Bent FEL rod/piston

[MDM]

I'm trying to help out my mother in law with problem with the ML108H FEL on her Mahindra 2810 HST. Her husband has recently passed and to make a long story short, nephew may have jacked up the loader somehow. As you can see from the pic, the far cylinder rod that operates the curl function is fully extended and bent slightly. The bucket is stuck in this position. I can raise and lower the loader, but the bucket is locked up in this position and she won't curl. The cylinder that's not bent acts like it wants to work but its a no go.

Any help here is appreciated. Obviously I'll need to pull that hydraulic cylinder and replace it. Can that bent rod cause the issue of the curl locking up? It also looks like its over extended. I really have no idea how long that rod has been bent, if that's causing the issue, or something else is causing the problem. That's just what stuck out to me when I went over to look at it. It was used recently to clear snow but I'm unsure it was bent the last time it was used or if it has been bent for a while and now something is causing it not to curl.
View attachment 599843

 

[RNeumann]

Pull the hydraulic lines off the bad one,cap them and see if you can get it (ram and or bucket) to move. That’s step 1 to fixing it anyway.

 

[Zebrafive]

Pull the hydraulic lines off the bad one,cap them and see if you can get it (ram and or bucket) to move. That’s step 1 to fixing it anyway.

I doubt that would work if the one good cylinder can't move the bucket, taking the hoses off the bad cylinder should not make any difference.

I would remove the suspect cylinder and have hydraulic shop look at it and estimate repair cost.

 

[LouNY]

I wouldn't think that bow would be bad enough to stop the cylinders.
I would check the quick connectors for the bucket curl first, remove and reconnect.
Does that model have a cable operated joystick ? If so verify the cables are moving the valves.
If that doesn't do then take the lines of one cylinder put them in a bucket and actuacte the valve and check the flow from the lines.
If you can get them moving I'd be tempted to put a block of wood under that piston rod and try and bow it back into position before I'd take it to a shop or get a new one.

 

[RNeumann]

I doubt that would work if the one good cylinder can't move the bucket, taking the hoses off the bad cylinder should not make any difference.

I would remove the suspect cylinder and have hydraulic shop look at it and estimate repair cost.

Sorry for the confusion- “cap them” should be cap the hoses. And “see if it will move” should read see if it will move manually after unhooking one end of the cylinder- either the bucket end or loader frame end.

 

[Dave M7040]

Temporarily swap the lift arm hoses with the bucket hoses. This does two things, it has you re seating quick connectors and, if the problem moves it is a big clue

Dave M7040

 

[wdchyd]

Best repair is to have both cyls taken apart to compare what’s inside, it’s not uncommon for someone to repair only one and put something together wrong making undue stress on the other.

That little bit if a bend shouldn’t keep it from working but it will eventually do damage internally to the bore, hopefully it’s ok. It looks like it could be straightened in a press (with alum blocks protecting the chrome) but most hyd shops will quote out a new hyd rod fabricated. If you try and straighten on the tractor you risk ruining the gland head....:thumbdown: