks so it can just spin freely and keep pushing down on the right-side nut and tighten it all the way up, the way DirtWorksEquip is suggesting. It was getting tighter when I did that, but I began wondering what I was doing.

Nice thing is, it'll be easy to replace the hose if it turns out MadReferee has the right of it. Anybody know whether this is a JIC fitting or an NPT fitting?

O.K. I couldn't tell that was going into the fitting before. You need to tighten the cylinder side nut towards the fitting. That may seal up the area of the leak. Hold the hose side fitting still with a wrench, and with a second wrench, pull up on the cylinder side nut at the fitting. This will, in effect, make the two nuts move away from each other. As others have said, if the leak continues, you may need a new fitting on the end of the hose, or a new hose altogether.

 

[MadReferee]

You have a swivel fitting on that hose. You cannot make the nuts further apart as they both are part of the hose fitting. Hold the so called nut that's closest to the hose rubber with a wrench to keep the hose from swiveling. Tighten the nut closest to the cylinder fitting.

If you remove the hose fitting from the cylinder fitting you will be able to tell the type of fitting it is. A JIC will look like a nipple. An NPT will be all threads.