BX2350: Steering cylinder bad or something else?

[radioman]

You are going to be shocked on whole cylinder price compared to o rings prices. The o ring is under a pound for shipping and its 30 bucks for the seal kit. If I were you, I'd go rebuild it. It might be intimidating at first, but one the new seals are on and you reinstall it, you will find its not difficult.

 

[fish6942]

So here we are, 14 months after I started this thread. I'm in the process of switching the BX from summer mode to winter mode and figured this is a good time to look into rebuilding the steering cylinder to (hopefully) get rid of the freeplay.

Looking at the parts explosion below, is item G the suspect O-ring? Are there tips for doing this repair? Does it matter which end of the cylinder I pull the rod out through?

Thanks!!

 

[Jay4200]

I can't answer your question, but if it were me (and it probably will be soon @ 640 hrs on my BX) I'd buy the seal kit and change out everything. Might as well since you're tearing it apart anyway. It would suck to spend 5 hours changing out an o-ring, only to have an oil seal start leaking one it was back together...

 

[SPYDERLK]

I can't answer your question, but if it were me (and it probably will be soon @ 640 hrs on my BX) I'd buy the seal kit and change out everything. Might as well since you're tearing it apart anyway. It would suck to spend 5 hours changing out an o-ring, only to have an oil seal start leaking one it was back together...

This would be a waste of ~ $29 and at least an hour of time along with some risk in replacing good parts that will last 2K+ hrs. I dont know if the oring can be bought from Kub separately, but I gave a link to the size in an earlier post.
larry

 

[fish6942]

Sorry guys, I led you astray a little... I was planning to replace everything that comes in the rebuild kit. I asked about the o-ring because that seems to be most likely candidate for the symptoms so I'd pay special attention to it's condition when it comes out. Also, the machine has about 825 hours on it.

Anyone have tips/tricks for doing this job? Any special tools other than a snap ring pliers?

 

[SPYDERLK]

Sorry guys, I led you astray a little... I was planning to replace everything that comes in the rebuild kit. I asked about the o-ring because that seems to be most likely candidate for the symptoms so I'd pay special attention to it's condition when it comes out. Also, the machine has about 825 hours on it.

Anyone have tips/tricks for doing this job? Any special tools other than a snap ring pliers?

Tips in the thread I linked. I dont remember that snap ring pliers are applicable. Course I didnt replace the rod seals because they were good. Still are at 2100 hrs. Ive had to replace the oring on the center piston several times. Just did recently.
,,, One tip not in other thread. Also check the oring on the endcap you remove. If theres a burr on the edge of the circlip groove it will likely foul the ring. Make sure to make it smooth before reassembly.
larry

 

[fish6942]

Thanks Larry!

 

[fish6942]

Holy procrastination... I started this thread 2 years ago and I finally made the commitment to get this job done!!

I have the cylinder off and have a couple of questions to start off with.

Are there tips for getting the circlip below out? I'm assuming this is the first step?




Also, to get the tie rod end off, do I just need a thin wrench to hold the flatted part of the rod?

 

[milkman]

That's the circlip that needs to come out, it's been a long time since I had to do mine, but I still remember that stubborn little sucker. The hardest part is getting the end up enough to get something behind it, I used a small screwdriver to work one end up and that took several tries to make it. On the rod end, I still have the old wrench that I ground down narrow enough to hold the rod. Once the clip is out and the tie rod end is off, the rest of the process and reassembly is fairly simple, just be careful that you don't nick any of the seals or O rings. Best of luck and if you need any choice words to help the process along, I think I can come up with a few that will help.ullinghair:

 

[fish6942]

Milkman - Thanks for the pointers so far!!

So I took a closer look at the circlip last night and it was pretty apparent that there wasn't sufficient clearance between the cylinder wall and what I'm calling the end cap (see blue line below) to get the clip out. Using a straight punch, I gently tapped around the end cap and it did move down enough so I should be able to get the clip out.

So anticipating the next steps, once the clip is out is it just a matter pulling the entire rod out that end of the cylinder? Does the piston at the center of the cylinder rod end up pulling the end cap off? I'm going by the parts explosion I posted earlier.

Lastly for now, would the only reason be to pull the other end cap off is to replace those seals?