Ford 555d Backhoe Loader Lift Cylinder Repair

[whitmire]

Hello everyone. I am about to pull my hair out!!!! I have a Ford 555D Backhoe and I need to repair my loader lift cylinder but I can not figure out how to get it apart. It has a long wire/rod that goes from right below gland nut down into body of cylinder. The one I am trying to work on the rod is broke and the gland nut spins in both directions infinitely and the nut does not get looser or tighter and the small gap between the nut and cylinder body like it may be stripped. The other side is not leaking and the rod sticks through an opening in cylinder body which only allows the nut to move back and forth about a half inch (the oprning of the slot in body). It is the same tightness as the other side which I am able to move by hand with bucket resting on ground. with bucket suspended I can not move either. It is leaking out of the little slot in the body. FP417 is the repair kit and has the rod but I can not figure out how to get ram apart. I have been searching all over for some guidance and can find none so any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Rick

 

[wdchyd]

Rick,

You NEED to get ALL that lock wire out before it comes apart. When new, the lock wire had a small bend at the tip to help pull it in the barrel during installation. What you are experiencing is the tip of the wire broke off and is not turning out with the gland.
You need to find one end of the lock wire, stick a pointy tool in and bend it outward, grab the end of the wire with a decent pair of visegrips, tap on the visegrips to pull on wire as someone else turns the gland carefully in the same direction.
If the lock wire comes out in pieces make sure you get it all and use another piece of wire to check..(I use alum welding wire for the probe)....very common for the lock wire to be in several chunks

If you get to the point where you can see the short hole in the gland where the bent piece was, here's a trick to find loose pieces of wire.......experiment with a short nub of wire (maybe .250" high approx), drop it in the hole and turn the gland completely around 360 degrees.......some times it pays to work on it upside down to let rust and crud fall out of the slot

Once the wire is out, then slam the rod assy out like a slide hammer