homemade hydraulic toplink

[markct]

here is the home made category 2 hydraulic toplink that i made last weekend. i happened to have a hydraulic cylinder around that was 2 1/8 bore and 18 inch stroke,well the problem was that it was way too long for a toplink, so as you can see in the pictures i have cut out about an 8 inch section of the cylinder tube and also shortened the rod by the same amount to make a cylinder that was the proper length

 

[markct]

this is a better view of the swivel i made for the end that goes into the tractor, it is machined out of 1018 steel, also you can see the peice of the tube that i cut out when i shortened the cylinder as well as where i welded the end back onto the cylinder. i took the peices and turned them to fit together nicely in my lathe and then welded them, i also had to drill a hole in the side for the hose fitting to be welded on

 

[markct]

this is the end that goes onto the implement, i used a cat 2 repair end and simply cut the threads off of it and veed it out and welded it together with 7018 rod on DC current, it seems to be a good weld so far, i had a 4 bottom plow hung off it yesterday and and it didnt break off as i bounced down the road back to my house with the plow from a friends place, you can also see the peice that i had to cut off the rod of the cylinder, i cut the housing and the rod equal amounts

 

[markct]

and here it is mounted on my tractor

 

[markct]

i sure love having it to use with my pallet forks, its nice to be able to lean them back as you lift something, and to be able to dump stuff off of them, and yes we do have 2 frontend loaders which are on other tractors,but i can lift far more weight with my 3pt forks than any of our loaders can, i am not sure what they will actualy lift but i have lifted the front of my 24,000 gvw dump truck and it lifted it fine

 

[OkieG]

Very nice, Mark. It pays to be a machinist on a project like this one. I am starting to look for parts for a toplink, but modifying a cylinder, like you have, is way out of my league. Good pictures.

OkieG

 

[markct]

yea shortening the cylinder isnt neccesary if ya get the right sized one, i just happened to have gotten that one from the dump a few years ago and had it in the barn, i was very surprised to find when i opened it up that somoene had put all new seals in it and then never used it, it didnt even have hydraulic oil in it, just the grease from assembling it, the ports had been plugged so it was still all clean in there. i could have saved myself some work by buying the right lenght cylinder but i didnt want to spend the money on that right now,all together i have like 30bucks into it, $20 for the toplink end, and about $5 each for the hyd couplers

 

[OkieG]

What do you use to cut the hardened steel rod?

OkieG

 

[markct]

im not sure if ya mean the part i cut off the toplink end or the cylinder rod,but either way,the toplink repair end that i cut was pretty hard, i cut it with our makita abrasive chopsaw, and the rod of the cylinder i also cut with the chopsaw, the cylinder rod i probably could have cut it in the bandsaw tho,they usualy arnt very hard with the exception of layer of hard crome on the outside. the rod itself is fairly soft, i have seen them bent into almost a u shape without breaking, and i have also machined them before without too much difficulty.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Great job on the toplink. What size Ford is that looks like a TW15 or bigger. I build the occasional cylinder when i m not moving dirt a good cut off tool with run through one, i make all mine out of chipper mill blades there the right shap prehardened jus put in the chop saw and cut a new on when needed.